Mike Somers

The Woolpacks on Kinder Scout with cloud inversion in Edale Valley.

Born in San Francisco in 1930 I spent time working as a lumberjack and a lifeguard before joining the army. In the fifties I moved to Hollywood where I worked in movies and television before setting up my own production company, Malpaso in the late sixties. I was later elected mayor of my home town, Cartmel��..Oh all right, this is actually Clint Eastwood's biography but it sounds so much better than mine.

I was born in Stockport, a town that makes Midwich look vibrant, and have lived there all my life. After passing the eleven-plus I went Xaverian Grammar School in Manchester but left after four terms and finished my secondary education at Stockport Technical High School. I left school unqualified at fifteen and spent the subsequent eleven years doing a variety of jobs ranging from working in a men's boutique and in a hospital as a porter to driving an overhead crane in an engineering factory. After spending four dedicated and uninterrupted years as one of Thatcher's unemployment statistics I became a mature student at Manchester Polytechnic. Here I spent three years being paid more than unemployment benefit to read, write about and discuss novels (the closest to Utopia I have ever come) emerging with an upper second class honours degree in English. Teacher training at Manchester University followed though I decided very early on that my pathological hatred of adolescents might prove something of a drawback in pursuing a career in that profession. Instead I entered the Civil Service where I am currently languishing as one of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Taxes patiently awaiting either the offer of Barry Norman's job or six numbers on the lottery, both of which are equally evasive.
I have been married to Beverley since 1980 and we have two children, Heather and Andy.
An avid cinephile I number amongst my favourites, directors as diverse as Stanley Kubrick, John Carpenter, Martin Scorsese, Ridley Scott, Tim Burton and David Fincher. I am currently busy introducing as many people as I can pin in a corner at parties to the strange and wondrous experiences that are FIGHT CLUB and DONNIE DARKO with what can only be politely described as missionary zeal.
My taste in books is as eclectic as my taste in film and the reading I have lined up at the moment comprises THE STEEP APPROACH TO GARBADALE by Iain Banks, THE ROAD by Cormac McCarthy and A QUIET BELIEF IN ANGELS by R J Ellory. As far as writing is concerned my early influences were Alan Garner, Barry Hines and Isaac Asimov, all of whom I have unsuccessfully attempted to emulate at one time or another. "It's an homage!".
When not reading, writing or falling asleep in front of the television clutching a half-full glass of red wine I enjoy fell walking and have completed all the English and Welsh three-thousanders.

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