About the Author

Fractured Healer is my first novel, having written 14 non-fiction books on physiotherapy over the last 30 years. The book deals with themes which are regularly used in physiotherapy such as empowering someone to help themselves, and using exercise to help the body heal. I wanted to use these themes and others, and knit them into a story, creating colourful characters who could live them out. The characters are flawed as we all are in real life, and as a contemporary novel it uses examples from day to day living. School, work, college, friendship, love – these are all familiar scenarios from modern life. The novel follows the main characters as they age and their world views change. Self-empowerment is a central theme, but so is the belief that it is never too late. Life goes on, but we stay young inside. The text is lighthearted with a serious undertone.

With my 14 non-fiction books I have always worked with mainstream publishers. My sports injuries book was commissioned by Elsevier (at the time Heinemann) and my fitness books by Bloomsbury (Then Blacks). Currently my two textbooks are published by Routledge. For Fractured Healer I took the increasingly popular route of using an independent publisher, Troubador. This works in a similar way to traditional publishers in that the book gets into bookshops, but it gives the author greater control. I get to work with the marketing and PR people directly and have more of a say over the way the book looks. Importantly the publishing process is also faster, taking about a year from submission, through manuscript assessment, copy edit, cover design and then onto publication with the marketing and publicity that then occurs. Happy to say that the process with Troubador has been smooth and the book is now getting good reviews and is widely available.