Donald Phillips

Biography

In the late sixties I was a member of a rock band and we were moderately successful. At twenty three I tired of being out every night for five years, married my long time girlfriend Rosemary and and left rock and roll behind, the money I had made furnishing our first house.

I then worked in engineering for many years, firstly in the tool room and eventually as Personnel and Training Manager. Next for some six years I ran the South Avon County Youth Opportunities Scheme for difficult trainees (they were referred by Social Service, Probation or the Police usually), based in Weston-super-Mare, England. We managed to get eighty five percent into permanent work. I spent my last two years in England running a 300 place training scheme for unemployed adults in Bristol.

During our life we had visited twenty seven countries at various times and our families are spread from Trondheim in Norway throughout Europe and on to Adelaide in Australia. Twenty six years ago we ourselves moved to rural Spain and found our own niche. We both speak Spanish now and are quite happy here.

Since then I have switched to Cabinet making and had over 190 articles published worldwide in the English language woodworking magazines and I produce one off pieces of furniture to order to make my pocket money. Not being a great television fan I spend my evenings writing articles and novels or reading my Kindle. I am a happy and content person.

Smashwords Interview

Where did you grow up, and how did this influence your writing?
I grew up in England about thirty miles from London. My town, Hemel Hempstead was a new town, That is it was a small old town from the time of Henry VIII that was suddenly inundated by tens of thousands of Londoners who had been displaced by the Second World War. It had no influence on my writing except that I received a good education and shone at English.
When did you first start writing?
Fifteen years ago. I had run a training center for school leavers who were out of the mainstream either because of their personal circumstances or because they could not manage ordinary school and needed special needs training. They called them the mad, bad and sad. Our job was to get them into the real world of work by finding employment they could manage and enjoy. I saw a lot of bad things during the seven years I did this work and when I left I had the urge to write some of it down in a form that showed exactly how it was for these trainees. Then I just caught the writing bug.
Read more of this interview.

Books

The Opportunities of Youth
Price: Free! Words: 68,850. Language: English. Published: May 3, 2012 . Categories: Fiction » Humor & comedy » General
(4.00 from 1 review)
A humorous look at the YTS or YOPS schemes of the nineteen seventies by someone who worked in them for several years in what was then Avon County.
Four Short Tales
Price: Free! Words: 8,850. Language: British English. Published: May 1, 2012 . Categories: Fiction » Humor & comedy » General
(4.00 from 2 reviews)
Don Phillips lives in a part of Spain where you have to speak the language. These four amusing and basically true stories reflect various moments in the last twenty five years he has lived there where this has caused the odd problem.
Vengeance
Price: Free! Words: 100,270. Language: English. Published: April 17, 2012 . Categories: Fiction » Thriller & suspense » Action & suspense, Fiction » Mystery & detective » Hard-Boiled
As a law officer you watch it all from a distance. But what happens when it gets personal? What happens when its your family dying? John MacAllister had been a CID inspector for nearly twenty years and thought he had seen it all. He had too, but not through the eyes of a victim. This time it was personal with his own family involved. He discovered he too had a dark side. Set In Bristol, England.
Cocaine
Price: Free! Words: 120,840. Language: Commonwealth English. Published: April 16, 2012 . Categories: Fiction » Thriller & suspense » Crime thriller, Fiction » Christian » Mystery & detective
(5.00 from 1 review)
When Jack Ropell joined Customs and Excise he did not think it would ever be a life threateningly dangerous job. He also thought that Spain was a holiday destination. That was until he joined the anti-drug section. Then he changed his mind.