A potted (potty?) history.

Although quite bright, being IQ tested at 143 when I was 17, I wasn't all that much cop at school. "A poor year for Terry" read my leaving report one year. "His English in particular needs a lot of work!"

I can smile at that now. Looking back, my real education and developing love of history started after I left school and entered the university of life.

Earning my own money, learning to ride powerful and poorly handling motorcycles, and meeting the love of my life, my wonderful wife Sandy, were some of the achievements I am quite proud of.

Marriage, a house, and just experiencing what life in the 70s 80s and 90s had to offer was a great experience.

Now, having easily crossed the 60-year-old barrier, my body and mind are quite ‘used’.

I used to do many things that were inadvertently accruing various skills and useful pieces of knowledge that were, and still are, helpful to me when creating the Danebury series books.

I used to shoot, pistol and rifle. Once they were banned in the UK, I took up field archery. I used to canoe. Being self-taught, dunkings and berzerk, ‘zigzag paddling while going nowhere fast' skills were soon mastered. I got halfway to a black belt in judo before motorcycle crashes destroyed my left knee, right elbow, wrist and neck joints. Yes I am proud (and maybe stupid) to admit I still ride whenever I can. Road, trackday or dirt bike, I'm up for it.

Training with military personnel, wild camping, and a Ray Mears outdoorsman course all added grist to my mill long before the Parrish of Dane-bre stories starting to take shape, originally in the mid-1990s.