Laurie Strange

London born, and raised in Sussex, early years spent roaming wild and free in Lewes fields by the river Ouse instilled a lasting love for the countryside — until the river burst its banks — flooding us out of house and home!

Along with a move to Brighton, came the discovery of the little theatre tucked away at the end of the West Pier. Life would never be the same again. Escaping school aged fifteen for the siren call of the stage, my real education began anew.

Enjoying an early career appearing in various repertory theatres around the country, a return to the Argyle Theatre gave me the opportunity to write and direct new plays for children. Stepping aside from the traditional repertoire of fairy stories, they were introduced to the ancient worlds of the Inca and Tutankhamun.

Stage and company management of several touring productions for Cameron Mackintosh followed, before settling into attic rooms in Highgate Village to focus on writing. An all too brief, idyllic period ensued as the ideas poured out of me. Synopses, sample chapters, and pilot episodes flew out to every contact in the book. Such polite letters of refusal — those were the days!

Ten lovely years swept by in the Village, but interior design, cabinetmaking and house refurbishment paid the bills. Life had taken over. Marriage, and the gift of two wonderful girls resulted in the complete refurbishment of first one, then another house. Even so, the urge to write persisted, emerging whenever an opportunity arose. Both chance and subject matter presented themselves while revisiting Crete in 1983, a couple of years after our wedding in the tiny village where my wife was born.

Above and beyond the familiar sense of Greek hospitality, it rapidly became clear to me that the very country of my birth carried along with it a certain gratitude for Allied help during the war, still a living memory for many at that time. Helping with the annual grape harvest, my thoughts turned on this and I began to imagine myself in the footsteps of those who had fought alongside the Cretans to resist invasion. This was the birth of Lost in Crete. It only took another forty-one years to complete!

Much as is reflected in the book itself — the passage of time invariably challenges hopes and expectations. Both my former wife and I have long since happily remarried.

Now settled in Buckinghamshire, my Dublin girl by my side and with, hopefully, the very last refurbishment almost complete — I am currently drawing on the many and varied experiences of five years spent running an antiques gallery in London, as I pick up work again on the next novel — the aforementioned rebuild only having delayed the first four chapters by a mere ten years!