About The Book

The time to write my true story arose when the country and the world were locked down by covid. 

Over the years, my friends had heard some of my funny, sad, terrifying and yet hopeful anecdotes and encouraged me to craft them into a book. That book is called,  ‘Next time bring a bigger knife’, and it was published in August 2022 by the Conrad Press. 

Without giving away too much,  it is a story that starts with my family in extreme poverty in Liverpool, continues with catholic schools including the terrifying Jesuits, but then follows with time spent at a delightful boarding school and then University at Oxford in the 1970’s. Training for a legal career follows as does partnership in a small firm of Solicitors in the North of England. There is much humour in the story before life starts to become dark and dangerous as a chance encounter with a woman leads to taking a variety of drugs and hell ascends to capture me for some years. Rehab , prison,  and redemption follow as do interesting jobs in PR and event management all over the world.

So, the story is about the drift into drugs, the madness of being in addiction and the way out of that addiction. Most readers have used the words, ‘compelling’ or ‘I could not put it down’. A highly successful school friend who is seventy recently said to me that it is one of the best four books (of the four books)  he has ever read. High praise from Mark! Many have been astounded by the story and loved it. Their feedback has made me try and reach a wider audience.