Image shows a man in his senior years, with short greying hair and glasses, seated in front of a glass-fronted pine bookcase, smiling at the camera.

R A Forde was born in Wales, brought up in Belfast and London, and has since lived in various places around the North & South of England. He also spent ten years living in West Berlin – five years before the Wall fell, and five years after.

He has worked as a prison psychologist, and a forensic psychologist in private practice. At various times he has also been an education welfare officer, a feature writer, teacher, researcher, and B&B owner. He achieved his doctorate in forensic psychology as a mature student, and has met a lot more psychopaths than most people ever do.

He has been married, widowed, and remarried, and has two grown-up daughters, a stepson, and three grandsons. He now lives with his wife in Dorset, where they both love to walk the coastal paths and countryside which have inspired so many writers. He also sings with a local sea shanty group, The Dorset Wrecks.