Peter Colin Brown was born in Priory Avenue, Prittlewell, in 1959, and lived in the area of Southend-on-Sea, Essex, for most of his life.
The first time that his love of writing was realised was during secondary school, where during the English Comprehension classes, his lengthy work would often run to three or four exercise books, and his teacher at the time asked to be remembered when he published his first book. After achieving a CSE Grade 2 in English, he went to Southend Technical College to pursue his other passion – art and illustration.
A two-year course of Art and Graphic Design at Southend Technical College also allowed him the time to review his options, and subsequently put the newly acquired life skills to work for him in the only way that seemed practical to him at the time – by going onto the railway, where, after training, he was based at the Stratford Running & Maintenance Depot as a Secondman/Driver of Class 31, 27 and 47 locomotives.
Four years later, life dealt Peter a devastating blow and he was forced to leave the railway. He had got married. However, this didn’t deter him from wanting to achieve his goal, and not wanting the dust to settle on his aspirations, he embarked on a stop-gap job in the Road Passenger Transport industry while he carefully re-considered his options.
Twenty years and three marriages later, Peter had developed a keen interest in local and military history, which would provide the basis for his future career. A severe illness delayed that for a considerable time, and his wife, Karen, had to do the washing up every night for the next four years.
While he had assisted and contributed to other writers as well as to websites on the subjects of local history and its various niches, Peter was prompted by fellow author Dee Gordon to consolidate some of the research work about Southend Airport that he had been compiling for several years into a book. This started him on the road to becoming a writer of local, aviation, and military history, all inspired by his personal interest.
Peter has had seven books published through Amberley Publishing, Fonthill Media, The History Press, and Estuary Publishing (which led to several radio guestspots and talks), as well as magazine articles and internet blogs. Now living in Mablethorpe, Lincolnshire, he has several more books planned.
14-09-2016
