Derek H. Skinner

I was educated at Christs Hospital and RMA Sandhurst. I joined the Army and saw service all over the globe. After thirty years and a OU Degree, I re-badged as a school master at Cheltenham College Junior school where I spent sixteen happy and rewarding years. In retirement I work for an Army charity and am involved in local government and as a Church Warden.

My interest in slavery was engendered by a spell on the island of Socotra in the Indian Ocean. The islanders there are a beautiful admixture of races, being descended from slaves thrown overboard by passing slavers, as too sick or troublesome to make a viable cargo for the Americas. A deep irony is how such attractive people were spawned from such casual acts of cruelty.

In my Army travels I later saw examples of forms of medieval justice with which slaves would have been all too familiar.

It took seven years to write and research the Nethergate Trilogy. My older sister tells me that from a very early age I was forever telling stories, though even now I am not quite sure what she meant. Ever since I can remember I have written and related stories. The Nethergate Trilogy is my first attempt at writing professionally. I am most gratified at the enthusiastic response it seems to have had. It is a delight that others should find pleasure and diversion in something in which I have found such joy in creating.