I was born on 31 March 1974 in Reading, Berkshire, UK. My mother was Cherrie Bramwell, a zoologist and palaeontologist working at the University of Reading. She specialized in the study of Pteranodon (a kind of pterosaur, often confused with pterodactyls) and was quite famous in her day. My father was Bob Speer, a physics lecturer and researcher in spectroscopy, who worked at Imperial College London.
We moved to Maidenhead (also in Berkshire) when I was a toddler and my parents separated soon after. I grew up with my mother in Maidenhead in an old bungalow with a big garden and visited my dad at weekends. My best childhood friends with Keith Kildare and Robert Harding. I wonder what became of them. I went to Lowbrook Primary School and then Desborough comprehensive. They were happy days. I miss them terribly.
I studied for a year at The Henley College, a sixth form college, in Henley-on-Thames over the border in Oxfordshire, and then at Windsor & Maidenhead College (another sixth form college, now just called Windsor College) but I wasn't mature, motivated or interested enough to pursue an education and left after a year. I got a job at Waitrose (an upmarket UK supermarket chain) in Maidenhead and stayed there for about four years.
Having developed a fascination for the countryside and ancient mysteries of Wiltshire (Stonehenge, Avebury, white horses, crop circles etc) and itching to move away from my home town I transferred to the Waitrose in Marlborough, Wilts, and lived in Chippenham, about twenty miles to the west. Every day I used to drive along the A4 past Silbury Hill and the Cherhill white horse. Ah, the halcyon days of youth!
A couple of years or so later, in 1997, I moved to Exeter, Devon, and lived with my mother for a while who had moved there a few years previously. I have lived in Exeter ever since. For the next twelve years I continued to work in various supermarkets. Getting tired of retail I decided to move into more admin/office-based work and did various stints as a temporary contractor for BT, the NHS, South West Water and The Insolvency Service, among others.
Cherrie was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2019 & I moved back home to care of her. I would like for her to remain in her own home for as long as possible. We live in a little white mobile home with our white & tortie cat, Poppy.
I am currently single and have no children (something that has never appealed to me). I am currently working on the house and garden & hope to return to full-time employment once this Coronavirus lockdown period is over.
Hobbies: I am an unashamed computer geek. I love the Web and enjoy programming, especially interactive fiction. I also have a passion for retrogaming. I also enjoy reading, writing my diary, watching DVDs and I force myself to go cycling occasionally to get some exercise.
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