About Colin Baines

Born and raised in Buckinghamshire, Colin was educated at the Royal Grammar School High Wycombe (producer of such icons as Ian Dury, Howard Jones, Matt Dawson and Jimmy Carr).

Having worked mostly in advertising & marketing, he moved to Dorset in 2001 and currently runs a small business.

"I originally wrote three short stories just for fun (pretending they were extracts from a forthcoming book), and they appeared in a local monthly magazine. They got such a good response I was finally persuaded to actually write the book. A bit of a JR Hartley moment I suppose.

My inspiration is the myriad of peculiar characters I've come across over the years, and my love of the surreal. I have always had a keen sense of humour, and have spent most of my life trying to make people laugh – particularly since I discovered that ladies (or should that be laydeez?) like to be amused.

In these turbulent times of almost constant bad news, it's still permissible to have a good old-fashioned chuckle now and again. Go on, you know you want to!"