I would like to welcome everybody to my new Blog and hope that, through these pages, you will all get to know me a little better. Any contributions to this Blog will be greatly appreciated. Do you want to ask me anything? Please let me know and I will endeavour to answer your questions.
In 1971, my eyesight, though not great, was good enough for me to work at the North West regional Health Authority as an Architectural Technician. I worked under architect Philip Barber, who I remember with affection.
I travelled to my office next to Piccadilly station from my home in Prestwich and back again by bus and soon realised that the travelling time could prove very useful.
I had an idea for a story and started scribbling it in a small notepad during my travels. When I had finished drafting “The Brilliant Cabbage”, Helen, a secretary from my office, offered to type the manuscript for me. I did submit this short novel to literary agencies, but soon discovered the story was not good enough for publication. In retrospect, I agree with the agencies decision.
However, I still felt the urge to write and, in 1974, submitted a short story “LITE in the Sky” to a literary competition. To my surprise, I did win a small award for the story and, in 1991, was successful in having it read out by a professional narrator on BBC Radio Manchester.
For the stories at this time, I was using a pen name of Christopher Carr. My ex-wife, Marie, always thought that my personality was more of a “Christopher” rather than a “John”. Carr was the family name on my mother’s side, hence the name of Christopher Carr, which seemed to be an ideal pen name.
Delighted to be finally blogging
I would like to welcome everybody to my new Blog and hope that, through these pages, you will all get to know me a little better. Any contributions to this Blog will be greatly appreciated. Do you want to ask me anything? Please let me know and I will endeavour to answer your questions.
In 1971, my eyesight, though not great, was good enough for me to work at the North West regional Health Authority as an Architectural Technician. I worked under architect Philip Barber, who I remember with affection.
I travelled to my office next to Piccadilly station from my home in Prestwich and back again by bus and soon realised that the travelling time could prove very useful.
I had an idea for a story and started scribbling it in a small notepad during my travels. When I had finished drafting “The Brilliant Cabbage”, Helen, a secretary from my office, offered to type the manuscript for me. I did submit this short novel to literary agencies, but soon discovered the story was not good enough for publication. In retrospect, I agree with the agencies decision.
However, I still felt the urge to write and, in 1974, submitted a short story “LITE in the Sky” to a literary competition. To my surprise, I did win a small award for the story and, in 1991, was successful in having it read out by a professional narrator on BBC Radio Manchester.
For the stories at this time, I was using a pen name of Christopher Carr. My ex-wife, Marie, always thought that my personality was more of a “Christopher” rather than a “John”. Carr was the family name on my mother’s side, hence the name of Christopher Carr, which seemed to be an ideal pen name.