D. S. Pepper

I was born in 1942 at Chatham in Kent where both my father and my grandfather worked in H.M. Naval Dockyard, and despite the bad press it sometimes gets I am proud of my association with this naval town. I was christened Denis Stanley Pepper which in itself proved character building; at infant school, I was constantly teased by the greeting "Atishoo, Atishoo! - here comes Pepper!" I found this upsetting initially, but after wise counsel by my mother who asked me if I would like the family to change their surname I resolved to stick with it and fight my corner when necessary. The problem soon went away and I subsequently found that the name had many advantages. The 'Stanley' was after my father, and that too led to Dr Livingstone jokes and comments like "Another fine mess you've got me into Stanley (after the comedy duo Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy)," but by that time I had learnt the mantra that "Sticks and Stones might break my bones, but names will never hurt me" - a mantra which protected me, but seems sadly to have been forgotten in today's culture.

I spent seven wonderful years at Sir Joseph Williamson’s Mathematical School in the city of Rochester - an experience I have valued all my life and consequently am an ardent member of the Old Williamsonians. I went to university in London and then, in 1966, I moved to Folkestone in Kent where I now live with my wife Zina. I have been blessed with two sons, two step-daughters and four grandchildren.

I had always 'written', but until a seventh century monk came into my life I had never been published. I first met my character Botolph in 2009 when Zina and I were on Romney Marsh taking photographs as part of my research for another book. We stopped off for lunch in the garden of Botolph's Bridge Inn. Above my head the inn-sign creaked as it swung in the wind, and I looked up to see a ghostly picture of three monks, two of whom were carrying a coffin over a bridge at dead of a moonlit night. From that moment my relationship with Botolph was born. I am not sure if I found him or he found me but in the thirteen years that I have been researching him he has taught me an enormous amount about the seventh century and the Kentish and East Anglian royal families with whom he was associated. 'Tangential' research into the eighty or so churches dedicated to him has re-awoken my interest in church architecture (again engendered by my mother) and educated me further in that direction. The 100 papers I have written on this subject are to be found published on the internet on the website of The Society of Saint Botolph at www.botolph.info.

Apart from being a writer I am (as I tell schoolchildren who are from time to time kind enough to listen to me) an 'old sea dog'.

That is to say I have always loved being on the water and for the past 53 years I have been lucky enough to sail my boats in many parts of Europe. In 1969 I bought my first sailing cruiser SNOWGOOSE. In 1976 in my next boat, the little 27 foot STELLA MISTRAL, I sailed up to the Baltic. In 1979 I bought a 32ft Nicholson called LADY DEKILA which I regularly sailed between the Netherlands in the northeast and the Biscay coast (La Rochelle) in the southwest. Eventually I took her across Biscay down to Gibraltar and from thence to the Balearic Islands which became her base for the next seven years until I sold her and bought my 46 ft ketch ELECTRA II. Since 1998 we have cruised in Croatia, Turkey and Greece and she is now based in Licata in Sicily.