Alan Wilkinson

 by Linda Greenall

Alan has lived in Blackpool since he was five years old, his family moved here from Ticknall Derbyshire. His parents opened a boarding house in Kent Road in the town.

Alan met his wife in East London. His wife is a retired teacher and she retired due to ill health.

They have three sons, all have recently completed university. Alex, who spent a year recently working in Australia,  has joined Alan on a creative writing course for journalism. David went to university in Aberdeen and lives there now. Ben is going to China in February to teach English as a foreign language.

Alan went to Blackpool Grammar School but he was unhappy there and ended up at Tyldesley School. His best subjects there were writing essays and drawing.

Alan did A levels by correspondence course with a view to maybe going to university, but never got there.

Twenty years ago Alan qualified as a Specialist Teaching Assistant, which didn’t come to much.

Alan has mainly worked in the Civil Service and other admin jobs.

His favourite place is Aberdeen which he describes as, "A very nice civilised part of the world."

Alan and his wife got to know the place well. Their middle son David went to university there and now works in Aberdeen. "We have friends just outside Aberdeen," Alan explained, "and David and their daughter went out together for a few years."

Alan also has fond memories of Majorca. He had a holiday there with his girlfriend who later became his wife.

"It was around this time of year. We hired a car and spent a week exploring the island, away from the touristy parts. It is a beautiful island." They came across out of the way villages that were like going back in time.

When Alan was young he was in bed for almost a year with one thing after another, He read practically everything Conan Doyle had written. He found that Rider Haggard and PC Wren were great escapist story tellers. Later he read all Kingley Amis and Tom Sharpe, and of course Stephen King, he says he has read all but one of Stephen King's thriller/ horror stories, but hasn’t read any of the Gunslinger stories because he could not get into them.

Alan says he thinks Under The Dome is one of Stephen King's best books. Recently Alan has read some of Jo Nesbo’s books, another talented Scandinavian writer. He has also read and enjoyed the Hunger Games trilogy.

Alan’s interests and pastimes are running and cycling. Running has always been his favourite exercise. These days he balances the running with cycling and trips to the gym so that he doesn’t get too many niggles and strains.

When Alan and his wife bought their first house they didn’t have much money so he did a lot of DIY and he still does a lot of DIY now and has begun to question how much time he spends on his DIY jobs.

I asked Alan if something in the world makes him angry. He says, "Politicians taking us for fools." He also mentioned cruelty and injustice, saying, "They are unacceptable but continuous fact of life somewhere in the world everyday."

Alan writes an hour or two most days: maybe ten to twelve hours a week.

Alan’s writing tip is that it is better to do a little everyday than to leave it all to do in one big effort.

Alan would like to write scripts for radio, comedy possibly, dialogue preferably, and also short stories and articles.

Alan wrote a book about twenty years ago but unfortunately it was turned down when submitted to a publisher. I asked where he preferred to write he said at his computer in his lounge. He has to make time for his writing, unless he keeps on with writing he loses the thread of what he was writing.