Philip Hamm

Philip was an English lecturer and worked in education for 18 years. He has done many more interesting things; he was a lumberjack in Norway in his distant youth and once waded through the marshes of the Amazon basin, looking for anacondas. He has swum with crocodiles, piranhas and pink dolphins. He has cleaned windows, waited on tables and propped up bars. He even trained as a butler in the mistaken view that it would be like Jeeves and Wooster. Now he writes and spends his time dreaming of worlds far away. To make those worlds more realistic he draws maps, creates complicated histories and decides what colour to paint their ships.

He has a BA in English and History and an MA by research. He was an authority on HG Wells.

Barnooli's Circus was his first finished novel. He wrote it because he wanted its cheery optimism about life in the galaxy to comfort people who might be worried that we're alone in the universe. By a strange coincidence, his Great Uncle Charlie was the seal trainer for Barnum and Bailey. Not sure if this is true or whether he just cleaned up the poop, but he likes to think the circus gene is in the blood.

Since Barnooli, he has published dozens more books about the constellation of Evigone, its people, places and things and its empires, planets and cities. There are now more than 2 million of his words in print.