about me

About Him

By day, Reg Plate is a molecular geneticist, working in Central London for a well-known Cancer charity. By night (and some lunch breaks) he aspires to be a novelist. He says that the desire to write novels has been with him since he can remember. Strange, then, that he waited until he was in his forties to begin in earnest.

His scientific career took him from his native North Wales to a place called England, where he discovered he was Welsh. From there he moved, briefly, to New England where he discovered that Wales is a place in England, apparently. So that would make him English then?

His first attempt at novel writing was one summer when he was thirteen. It involved lots of martial arts, opium smuggling, and an enigmatic Robin Hood-of-a-hero who could kick everyone’s bottom. He showed it to his English teacher. The lovely old dear had set the assignment just prior to the long holiday, but seemed surprised when he handed in the hundred-page novella (the only child to do so). She claimed to have no memory of setting the task.

This was the beginning of his disillusionment and a marked downturn in his behaviour. He moved swiftly on to short stories, his work taking the form of essays that had to be written as punishment for behaving badly.

After leaving school his creative writing dried up, although he continued storing ideas and experiences in tatty packing cases at the back of his mind. He would occasionally go there, run his finger through the dust and browse through some memories. But there was always some pressing matter that prevented him from having a damn good tidy up.

The story for Welsh, Not began formulating in 2002 after his return from the States. It went through many scribbled forms until it began to take shape as it now stands in early 2008.

Should ‘Welsh,Not’ fail to make the Best-Seller charts, Reg is toying with the idea of writing a novella about a Robin Hood-like character who wanders the earth righting wrongs, kicking butts with his advanced Kung Fu techniques, and confounding opium smugglers.

Reg presently lives on the outskirts of London with his wife and son. He tries very hard not to be naughty and is very wary of English teachers.

favourite books

Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut
White Teeth - Zadie Smith
One Big Damn Puzzler - John Harding
A River Runs Through It- Norman Maclean
To Kill A Mocking Bird - Harper Lee
Steppenwolf - Herman Hesse
A Prayer For Owen Meany - John Irving
The Little World of Don Camillo - Giovanni Guareschi
The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
The Double - Jose Saramago
Brick Lane - Monica Ali

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