Go Carts, Girls and Gob Stoppers: - coming of age in Westcliff-on-Sea in the ’’50’’s and ’’60’’s

Keith Warren was born in Leigh-on-Sea in Essex (UK), the son of an analytical chemist who went on to work in nuclear fission, and a biologist who liked cats. Whether or not this may have resulted in a dysfunctional family, readers of his books will have to decide! He trained as an English teacher in the late 60’s and early 70’s when Margaret Thatcher was Secretary of State for Education and she had commenced chalking the writing on the board. As a bumptious twenty-something, he once had the opportunity to put a question to her on an Eamonn Andrews TV show. She swatted him away like an irksome fly. He’s been traumatised about it ever since. He taught English in several schools in Essex and the West Country before nose-diving out of a promising career in his 40’s: the classic, hormonal, mid-life crisis. Keep reading! Suddenly, he found himself working in an Estate Agent’s ultimately running his own business in the charming little village of Cheddar in Somerset. Too many marriages down the line, he met Her Loveliness and he now lives in the Philippines where he writes, tries to grow pineapples and complains vociferously about the local beer.