Born in the Royal Military Hospital in Portsmouth, England, in 1938, he attended Titchfield Primary School (Hampshire, UK) and Fareham Secondary Modern Boys School (Hampshire, UK) until 1953.Joining the Royal Air Force as an apprentice in 1955, he served 14 years and was discharged in 1968. During that period, he met and married Kim in 1962, and they are still together 58 years later. After a short period as a prison officer, he entered the computer industry with Golden Wonder Ltd. and stayed in that profession with various companies until 1991. He then joined an inner-city medical practice in Leicester (Leicestershire, UK) as fundholding manager and practice manager until his retirement in 2003. After spending thirteen years dividing his time between his home in Leicester and Sax, a small town near Alicante in Spain, he has now moved permanently back to the UK and lives in Oadby, Leicestershire.