A British writer and journalist, born in Carlisle, Cumberland, England, to Scottish parents. He served in the British Army in the Middle East and North Africa just after the war, most notably at Tripoli, after completing the Officer Cadet Training Unit (OCTU) program. He left the country in 1947 and went back to work as a writer and reporter for the Glasgow Herald, eventually rising to the position of deputy editor between 1964 and 1969. Each of the several books and other collections of short tales he authored has a historical viewpoint. He also made artistic contributions by participating in writing several works such as The Three Musketeers (1973), Royal Flash (1975), Octopussy (1983), and Red Sonja (1985). He died on January 2, 2008, in the United Kingdom from cancer.