My father was known to remark that I was born in Chicago General Hospital in order to be near my mother. That gives some idea of the sort of thing I had to put up with while growing up. I moved from the US to Canada when I was 12 years old, and spent much of the next three decades there, in places as diverse as Newfoundland and the Kootenays of British Columbia.

Somewhere along the way I picked up an abiding love of history; in particular the wonderfully rich history of the British Isles, which has always held a deep fascination for me. I aquired a BA honours degree in English History at university, which degree I feel made me eminently suited to stand at the front of the unemployment line.

I've always been the sort of person who takes things apart to see how they work. Way back at the dawn of the Internet age (1998) I became fascinated with the new medium of web design. I taught myself rudimentary design skills, and launched my first website, BritainExpress.com as a way to express my love of British History and travel.

Over the subsequent few years I travelled around the UK, and wrote about the places I enjoyed visiting. The website grew and prospered, and in 2004 I was delighted to be able to move to England, where I now live in a lovely village in the north Cotswolds with my wife, Rosemary, and my children Garett and Claire.

I am passionately interested in history, and am an avid photographer. I enjoy long countryside walks and touring around the UK with my family. My children are by now well-used to the notion that their father likes to dive off the beaten track and poke about in country churches, climb crumbling prehistoric earthworks, and photograph odd bits of historic architecture.

I'm also a died-in-the-wool sports fan, and am frequently to be found glued to the television, watching the latest football/cricket/rugby/snooker match in a state of agitated absorption.