Glen R Stansfield
Born in Rossendale, in the Lancashire Pennines, I grew up with a freedom and innocence I believe children no longer enjoy. They were magical times when play was a product of the imagination; when a tree trunk became a pirate ship, a stick was a sword: all done without the aid of electronics. My early recollections of school are of a remarkable, but fairly strict headmaster, Marcus Dearden. He had an amazing ability to spot the enquiring mind, encourage and develop it. This is where my interest in writing started and was nurtured, but for many years I put it on the back burner to concentrate on other things. In the mid-eighties, I started what would ultimately be my first novel, but abandoned it after one chapter. I returned to the work in 2012, using the original idea but starting from scratch. My interest in crime, particularly why some people are more willing than others to be criminals, led me to take a degree in psychology through the Open University. I continued post graduate study in Forensic Psychology for two years. I often consult my psychology books when writing my novels. Aside from my crime novels, I write short stories and articles for various publications here in Bahrain, where I reside with my wife, Jess. I have also published a cook book (standard and halal versions available), and I am currently working on another two crime novels, and several more outside the genre.
Adulthood – so soon?
I was reading an article the other day on that well known news website (you guessed it, the one run by the Broken Biscuit Company) which suggests we don’t actually become an adult until we are in our thirties. The article (read here) cited Professor Peter Jones of Cambridge University. He suggests having a fixed line – eighteen in the UK – which defines adulthood is completely absurd. Becoming an adult is something that takes places over roughly a thirty year period. It is only a convenience for the education, health and legal systems to have a definite age after which you become an adult. My wife and I talked…