Born in 1936 the Author spent most of his life as a professional dancer and teacher of Ballroom and Latin having dropped out of University when he found during a long summer break that research in chemistry resulted in getting home smelling of phenol every evening.

Now semi-retired he can enjoy the company of his much younger wife, Maureen, and son, Matthew, who is at Greenwich University Medway working for a PhD having already obtained an Honours Degree. Maureen and Derek live in Cuxton, a small village in Kent, South East of London and have one other child, a daughter Melanie.

She is married, lives in Rochester, New York State, U.S.A. with her American husband Greg, is a highly qualified paediatric nurse and is the mother of their only grandchild Emily, born April 1999.

Biography provided by the author, October 2004.