David Aston

I came into writing as a result of a car crash. One of the very few pluses of a car crash which caused a stroke and left me physically disabled and cognitively impaired. Prior to this I had been an accountant and I was very happy with that, but my career finished in one foul swoop.

Prior to the car crash I was never particularly physically active so I decided to try one physical thing and in 2005 I trekked to the Magnetic North Pole. Having had the stroke I realised that the North Pole trip was unusual and ironically several tips I learnt for that trip were now being re-taught to me to recover from my stroke.

I had nothing to do and my stroke left me only a short time to do anything so I decided to write my first book an auto-biography, Polar Stroke,

Writing a Polar Stroke made me realise that writing was very good for me medically and it is a good way of maintaining my need to work but without being too aggressive with how much I do.

I decided to write a first novel, A Stroke of Fortune. This book is funnily enough about a stroke victim. Everything is bad for a stroke victim, except the blue parking badge, so I decided this man would develop magical powers.