Christopher James Holyoak was born in Hackney, East London in 1962. He grew up on a diet of Jack Kirby comics, Ray Harryhausen movies, Basil Rathbone’s Sherlock Holmes, and other such things that are likely to warp a young mind.
He spent his working life in London, both as a firefighter and as a black cab driver, but in his thirties became a compulsive traveller, a pursuit that became an obsession for a while. Splitting the years between working and travelling, his journeys took him from Argentina to Zimbabwe. He loves the mountains and their associated sports and, until recently, lived for half the year in the Haute-Savoie region of France.
An amateur musician, he plays the guitar, the octave mandolin and is currently trying to teach himself piano. Only time will tell if this is a triumph of hope over experience. He also has an interest in languages, both modern and ‘dead’, and is insanely envious of all those rather smug polyglots with their own YouTube channels who appear to pick languages up like a sponge.
He loves reading biographies, philosophy, comparative religions and history books; his favourite periods being Anglo Saxon England and the Regency/Victorian/Edwardian era. Having a lifelong interest in the fighting arts, his library now has growing collection of books on the Western martial arts tradition, especially those of English heritage.
He is a ‘homeless’ Christian and Traditionalist, having an interest in Christian mysticism, Indo-European mythology, Zen Buddhism and Neoplatonism , as well as a purely academic interest in occult matters such as Gnosticism and Hermeticism.
His fiction reading tastes are considered a little dated by most, his favourite authors being, amongst others: H. Rider Haggard, JRR Tolkien, Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Rice Burroughs and HP Lovecraft; all of which are preferably read whilst enjoying a jug of English ale and a pipe full of Ashton’s Artisan’s Blend.
A Spenglerian (of sorts) and having grown convinced that the world has gone quite mad, he now lives in the hills of rural Shropshire with his wife, Nicola, and his dog, Django, who is named in honour of his favourite jazz guitarist.
