David Milnes

In order only of their glamour, the short term jobs were: dishwasher at Roedean School; ground-crewman for a bankrupt crop duster; maintenance carpenter for the London Borough of Tower Hamlets; ware-houseman at Eschmann's surgical suppliers (same as D.H.Lawrence) Shoreham-by-Sea, tractor driver in the Fens (wonderful job), and finally, arrivals and departures announcer for British Railways at Brighton Station. Only the last is a lie. Hours before dawn on the day I was going to start, I dropped off a handwritten note to the Station Manager: "I'm sorry, but this job will be the death of me." So romantic!
I got my first opening when I was 36, from David Almond, of Skellig fame, who published a short story of mine in a Northern Arts Magazine. Then Alan Ross of London Magazine published a long short story in a hardback anthology from Constable. The anthology was reviewed in the Times Literary Supplement by Booker nominee Shena Mackay, who described my writing as "bleak but impressive". For as long as I live I will be in her debt for that moment of recognition.
By this time I had a proper teaching career, which enabled me to escape to Hong Kong and pay off my debts. Over the next 13 years I wrote two new books - The Ghost of Neil Diamond and The Pathology of Graphology, and edited a novel by the excellent Egg Taylor. The Ghost of Neil Diamond has been stolen by no less than 14 pdf sites. I discovered recently this is the fate of even highly successful and famous authors, such as the late John Fowles. What's going on?
Since leaving Hong Kong for the Middle East I have written two other books, as well as screenplays, plays and a serial for radio. The novels are ready to go but I need to find a way of dealing with the pdf copiers first.