Profiles

I first came to Nottingham as a teacher. Having trained in London but not able to easily afford living there on a starting teacher's salary [some things don't change], I was attracted to Nottingham by two things: the newly opened Playhouse under the direction of John Neville, and the writings of D. H. Lawrence and Alan Sillitoe.

My first teaching job was out of the city, in Heanor, just across the valley from where Lawrence was born and brought up in Eastwood; and when, as he had done, I quit teaching to be a writer, I was deeply conscious of his presence and example, just as, when I began writing about Nottingham and the inner city I was aware of walking inadequately in Sillitoe's footsteps.

Flourishing community

As a writer I have always felt part of a loosely-based but flourishing Nottingham community: small but vital presses, such as Ross Bradshaw's Five Leaves and John Lucas' Shoestring; individual writers such as Stephen Lowe, Michael Eaton and Billy Ivory, Jon McGregor, Nicola Monaghan, David Belbin; the staff of Waterstone's and the Nottingham Evening Post and broadcasters such as John Holmes and Frances Finn at BBC Radio Nottingham.

Most of my adult life has been divided between Nottingham and London, where I'm currently living, but anyone with the inclination to look at my work can see that it is Nottingham which has inspired me most and is probably where my heart - the heart of my writing - beats most strongly.