BIOGRAPHY I studied history at Cambridge which led to a career as a history teacher. Now retired, I live on the magical Isle of Skye with my wife, Helen, and our Pyrenean Mountain dog, Sophie. I played rugby until I was forty-eight, only giving it up after breaking my back in a 400-foot fall down a mountain. When I am not writing, I love the outdoors and am working my way through all 282 Scottish mountains over 3000 feet. I am also an ardent skier.