My regular bio is below, but if you want some real in-depth knowledge about me and my Crohn's, click here. Warning - high ugghhh factor so not for the squeamish!
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I was born in England in 1957, first becoming ill when I was 18 and eventually being diagnosed seven years later with Crohn's Disease.
Despite the drawbacks of five major surgeries, steroid therapies and feeling generally rotten most of the time, I think I built a reasonably successful career in marketing, even though I say so myself, spending 24 years with Cadbury's chocolate where I met my wife, Audrey. In 1996, along with our daughter Georgina,we moved to Canada where I was appointed senior Vice President - Marketing for Cadbury's Canadian operation.
In 2003, I decided to leave the corporate world, seeing that the ever-increasing stress and strain of corporate life would sooner or later inevitably compromise my health. So I left aged 46, four years away from my company pension. But we downsized the house, made do with one car, and gradually shook off the expensive trappings of our previous lifestyle for one where family, health and quality of life came first.
I still had to make a living though, and initially did so as a marketing consultant. I soon figured out that I hated doing that and decided to pursue a new career doing something I had really enjoyed in the corporate world: figuring stuff out and explaining it to people. But instead of communicating via Powerpoint, I switched over to the written word. I'd always been a heavy reader, but had never contemplated writing anything myself.
I got started by writing a monthly column about marketing and advertising in a Canadian industry magazine, Strategy. This then led to writing reviews of advertisments in a national newspaper before I finally decided to take the plunge and write a book. You have to know what you write so you write what you know, which for me was chocolate and Cadbury. My first book, Cadbury's Purple Reign, an illustrated history of the Cadbury company, was published in 2008 and received excellent reviews from as far afield as U.K., Ireland, Canada, Australia and India.
Sticking to my strategy of writing what I know, there could only be one subject for my second book: Crohn's disease. The Foul Bowel - the subject of this website - fills a gap in the range of books about Crohn's. This is written by a patient, for patients, on how to live a full and enjoyable life with Crohn's.
