Stephen Marley

My first memories are of falling, out of a window and off a fence. I was aged two or a few months younger, and both incidents occurred in a farm in the West of Ireland where my mother was born. I myself was born in Derby, England. There is no symbolism in any of these events. After various wanderings I've finished back where I started, by a Derbyshire river a short frisbee throw from the Pugin-designed St Mary's Church (which ought to be famous but isn't). So what have I got up to between falling in Ireland and sitting here in the wee small hours in Derby, typing this poor excuse for a biography? Well, after being expelled from one school and then leaving another with virtually no qualifications, I worked as a building site labourer, office worker, shop worker, mental hospital worker. I almost became a monk, but thought better of it after all of two days. After three years of this nonsense I returned to education and finished up with an M.Sc in the sociology/history of science. I never finished my PhD on the concept of atomism in early dynastic China as I gave up academia at this point but it did lead me, eventually, to my first published novel, "Spirit Mirror" (which I now can't stand the sight of and wouldn't wish on my worst enemy as a reading experience). Later on, I wrote one Doctor Who and two Judge Dredd novels, all of which I'm happy with. Right now, two of my novels have come out on Amazon within a week of each other; "Mary Messiah" (a radically revised edition of an earlier book, The Life of the Virgin Mary) and "The Heresy," a Vatican mystery thriller that I believe is my best work to date and which I wrote in American English as the main characters were American and also it took me out of my comfort zone. I think I managed it okay, fingers crossed! If I slipped up anywhere, I welcome any correctional comments from the other side of the pond! If pushed about my political/religious views, I always come back with "I'm a Leonard Cohen Catholic." Works for me. I wish all of you all the best. Good health and good fortune, Stephen Marley