Geoff Carthy

As a resident of Hastings. England, it was hard to avoid the history of 1066 and the famous Battle of Hastings. (For anyone not English, who doesn't know, this battle marked the end of Saxon and Danish rule - plot spoiler! - and the start of the Norman conquest.) As I learned more about the causes of the invasion, and the stories behind the causes, and the stories behind the stories, I realised that the previous half-century was one of the most dramatic, not to say traumatic, in all of England's troubled history.

I was retired from my varied careers in journalism, environmental work, local government, and film-making. I returned to what seemed to come most naturally: writing. And embarked on The Crown and The Arrow series of novels.

My other interests are theatre and playwriting, architecture (especially green/"organic"), travel (mainly Europe), cricket, odd bits of diy, and cultivating raspberries.