Age: 58

Location:Shakespeare's Stratford (Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, UK)

What are you working on now?
I'm collaborating with another Stratford writer (Laurence Buxton) on the first in a series of crime novels, set in Stratford, and featuring the intrepid Victorian police duo of Detective Inspector Swann and Detective Sergeant Parker. The first novel, The Crime of the Crimea, involves the murder, on the stage of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford, in 1882, of actor Henry Donaldson. The novel will be published by Humdrumming in December.

I'm also writing a new play, based on a book by British military historian and novelist, Charles Whiting, which will be directed by Ian Alexander Martin, and will premier in Vancouver in November 2006.

Apart from that I'm writing a history of Stratford's theatres, which will be published by Humdrumming in 2006. I continue to write features - usually on the history of theatre, literature and writers - for several UK magazines; plus regular RSC reviews, features, and a regular column for the Canadian e-zine The Boards.

What has been your most difficult project of late and how did you deal with its challenges?
The most difficult, but still enjoyable, project was the setting-up - with two other local plywrights - of The Bird of Prey Theatre Company ( a small professional company dedicated to new writing), in Stratford back in 1997, and the writing, producing, and directing of five new plays of my own. That was bloody hard work. I'm currently editing the plays for publication.

What's the most helpful thing you've learned about writing?
The one thing writing has taught me is that you have to keep on writing, and then some more, or you ain't a writer!

How did Humdrumming come to be and what is your involvement with it?
Humdrumming Ltd came out of an idea that Guy Adams (a writer and actor who used to live in Stratford, and a man I've worked with many times) and myself had to create a publishing company that could produce something a bit different - in any genre - that would make us a bit out of the ordinary, yet commercial. We teamed up with a genius of a designer, Lee Thompson, and, with Laurence Buxton on board, Humdrumming came into being. I'm a senior editor.