I went to St George’s College, Weybridge; Durham University (studying Medieval history) and The Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies, Canterbury, where I became a professional genealogist. I have been a freelance genealogist since 2003. I try to bring all my practical skills in historical and genealogical research to my writing, which I hope gives it an edge over many professional writers, who are not also day-to-day researchers. Besides research and writing I am also an occasional broadcaster. My most recent T.V. appearance was on the Australian version of Who Do You Think You Are? with Barry Humphries, the genius behind Dame Edna Everage. Although our interview appears in the middle of the program, it was actually the last bit of filming he ever did before his death. We shared a love of gardening, we discovered, and landscape painting. All of which is simply to show that good writers (like good entertainers) are not one-dimensional.