The author was born in Hinckley, Leicestershire and, upon leaving the grammar school there, trained as a mechanical engineer and worked for much of his life as a designer-draughtsman in Leicester. Married with three children, he gradually moved across the county until, now retired, he and his wife crossed over into Lincolnshire (but only just) in the year 2000.  They had discovered the tiny, attractive village of Skillington.

Hobbies included chess (a former Leicestershire county player he now joined the Grantham league side), bowls and fly-fishing.  He found history, especially ancient Egypt and other periods where civilisations had just emerged from the 'mists of time', particularly fascinating.  Having dabbled with oil painting and various genre of writing - novels, poetry and short stories of which one was broadcast - he chose as a retirement project the more ambitious project of a history of his newly adopted home village.  Surely this would easily be dealt with by a small pamphlet!  He was to discover that the village's past was many-faceted and some very famous names were linked with its pastoral history.

The most famous, of course, was Sir Isaac Newton.  The author was surprised to learn that, not only was the great man born only a mile away in the manor house at Woolsthorpe-by-Colterworth, but that he had three aunts living in Skillington and must have been a regular visitor in his younger days.  He even began his schooling there.  The book explores the young genius's links with the village and, astonishingly, his family connections with a prominent local farming family.  The author found time to work at Woolsthorpe Manor as a volunteer house guide for the National Trust while writing the History, imbibing the feel of Isaac's farming past.

 A parish priest of Skillington in Victorian times, the Reverend Charles Hudson, made the national papers through his singular climbing achievement and the tragedy which resulted.  He was the first to climb the Matterhorn.  Climbers still make the pilgrimage to St James's church to see the stained glass windows that commemorate this.

These are pictured in the book together with the story.  

 Before this stalwart's time a schism had taken place in the religious community of Skillington (and that included most villagers).  The Methodist movement away from the Church of England found a leading champion in the village that was to make Skillington a noted centre for Methodist practice in the Grantham area and beyond.  This young champion was Ann Christian, a member of another well-to-do farming family in the village.  The book tells the details of this and follows the fortunes of that family until they departed the community in the early 1900s.  Incidentally, the Christian and Newton families became linked by marriage.

An interesting by-product of all this brings another 'super-celebrity' into the chronicles of Skillington, non other than our first woman prime minister, now Baroness Thatcher.  Read in the History how a young Margaret used to visit and how this was also linked with one of the most successful entrepreneurs the village has ever produced.

 Yet another  famous visitor was David Niven.

 Americans came too in large numbers when the nearby airbase at Saltby (now Buckminster Gliding Club) geared itself up for the Normandy landings of WW2.

 But, the 'ordinary folk' of Skillington are there too.  The book includes anecdotes, family histories and photographs of many of these.  A small pamphlet?  The book finally extended to 145 pages with over 60 photographs, many of which are in colour.  In book form, it was a sell-out with two editions comprising over 85 books.