Peter R. Stott BSc (Hon's)

+ Domov, 27 Calton Walk, Bath. BA2 4QQ
  ( +44(0) 1225 330183
  : peter@domov.free-online.co.uk

D.o.B. 19 January 1942

Born in Rhyl, Clwyd. North Wales. My early years in Rhyl gave me an abiding love for the sea, boats and fish plus a passion for building sandcastles, and an acute wariness of the ebb and flow of the tide. I left Rhyl in 1953 and moved with my parents to Birmingham. I completed my secondary schooling in 1957 and remained in and around the west midlands until the age of twenty.

I left school at the age of fifteen without a single qualification to my name. My career since then has been marked by its variety. I have been a:

A Farmer. In April 1957 I left school one Friday, then left home on the Sunday and began life as an agricultural apprentice on a farm in a small village in east Warwickshire. After three years, I went on to Agricultural College for a year. Then followed a period of contract milking and several months back in Wales working on the Isle of Anglesey with sheep and growing early potatoes.

A Monk. During 1962/63, I spent twelve months testing out my vocation at a small monastery on the banks of the River Wye in the Forest of Dean. I was still milking cows and looking after sheep as well as keeping to the monastic rule. In the end the Novice Master and I agreed that either God was not calling loudly enough or that I was deaf.

A Soldier In the autumn of 1963 I took the Queen's Shilling and joined the Army. The army offered me the chance to improve on my non-existent academic qualifications and to have adventures at HM's expense. On completion of my basic training, I joined 7th Parachute Regiment, Royal Horse Artillery mainly because they offered the best chance for adventures and the pay was better. During the next three years I threw myself out of balloons, planes and helicopters some fifty odd times. I saw action during the Radfan crisis in the Yemen in 1964. 

Somewhere between leaving the monastery and becoming a soldier, I met my future wife. It seemed to both of us that soldiering and marriage were not compatible institutions. In 1966 I purchased my discharge from the Army and in 1968 we married.

A Student. On leaving the army, I enrolled at my local technical college for O and A levels as I planned to enter university. The Tech. opened my eyes and ears to such things as poetry, music, and philosophy. It gave me my first chance to write for the student magazine. In 1969, I enrolled at the University of Bath as a science undergraduate where I read for an honour degree in applied biology. I gained my 2.1 honours degree in 1973. University gave me the opportunity to write for and edit the student newspaper and to establish the first campus CCTV news programme.

A Teacher In 1974, following a very short interview I found myself appointed as a Lecturer in Management Studies at Pershore College of Horticulture. Picked, I later realised, from a short list of one! Then followed fourteen years in Further and Higher Education. I went on to become a Head of Department and I spent the last four years as a college vice-principal in northeast London. The latter post I gained on the strength of some research I undertook for the DES on distance learning as a training tool for small companies. My main function as vice-principal was to establish and manage the college Open Learning Unit that was funded by grant aid. The unit was set-up to write design, and develop distance learning training packages. As a direct result of the commercial success of the unit, I switched into the private sector.

A Businessman. In February 1988, I joined the Ashford Press Group as Managing Director of Ashford Open Learning Ltd. The aim of the company was to provide an added value service for the printing by developing a service writing, editing, designing and producing tailor-made multimedia training programmes. The company rapidly developed a reputation for the quality of it’s output. Turnover rose to £1.2 million and I employed 21 full-time staff plus freelance editors and writers. In May 1998, after a period of illness and a disagreement with the major shareholders, following an abortive management buy-out, I was dismissed. 

Since May 1998 I work as freelance computer consultant for local businesses and organisations. I have also written the first of the Tales from the Guardian Worlds, The Horse Boy’s Story, a full-length fantasy of 101,000 words, written for young adult readers. I am about one third of the way through the first draft of the second book, the Herbman’s Story. I have an outline for a third book in the series. 

I am also writing a number of short stories for younger readers called Stories from the Little Red Summerhouse. The central characters of these stories are the animals that live in and around the summerhouse. The cats, who are share their names with 

My ambition is to be a successful writer but, more than that, I want to be above all a good storyteller.