An exercise in self examination. I hope it delves more deeply into my life than those of whom I have written. Discretion is not the better part of an autobiography, someone once wrote, but identification where it is not necessary, has been my watchword. Someone else wrote a Only when one has lost all curiosity about the future has one reached the age to write an autobiographya . Curious a " yes. But as I age the curiosity becomes less important. Only today matters and the ones I love and have loved. Will there be more? a | Ia d like to think so.

From an early age I discovered a talent for rhyme that amused me and it wasna t until I was in my teens that I realised that I could write rhyming pieces at will. This manifested itself in a series of plays I did for the NatWest Bank, one of which, a A Queen for all Seasons.a was broadcast on the BBC in 1979. Fun and frolics were the main ingredient but a double entendrea was the cutting edge to the plays. Others followed in quick succession. Here are a few that have survived.

A vengeful killer is intent on his quest to shame the religious perpetrators of his childhood abuse in care and his betrayal in the theatre world. Young women snatched from the street are the instruments of his trade. DI Mike Kendrick seeks to stop the slaughter which threatens to wreak havoc with his troubled mind. His inner turmoil hides a secret that will test his sanity as he grapples with an adversary whose own secret could destroy him.

A young girl elopes to Manchester from an unhappy home in the Midlands. Pruella Fielding is transformed by a subterfuge, into a spectacularly mysterious journalist beyond her wildest dreams. But she is in danger from the step family she absconded from, who are intent on getting their hands on her deceased father's fortune in the only way possible - murder. Three men form part of her life. One her editor, the man behind her pseudonym 'Ella Child', her childhood sweetheart and a Yank from Boston. She is torn between remaining the quiet country girl with no pretentions, or the famous writer attracting all the media hype and a notoriety, which she fears will destroy her.

Winning the Battle of the Atlantic was crucial to Britain's survival in the Second World War. Submarine Commander Scott Hardy's life was in turmoil. His search for a solution to the spy ring in Portland Dockyard and his wife's infidelity left him in a state of confusion. Long and arduous patrols fighting the U-Boat Wolf Packs were a priority over his personal life. Co-opted to unearth the traitors at the Portland Underwater Research Centre, his discoveries lead him into a world of subterfuge nearer to home than he expected. Countess Annalisa de Lorraine, a mysterious refugee from Nazi persecution is not what she seems. As the war ends Scott joins her in her search for her roots in war torn Germany with an explosive ending that shatters her dream of finally finding peace.

Kate MacManus is fleeing from her ex-husband, a convicted child killer. Intent on revenge for betraying him to the police, he seeks her out in her hideaway in Scotland where she is living with her schoolchum Annie. A strange man has moved into the area. Handsome but unfathomable - Kate is smitten. Who is he? What is he? How can she escape from the murderous intent of her ex? Strange happenings along the lochs of Scotland add to the turmoil in Kate's mind as she battles with doubts and fear.

Phyllis Bostock is dying. Her thoughts crowd in to fill the last moments of a life that no one, not even her son, had ever dreamed of. A mystery surrounds a tragedy in her family's history, which she grapples with during her service to her country. Flown to occupied Paris in 1940 to work for SOE, she forms a platonic relationship with a German general. Secrets that he has are the key to the invasion of England. Her husband Jack, whom she first met when she was three years old, is part of her clandestine life. Her call sign is 'Liver and Onions' - her favourite meal - and the Germans could never decipher the cryptic messages under this heading. Did she save the country from a terrible fate? Or was she used by others with the same aim in mind? That was Phyllis's secret which she took to the grave.

John Gascoigne is devastated by the disfigurement, through cancer, in his teenage sweetheart after 50 years of separation and seeks to restore the balance of good and evil by fulfilling the justice that should have ruled in the sentencing of the most heinous crimes of sinful women. A reparation, he believed, that would restore his long lost love to her former glory. Detective Sergeant Amanda Sherwood is faced with victims who have no connection to the killer. No murder scene. No known motive. No way of stopping the carnage. She is then shocked by the discovery of her family background's hidden secrets that bind her to the case in a way that she cannot divulge. Only after the final solution of retribution can John Gascoigne's dreams be vindicated in one violent apparition of the 'Green Flash' on the shores of Florida.

William McLean is stationed in Malta during the second World War and immediately falls in love with the beauty, history and incredible bravery of the people and their island. His love affair with Malta continues through the mysterious Carmel - a woman with deep secrets. Meanwhile, in England, Ivy Lawton is nursing the wounds of her lost love, Rafel - the handsome member of one of Malta's most important families. As the years pass, both William and Ivy will realise the deep-seated ties between them and the people they love. 'The Sleeping Lady' is a tale of love lost and found, lies in the name of the social order and the cruelties of war. Each page will keep you transfixed as the intricate web of lies and deception is unravelled over the years of war and peace.