I've been writing computer game features for over 15 years but before that I owned and ran a bookshop and a computer retail outlet. Around 20 years ago I decided that writing was what I wanted to do so I jacked it all in and worked almost exclusively from home for several years.

My first reviews appeared in The Reporter Group, Manchester and ran for 5 years. During that time I also began writing for The Chester Chronicle, The Swindon Advertiser, The Reading Post, The Bolton Evening News, The Harrogate Advertiser, The Game Guide,The Worthing Herald, The Uxbridge & Hayes Informer, The Ruislip & Northwood Informer, TDB Exeter and The Watford Observer. I also did some work on a kids magazine called Fun On Line and was asked by the BBC to write & read a 5-minute Christmas broadcast on the latest titles.

More recently my features only appear on the Gamepage but I have worked on a 2-page spread for a computer magazine once a month and I have also produced over 50 'Project Cards' for At Home With Your PC - a direct mail computer tutorial - and worked on a Readers Digest title called 1001 Computer Hints and Tips. More recently still, I was asked to supply tutorial features for a magazine titled PC's In Easy Steps from Live Publishing which saw its first edition released in January 2001.

Over the years I built up quite a strong relationship with developers and PR people who between them sent me around 300 games a year to review. I also attended the ECTS (European Computer Trade Show) every year for 10 years which has found its most recent home at Excel in London. However, work comittments have meant that this has not been possible for about 6 years. Apart from getting a look at what the coming months have in store the show is mainly about checking out the georgeous young ladies brought in to promote certain titles and, of course, getting as much free beer as possible. Many television celebrities make an appearance at the show and over the years I have bumped into Adrian Edmondson, The Spice Girls, Steve Davis, Dominik Diamond and Carol Vordaman and at one show I had the pleasure of meeting porn queen Jo Guest but I was a little too worse for wear to do much about it. Jo, fortunately, was great about it and posed with me without hesitation dispite my slight inebriation.

Apart from writing I also enjoy chaperoning. This entails taking care of youngsters when they are involved in any theatrical, television or film production. In 2002 I worked on Nicholas Nickleby up in Hebden Bridge and spent a couple of great weeks with Jim Broadbent and Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot). I have also worked considerably with the Manchester Boys Choir in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Tanhauser, Jenufa and the Magic Flute for Opera North. Other TV, theatre and film work includes Nature Boy for the BBC, Les Miserables, There's only one Jimmy Grimble (a film made by Channel 5 starring Robert Carlisle) plus Seeing Red, Coronation Street, Big Meg Little Meg, Cold Feet, City Life, The Bradshaw's, September Song, Hobson's Choice, A Touch of Frost, Songs of Praise and Children's Ward. Christmas 2000 brought back some of the Manchester Boys Choir for 14 performances of the Nutcracker Ballet in Manchester, which was fun, but my longest and hardest stint was a five month run of Oliver at Manchester's Opera House as well as some days in Birmingham and Bradford. Both Russ Abbott and Gary Wilmot played the part of Fagin while I was there and you couldn't wish to meet two nicer guys. My best wishes go to anyone who worked on those productions reading this now.

A few years ago I was involved with a BBC2 production called Restoration and the latest series of Grange Hill, produced at Mersey Television in Liverpool. Filming started on July 10 2002 and ran right through until early December, which means I was pretty busy during that time trying to juggle the few remaining hours in the day to fit in review time and Gamepage updates while propping my eyelids open with matches...! Furthermore, I seemed to only have a few days off after filming before I was whisked away to the magical world of Disney's Beauty and the Beast at the Palace Theatre, Manchester, where I worked for 5 weeks and covered 36 performances. Hi to Ceallach, Josh and Daniel (the three 'Chips' I've been looking after backstage) and three really nice boys they are...!

In 2003 I worked long hours on a Danny Boyle film, 'Millions', filmed around the North West - mainly Liverpool and Manchester. Like previous Danny Boyle films (28 Days Later, The Beach & Trainspotting...) this one is also a little different. I moved from that to a second stint on Grange hill, (another 20 weeks), and more recently helped out on Top of the Pops Saturday, Blue Peter, CBBC and Diggin-it...

My involvement with stage and screen didn't stop at chaperoning. I have made a couple of small appearances on the telly myself - the first saw me looking suave and sophisticated in a production called "Wide Eyed & Legless" which starred Julie Walters and Jim Broadbent, and anyone who is a fan of "Cracker" might just have caught me leaping out of a police car and running around with a machine gun in the episode where Beck commits suicide by leaping off the roof of Manchester's Ramada Hotel. My daughter, Rebecca, has made several stage and screen appearances notably "A Touch of Frost", "September Song", Knight School, GBH, The cloning of Joanna May and Joseph and his Technicolour Dreamcoat, and to complete the scene my wife helped to run a small local drama school for several years so no one can accuse us of being lazy...!

When I get the chance, which isn't very often these days, I like to try my hand at creative writing. Seven of my short stories have been broadcast on local radio and I have written 2 unpublished novels. One of these, Veil of Iskara, is available to download from the Internet for a very modest charge. You can get it from Authors Online

About the Gamepage...

Beginning very modestly in October 1999 the site was initially used to post reviews for the benefit of developers who wanted to see what I had written about their titles. By July 2000 it had begun to get busier and so I started to concentrate more on it's appearance, promotion and development and it was at this time that I added my first online competition. This received over 680 entries but that figure doubled the following month and doubled again in September.   By the end it often reached 4000+ entries for each draw with over 1,000 email entries arriving every day between all the monthly comps.

Between 1,000 and 2,000 people visited the gamepage every day amassing between them an average of around 18,000 daily page views (550,000 per month) . As you will appreciate this quickly became a mammoth task for just one guy and I used to spend around 16 hours a day writing, reviewing, uploading, designing and replying to email and there's was quite a bit of cutting, copying and pasting going on too...!

The Gamepage can only be described as a labour of love. The pittance I received from banner-clicks and advertising revenue just covered the cost of postage and packing for the prizes. It was for this reason that, in September 2009, I finally hung up my keyboard and stopped reviewing games and running competitions.