Geoff Duck

Geoff Duck was born in Bristol in 1954 and grew up in a thirties semi in what was then a genteel suburb. He was part of the first cohort to sample the comprehensive system and eventually ended up with a PhD in Digital Signal Processing many years later. A comfortable academic career beckoned, but on a whim, he and a colleague spun out a fledgling technology company focussed on their research. It was a wily move. The telecommunications industry was humming and a very sexy place to be. The company grew into a global player in its specialist niche. Exiting just before the dot-com bubble burst, Dr Duck unexpectedly found himself embracing family life. He was in no hurry to return to the frenzy, being after all, something of an accidental entrepreneur. He bought some land and planted trees. Lots of trees. He found an ancient farmhouse that needed a little work to bring it back to life and when it was done and his three children had left school, he ‘retired’ to his family roots in North Devon with his wife and they now live in one of the barns in the middle of the countryside looking out over Exmoor and not much else. He spends his time reading, gardening and walking and now indulges himself with creative writing. Coat with long sleeves, his debut novel, is the result. It has dark moments, but it also has English folklore, green men, nature, the retreat of nature, trees and woodland, ancient vernacular buildings, country churches and pubs. It also has the unexpected.