A little about me

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I’ve spent most of my life studying what makes people tick—and what happens when they don’t. My path has taken me from psychiatric hospitals to academic research, organisational consulting, university lecturing, and more recently, psychological fiction and drama.

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I began working in a large south London psychiatric hospital in my late teens and went on to graduate as a psychiatric nurse. I later studied psychology, gained postgraduate qualifications in both organisational and clinical psychology, and completed a PhD in Personality Psychopathology at King’s College London’s Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience.

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My career has taken me across the UK, New Zealand and Australia. I’ve worked as a registered mental nurse, registered psychologist, therapist, executive coach, human resource management consultant and business school professor. Along the way, I practised in the NHS, worked with individual therapy clients, advised Swiss and American investment banks, conducted experimental research, and taught on MBA and executive management programmes.

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Personality has always been at the centre of my work: the qualities that help people flourish, and the darker traits that can damage individuals, relationships and organisations. My research explored behaviour, performance and personality, including psychopathy and other “dark-side” traits in the workplace, dysfunctional leadership, motivation, team compatibility, and the relationship between schizotypal traits and creativity. My widely cited paper, Schizotypy and Creativity in Visual Artists, examined how unusual patterns of thought and perception might contribute to artistic originality.

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Some interests have taken me in less conventional directions. At the University of California, San Francisco, I was trained by the late Professor Paul Ekman to recognise fleeting facial expressions that can reveal concealed emotions. I also completed a parapsychology course at the University of Edinburgh’s Koestler Parapsychology Unit, exploring ESP, precognition and paranormal beliefs. Both experiences deepened my interest in perception, deception and the uncertain boundary between experience and belief.

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After completing a Postgraduate Diploma in Creative Writing at the University of York, I turned to psychological fiction and drama. My writing draws on decades of observing people under pressure: how they rationalise, conceal, manipulate, endure and surprise themselves. I’m interested in the unstable territory between heroes and villains, where good intentions can curdle and ordinary people can make extraordinary choices. For example, my short play, Her Last Hurrah, recently produced by the Mudgee Performing Arts Society as part of its Mudgee Shorts festival, 2026, is a family drama in which a retirement celebration gradually exposes a darker emotional reality.

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Human beings are wonderfully complicated, which is why I’ve never stopped being curious about them. After a lifetime studying behaviour, I now have the pleasure of inventing it—and exploring the motives people may not even admit to themselves.