I have been a junior officer in the British Royal Navy, an honours graduate in English and German at Bristol University, a teacher of English and Drama in a comprenhensive school, a lecturer in English and then Head of the Drama, Film and Television Department creating and teaching BA honours degree courses at what is now the University of York St. John; a pracitising Dramatherapist and workshop leader in UK and abroad; a co-founder of “Playback Theatre York”, a member for thity years of the Helmsley Arts Centre in North Yorkshire, where I have been its director, a trustee, a regular actor and director for its resident theatre company, founder of its cinema and youth theatre and co-founder of the Ryedale Writers group for whom many of the stories and poems in this book were written.