Born in Cullercoats, a graduate of the London School of Economics, he was a research assistant at the University of Essex, assistant at the ECPR Summer School, stipendiat at the Institut für Höhere Studien, Vienna, and was a research fellow at the University of Birmingham. As director at Faxtel International Inc, he published over 30 studies on British industry, the data sections of some are in the British Library. Married with two grown up children, he has now spent some 40 years in corporate research. He has varied interests, from the bagpipes to the works of the artist Robert Jobling; a keen radio amateur, his call sign being G7JDB, and the proud owner of a 1972 Volkswagen Kombi, registered 8VW, which has travelled throughout Europe, from the Tatra mountains of southern Poland to the northernmost tip of Norway.