Barrie Pennington

Being born and raised in the North-West of England has given me a polarised view of life. While cats, dogs and ordinary folk deserve our respect, I believe that it is a complete tragedy if a coachload of politicians goes over a cliff with three empty seats. The government's solution to anything is usually worse than the problem and the phrase 'military intelligence' is a contradiction in terms.

With a long history of being career challenged I tried my hand at writing. I knew that I had some talent in that direction because Mr. Lang had printed my poem in the school magazine in 1969. He was also the one who advised me that, if all else fails, immortality is assured through the public display of a spectacular failure. Mr. Lang was one of the good guys - most of the other teachers had been trained at Broadmoor.

I believe that writing books is for lunatics but that this is a relative description. Since I have seen psychopaths in charge of government departments, local authorities and utility companies the word 'lunatic' is not meant to be derogatory here. I simply imply that is requires a dedication and discipline which calls upon the deeper and darker aspects of human nature.