For those who may be interested, here is a brief bio:
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 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 and is currently trying to teach himself piano (with mixed success). 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.
He loves reading biographies and history books, his favourite periods of late being Anglo Saxon England, the Regency/Victorian/Edwardian era, and the Second World War. Having a lifelong interest in the fighting arts, his library now has growing collection of books on the Western martial arts tradition.
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, Jack London, Edgar Rice Burroughs and HP Lovecraft.
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 (named in honour of his favourite jazz guitarist).
