I was born in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe in 1975. I was the youngest of three, but adding to the mix my two cousins effectively made me the youngest of five boys. We grew up together in Bulawayo, doing what boys do in Africa; fishing, hunting, catching frogs to feed to my brother's snake, and looking back on it all I realize how lucky we all were. Lucky, not least because we all made it to adulthood! I cringe when I look back on our gunpowder experiments, and canon-making escapades, but it all made for a very exciting, and inspiring upbringing. While I was always a good creative writer at school, the thought of being an author never entered my mind until much later. When I moved to Scotland in 1992, it sparked a wanderlust in me that I have never successfully shaken off. Mountaineering and rock climbing took me to the Alps of France and Switzerland, the Dolomites of Italy, and the Himalayas of Nepal. If travelling does one thing, it is to instill a certain wonder at the world that surrounds us, as well as the amazing diversity that can be found beyond our own comfortable cocoons. This coupled with a voracious appetite for reading, led me to dabble in writing in my early twenties. I am told that any writer starting out should write a book, throw it in the bin, then start another one. And this is what I have done, albeit unintentionally. My first novel, 'The Gift of Chaos' will never see the light of day. 'The Rage Within' is a product of avoiding all the dreadful mistakes I made the first time around, and is, I hope, a far better book. I still have a load of stories swilling about in my head (now sadly, air-cooled) and will share as many as I can, with as many people who will listen, for as long as I can. I live in Blairgowrie, with my three lovely children; Sandy, Laura and Douglas, and of course my amazing wife and proofreader; Lesley.