Phillip J. Morledge

Phillip J. Morledge is an author, publisher, occasional filmmaker and sometime woodworker when the weather is good.

He spends most of his time hibernating in Sheffield, only venturing out on rare occasions to forage for books.

His virtual self can be found at pjmorledge.com

BIOGRAPHY

My Name is Phillip J. Morledge.

The ‘J’ standing for John, the name of my father.

I was born in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and seventy three in the great northern city of steel and was nurtured to the sound of an industry in the final throes of a bitter death.

I was raised on murder mysteries and Hitchcock films.

I had friends, but not many, and filled the gaps with words and an imagination that bordered on the dark.

I acted as a youngster, won awards and felt truly at home.

I felt smart but applied myself to all the wrong things.

I fell in love and hurt my knee, but picked myself up and tried again and stuck a plaster over the graze.

School days were a mixed bag of good and bad but were survived without ever having to break a sweat.

A fortune teller once told me I was the reincarnation of Oliver Cromwell...

This revelation cost me £5.

Fatherhood came early and proved to be something of a battle...

currently a score draw.

An academic year by the sea taught self reliance and self sufficiency and the primacy of the self.

And passions that burn still.

Despite all the evidence I amassed to the contrary, it turned out that my father wasn’t the Yorkshire Ripper.

Suddenly, and without warning, I found truth in the sentiments of Fergal Sharkey, spent time on the wards and was gifted a new lease on life.

At least one of these biographical nuggets is a blatant lie that I’ve been telling for decades.