David Rashleigh

David Rashleigh was born in Bedford, England, a descendent of a branch of the Rashleigh family that still inhabits Menabilly, near Fowey in Cornwall. Aged 13, he won a scholarship to be educated at Bedford School. Following spectacularly bad A-level results, he spent a year travelling the world with the merchant navy, during which time he saw an awful lot of water. This was followed by a career in the RAF, best described as "inglorious and short". Eventually, he found his niche as a railway signalling engineer, at which he has enjoyed significantly greater success.

His career as an author is entirely accidental. An interest in history and especially how it surrounds us every day led to the idea for Sciron: writing the book was greatly helped by having a separate study and a deep dislike of soap operas and "reality" television. The dramatis personae in Sciron are not based on any real people, although David could not resist inflicting some facets of his own personality on more than one of the characters. Naturally, he will not own up to which people he has blessed in this manner. Prospective readers should, however, note that Sciron is not in any way a funny book. Apart from the bit where...but that would be telling.

Besides history, David's interests include aviation (he holds a rarely-used private pilot's licence) and target shooting; the latter largely to impress his daughter's boyfriends with his easy-going but protective nature.

David first visited Lancashire (the location for much of Sciron) in 1985, intending to stay for just one week. He is still there. He lives in Penwortham with his wife and two children.