Keith Redfern

Keith Redfern (born 1944) was born in Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire by the vagaries of there being a war on and brought up in South Derbyshire. He was educated at the Boys' Grammar School in Burton-on-Trent, later at Westminster College, Oxford where he trained to teach and later still at Birkbeck College, University of London from where he gained his BSc in Geography.

Teaching took him initially to Bletchley in Bucks, in the years before Milton Keynes was built, then to South Andros in the Bahamas, Colwyn Bay, North Wales, Manningtree in Essex and, briefly, at Brentwood School in Essex.

His first novel 'First Day Back' was written in northern France after he left full time teaching. It was a light hearted cathartic romp through one day in the life of an English comprehensive school at the height of the Thatcher years.

Returning to England he worked for nine years as secretary of a Quaker charity managing places of worship in Greater London, a complete change from teaching and probably the job most suited to his sense of organisation.

After his second retirement, during his second stay in France, further south in Aude, he began to write more seriously, particularly articles for a then American website called Helium, for which he became the editor for European History.

His second novel 'Apportionment of Blame' follows the early career of a young English private investigator, Greg Mason, struggling with a complex case arising from a mysterious death and a surprising and unwanted inheritance.

'They had it coming' is his second Greg Mason novel. Now more experienced, Greg finds himself faced with two challenging cases at once in a complex plot involving murder in a secretive village, child sexual assault and teenage angst.

Keith spends a lot of time walking with the Ramblers, organises the groups in his local U3A, including his own long walks group, chairs the patients' support group at his local surgery, sings with local choirs, reads a fair amount and travels as often as possible. He is married to Rosemary and they live in Ipswich in Suffolk.