The Mars trilogy tells the story of Lora and her family, settlers struggling to survive on the red planet.Apparently safe in the City Inside, Lora becomes suspicious of its human/Martian authorities. But then she gets the chance to join their expedition to the Martian plains to find Grandma's friend Ruby, survivor of the old Earth starships. When their flying saucer crash-lands Lora must lead on through deadly adventures. They find Ruby but she's changed, and admits to abandoning Lora's Ma and sister Hannah to an ancient and dangerous Martian spirit. Horrified, Lora sets out again, to try to save her family.
In 1975 he and his family moved to Newton Aycliffe in County Durham.
In 1988 he began to study English at Lancaster University. He obtained a first class BA degree in 1991. He then studied for an MA in Creative Writing at Lancaster University. Out of this came Does It Show?. From 1992 to 1995 he was at Lancaster University working on his PhD on Angela Carter as a Queer Writer.
In 1995 he moved to Edinburgh to write full-time. His first published writing was the short story Patient Iris.
In 1997 he moved to Norwich to take up a post of full time lecturer at the University of East Anglia teaching English Literature and Creative Writing. With Andrew Motion he organised the MA course in Creative Writing.
In 1998 he began to write stories for the BBC science fiction series Dr Who.
He lives with his partner, author and lecturer, Jeremy Hoad.
