Here is a curious fact: Authors live very dull lives – as a rule. If they are full-time authors, they probably slave away at their desks cobbling together their next novel. Unless they are on a reading tour, or attend one of numerous book fairs. And if, like me, they write in their spare time, they probably have dull day jobs that you would not really want to know about.

Darn! What to tell then? I’ll do what they all do: Tell you a few of the more exciting facts of my live.

I spent a few very happy years at a boarding school, Atlantic College. Not everybody has happy memories of their time at a boarding school, and not every boarding school is like Hogwarts. Mine wasn’t, even though we lived in a real castle. Have a look, it’s a wonderful place, and perhaps you might like to go there, too!

Later, I attended various universities in England, Germany, France, and Switzerland. Moving around is something one should do when one is young. I think. And I did. In England I was a graduate student at Worcester College, Oxford. I reckon I spent too much time rowing, but at least the effort paid off: I won blades in Summer Eights.

For many years, I was an academic, a mathematician, in fact. I’d like to have been a second Professor Gunby, but I never achieved that level of fame. And later I quit academia, to write computer programmes. I even did, what everybody these days tries to do: Found a startup company. Of course, it failed. I call this an experience, which came at a considerable price. I did not mind. It was fun anyway.

Currently, I earn my living as a consultant. But if you think, being a consultant is a bore, think twice: For what is advice but a fitting story suitably told? I consider myself as a professional story teller. Of course, I cannot simply make up my stories, for they must be based on facts, and they must be true to the facts. But the best fact is of no use if you cannot wrap it up nicely and present it like a poem. That’s what I do.

And then, of course, I write the Walton Detective Society series. Now, here’s a challenge to you: Can you work out, where I took that name from? Look again at what I did in my life, and you will find out. With a little patience and some searching.