TREVOR PALMER

I was born in Hinckley, Leicestershire, in 1933. The main part of my working life was spent as an engineering draughtsman but I later became the manager of a youth training project in Leicester for people with learning difficulties. My hobbies and interests have encompassed playing several sports, chess to county standard, fly fishing, oil painting, bowls and ... dabbling with writing. Somewhere in there I managed to get married to Kathleen and this led to a family of two daughters and a son extending to five grand-children. Sadly, I have to add that this wonderful wife finally lost her long battle with Parkinsons and then dementia early this year (2019). She loved to read but was a fair critic of my efforts.

Early writings date back to when there was a machine called a typewriter and a well-known author described himself as a 'word counter'. Now, of course, word processors carry out that task a lot quicker! Sci-fi, shorts and a little mediocre poetry were my early attempts but I did get a short story broadcast. I have always been interested in ancient Egypt and particle physics and have incorporated both in several of my recently published books. I found myself in writing mode again following a move to Skillington where I managed, perhaps, my best work - a History of Skillington, which was put in the public domain on my now defunct website Skillingtonscribe (which has now been handed over to the village site). That village's connection with Sir Isaac Newton - he began his schooling there - and my becoming a guide at his birthplace, led to an interest in his life. Already having read and admired the life story of Albert Einstein, my first book was to compare the early lives of these two geniuses. This is called The Young Giants. I have revised my original biography from here on due to new developments ... there were further books to add and, due to the new company CreateSpace allowing self-publishing in paperback format, an extension of sales from Kindle into that medium. So, altogether, by August 2018 I have published 14 books. The others besides The Young Giants are - The Ant Gods; The Fifth Mind-leap (revised and re-published as The Final Mind-leap - how's that for originality?); Funny Worlds; a trilogy - The Grand Tour of Funny Worlds, Light Years from the Truth, and The Pharaoh, the Writer ... and the Last Green Bottle (why do some authors choose such weird titles?); From Beyond the Blue Planet; another non-fiction, Looking back on 6 months with Ryan; and my first attempt at a book for older children, Dobbo's Most Boring Holiday (this gained my first 5-star review). During the re-issue of these in paperback format I added an instructional chess book which had previously been on my now defunct chess site, DforChess. This book is Chess for Ordinary Mortals and features a simul game against a 14-yr-old Nigel Short! I have surprised myself at 85 by writing two more sci-fi books … The First Martian Murder and The Second Martian Murder. As Mars (and its water) are very much in the news at the moment, these 2 are fact-based rather than fantasy - but I have tried to combine the sci-fi with what is now alleged to be the top genre, crime fiction. Now, almost unbelievably for a non-musician, for Christmas 2017 I wrote and sang on YouTube "Hello, Mr Robin" and it got more hits than my books!

Coming up to the big 90 next month, this is a further addition ... I have now been living in sunny Cornwall for 2 years and am proud to have a great-grandson, Elijah. Also, to have attended daughter Lindsay's marriage to Darren in the neighbouring town. Although I am not writing now, my two books featuring murders on Mars seem to have caught the sudden publicity now being given to Artificial Intelligence. On Amazon's bookshelves these books seem to be sharing a little of the space publicising the brilliant recent film The Martian featuring Matt Damon. Mine aren't so famous but - potentially film material too? I live in hope !!!