About Alan
I come from a very large family. One of the eight children.
We lived a poor but very happy life in a small downstairs flat. No bathroom. Six kids to one small bedroom!
My schooling was very poor. I left it at fifteen, barely able to read and write. I was around a million miles away from being a writer. But there was something inside me saying that one day I would become a writer. I had one asset that every single writer of fiction, fantasy needs; I had IMAGINATION.
I didn’t read books because I found them so boring. Most of them are filled to the brim with description with very little story. The only book that I’ve read all the way through is ‘Alice in Wonderland’. Which is probably not a bad thing, I haven’t been influenced. I write what’s in my own mind.
The years passed I still hadn’t become a writer. But one day all that was to change.
I went fishing. I had to get under a cattle wire fence to be able to get to the river. I went under it and to my horror I touched my head on the wire fence. It was a live wire!
Electrical current went through my brain. I was lying on the ground stunned!
I wondered at that time what damage I had done to myself.
I didn’t have to wait long to find out. My body started to shudder like an electrical shock was going through it.
I had headaches every day for three months. Then one day my eye exploded in a kaleidoscope of light. The retina in my left eye detached. I had to have an operation at Moorfields Eye Hospital. This has left me with blindness in one eye.
But something strange happened to me. I suddenly picked up a pen and paper and started to write – I wrote nonstop for years.
Two novels were written. ‘ Annabell’s Search For The Holism’ ( now published) The second novel is ‘ The Lost Children Of Nala-Seivad’ ( being prepared for publication)
‘ Captain Wirgoil’s Challenge ’ was written (now published)
Then one day my grandson asked me if I could write a children’s story. I’d never given it any thought to write children’s stories.
I put pen to paper and out came a load of stories. I wrote twenty stories called: Lexi- Mays Imaginary Family: renamed ‘The Tablecloth Family’ Book 1 has now been published.