The Finding

Despite having an attempt at being an author in his youth Alan M Keef did not do any serious writing until his autobiography, A Tale of Many Railways, was published in 2008. This was primarily a history of his company that builds small railways for the industrial and leisure markets. He describes it as a hobby that got out of hand but nevertheless it has been his life for the last many years. Before that his first job was as an agricultural land surveyor and auctioneer followed by a brief spell farming before the railways took over. All this has given him a wide experience of life that is brought to bear in this, his first full-length novel, The Finding. Writing of The Finding was actually started in the Mkongwe Hotel when Alan had a day to kill there with little else to do. He lived in the Cotswolds for nearly twenty years and so it is unsurprising that Jennifer should work at a land agents office in that area. A great deal of time was once spent in the Carlisle area both on business and for a small part of his education so this seemed a complimentary area for the story. Boats, but definitely not speedboats, are his second love and had to appear somewhere. Widowed, remarried and with three children he now lives in Herefordshire.