Paul Olding

Paul Olding has written two non-fiction books, The Urban Vineyard (a guide to growing grapes and making wine in your back garden) and Return to the Berber Village (retracing the 1955 Oxford University expedition to the High Atlas Mountains). His third book, Fireworks, is his first foray into fiction, with nine short fables routed within the genres of cosy sci-fi and cosy fantasy, each inspired by the overly ambitious names of some cheap fireworks, purchased to celebrate Guy Fawkes Night one year.

Paul has also written and directed over sixty films for TV, travelling the globe to document the natural world, ancient civilisations and the universe beyond, and more recently, creating a set of ambitious historical dramas, beginning with the lives of Wallis Simpson and Prince Albert, moving onto the gruesome deaths of a host of English monarchs (Royal Autopsy), and the cruel and barbaric witch trials that took place in Essex in the 16th and 17th centuries (Witches of Essex).

Before television, Paul was an academic, gaining a doctorate in the calls of Australian Microhylid treefrogs from Jesus College, University of Oxford. When he’s not writing or making films, Paul can be found on his vineyard in East Sussex, called Wildwood Vineyard, or dressed up on a Hollywood movie set as a Supporting Artist. He lives in South East London with his wife, and their two sons.