Michael Swainson

Although he now lives in West Sussex, his roots are in South Wales. His days are often spent indulging his love of coffee, cooking (and being cooked for), enjoying the rugby, music, gigs, and the theatre, and, above all, writing. He is fortunate to share his life with his wonderful partner, Julie, and he has two amazing grown-up children, both successfully making their way through life; he loves them dearly and can never see them enough.

He started writing in his early 50s, attending a local community creative writing course. He wrote his first novel-sized manuscript in 12 months and then took the next five years knocking it into shape.

When he started this novel, he had a title, SPACE1959! (Which the files on his laptop still bear witness to) and three themes: the Cold War Space Race, spies and cosmic horror. The influences for spies speak for themselves; Fleming and LeCarre clearly deserve a mention. As for horror, H.P. Lovecraft is the obvious influence, but he must mention the 1950s Sci-Fi film classic, The Quatermass Xperiment - it terrified him as a ten-year-old boy and has stayed with him ever since