I did not plan to become a writer. When I was a child I always found a great deal of pleasure in reading and writing but I never thought of writing a book. It all came about in a very strange way particularly at the beginning. And the incident that set writing going seemed at the time to have no connections with writing and being an author. It happened like this.

I was a student in the 1960’s and I had come home for the Easter holidays. I used to enjoy walking in the hills around Bakewell and getting some fresh air after the city. One of my favourite walks was by Ball Cross Farm where my Grandmother had been brought up and my father’s family had lived there since the farm had been built in 1813. The farm is magnificently situated and is a thousand feet above sea level. From it you can see many of the great hills of Derbyshire from Fin Cop at Monsal Dale to Riber Castle at Matlock.

Ball Cross Farm nr Bakewell. No longer a farm, the buildings are now holiday cottages