Richard Hernaman Allen

I've been a writer almost all my life. However, my life took a different course. After school at Loughborough Grammar School and Oxford University (Merton College), I joined the Civil Service and worked mostly in HM Customs & Excise, but also HM Treasury, Cabinet Office, Department of Social Security and Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs,

In my teens I wrote poems and plays and a couple of dreadful novels. My kind father suggested after reading one of them that it might pay me to include some dialogue!

I read "War and Peace" when I was 17 and wanted to try my hand at a British equivalent. I chose the mid 17th century, as I studied that for my degree. But my creativity was stultified by trying to get the period details right. It was only after I read "Lord of the Rings" that I realised I could create my own world. I started "Through Fire" in 1976 and eventually finished it in 2006. It is long and complex, but it is the work of my life.

Subsequently, I write some successors. But by accident, driving past a village called "Barton Stacey" going on holiday, I was inspired to write a detective novel. Having enjoyed doing it, I felt that I could usefully follow up with detective stories set in Customs & Excise. I have now written around 40 books set in C&E or involving my main characters in their retirement. I also was able to return to the mid-17th century to write some more detective stories.

I have also published a few more quirky detective stories involving a mouse and a crow, as well as short stories and collected poems. During the covid year, I kept a sort of literary diary, which i have continued in various formats since then.

I was amazingly fortunate to meet Vanessa while I was at Oxford. We married shortly after our Finals and have been together now for 55 years. We have two wonderful daughters Jo, a professional violinist, businesswoman and life counsellor and Kat, who spent nearly 10 years in Rome teaching English as a foreign language, and subsequently in London as a fitness coach. Jo has two lovely sons, Josh and Jasper, who keep us young(ish).

I took early retirement in 2005, having been a Commissioner and member of the C&E Board for over 7 years in two stints. Subsequently I worked as a consultant, including in Tbilisi and Pristina, and training people to appear before Parliamentary Select Committees.

I live in southeast London with a flat overlooking the sea at Deal in Kent. My hobbies are trail jogging (I ran the London marathon, the Berlon and Romaostia half marathons among many others), music (including composition and playing various string instruments in a mediocre fashion), fighting a losing battle with my garden, playing badminton ever more slowly, and grandparenting. At 76, I am still writing, with often two or three books on the go at once.

(NOTE: "Through Fire" is going through the throes of being republished, so isn't available until early 2026).