I love to write, I love a good mystery and I love to travel. Other places and other times enchant me and echoes of the past run through my novels. Now based back in my native Yorkshire I’m currently working on a series of thrillers set against the rise of fascism in the 1930s.
My first five novels were a series of archaeological thrillers featuring the offbeat lecturer Jeffrey Flint, published by Severn House under the pen name Jason Foss. Inspiration came from my early career as an archaeologist, and these were republished as e-books by Endeavour Press.
A textbook I bought from a second hand bookshop and read in a single afternoon inspired me to become an archaeologist. Six years later I gained a PhD at the London Institute of Archaeology, specializing in Roman pottery and conducting research on Roman pottery industries in the marshlands of North Kent.
The next twist of fate took me to Guernsey to work with Dr Margaret Rule on the Gallo-Roman ship dubbed ‘Asterix’. It was then back north, to York, for five years working on pottery from the Roman fortress. After the publication of Shadow in the Corn I returned to the Channel Islands to write and to work on the Alderney Elizabethan shipwreck project.
My career then took curious turns, including a stint in offshore finance, principally in risk and compliance. The prevention of money laundering and fraud provided ample inspiration for mystery writing. Ultimately I became the Director of Guernsey Museums & Galleries, leading excavations at the Roman fort of the Nunnery, and the adjacent settlement on Longis Common on the island of Alderney. Stories from the islands inspired my first historical novel Glint of Light on Broken Glass.
I’m an active member of the Crime Writers’ Association.
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