About me

 
1985 - Shoreham, Sussex - Directing Debut - 'Mellow' music video

1985 - Shoreham, Sussex - Directing Debut - 'Mellow' music video

I was born and raised on the Moulsecoomb council estate, in Brighton, Sussex. Expelled from school at age 12 - I much preferred scouting animal tracks and building secret camps in the local woods to being in a classroom - for a time I was the archetypal kid-who-wouldn’t-amount-to-much. But my dad was having none of that. A former dock worker from Liverpool (who taught himself tailoring), he was the one who encouraged my love of reading. And though as a single parent he worked day and night just to keep food on the table and a roof over our heads (and those of my brother and sister) he still found a way to bring home magical cloth bound treasures such as H G Wells’ The First Men in the Moon, H. Mortimer Batten’s Red Ruff - The Life Story of a Fox, and well thumbed copies of National Geographic. Perhaps it was via an article in the latter that I first encountered Andre Breton’s Manifeste du surréalisme, but certainly by the time I began a signwriting apprenticeship at age 16, I was devouring the work of the Paris based poets Paul Eluard, Louis Aragon, Tristan Tzara et al, and scribbling some very strange and brooding rhyming couplets.

The switch from signwriting to songwriting came in 1979 when I formed a performance art / rock band with guitarist Patrick Coghlan and recorded the album PS: Surrealism. And who would have thought that playing tunes on crockery with cutlery and power tools, clad in a paint spattered lab-coat, would lead me to the Royal College of Art. Professor Dick Ross that’s who. If not for him, I’d still be singing about Picasso and Left-Handed Polar Bears. No, really! Instead I bagged a MA Distinction in Film, produced a raft of short films including a BAFTA winner, and headed off to Hollywood as a screenwriter.

I can't say there's been any great master plan career wise, I've just followed my instincts, hung on to my integrity, and learned to keep on learning. And some of the fine folks I've had the good fortune to spend time with and learn from along the way have been true masters of their art and craft: Roland Penrose (the godfather of British Surrealism), Fred Zinnemann (director of classics From Here to Eternity & High Noon) and JG Ballard (Empire of the Sun), to name but three legends. So I've been very lucky. But as the old adage goes: The harder I've worked, the luckier I've got.

In recent years I’ve returned to my love of live performance through songwriting, playwriting and designing/directing for theatre, and that work continues alongside my screenwriting. In July 2014, publishing giants Simon & Schuster unleashed my first novel, a dystopian fantasy entitled The Savage Kingdom which has also been published in translation in Brazil and Poland.

Oh, for the record, I also make mixed-media artworks which have been exhibited in solo and mixed shows in Nassau, New York, London and by special invitation, at Tsinghua Academy of Arts Beijing.

I’m a member of the following institutions: Writers Guild of America West, British Academy of Songwriters & Composers, Leonardo - The International Society for Arts, Science & Technology, The National Association of Writers in Education, and The Society of Authors

 
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Shiny Pin Productions is an ever evolving (hence the phylogenetic evolution tree logo) creative collaboration between me and my brilliant, beautiful wife, the actress / producer Helena Michell (The Deceivers, A Piece of Cake, Little Box of Sweets).

Our mission: to try to make the world a better place one story at a time. Well, maybe make that two stories at a time. No wait a sec, we've got at least three things on the go right now and I've just thought of another one. Anyway, be the miracle, that's our company motto. And if you can be the miracle, and make a nice cup of tea we like the cut of your jib. To learn more click below…

 

Past work