Clive Arup

I graduated as a Civil Engineer from London University and worked for several years as a Design Engineer for bridges, roads, multistorey residential and commercial buildings and a large power station and desalination plant. I worked abroad for ten years in the Middle East for a large construction company. Upon returning to the UK I chose to work locally in Oxfordshire in order to share childcare with my wife who often travelled abroad with her work.

My diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis resulted in a necessary change of career which led me to work as a company secretary in the Third Sector for several years. I started writing about the time I started using a wheelchair.

Writing is hard work and mentally quite exhausting but at the same time exhilarating. After finishing a novel, I forgot about it for a few years as a work opportunity arose enabling me to return to my Engineering roots in renewable energy in an entrepreneurial capacity.

Returning to writing and after encouraging responses from the few people I allowed to read my novel, I tried writing a sitcom with a friend. This was good fun but difficult. We did manage a six episode series with ideas for a second series… no harm being ambitious! I had always wanted to write a children’s book based on bedtime stories I told my children. So, the Pixie stories started and the first one of these ‘The Pixies of Little Wittenham’ is being published
shortly.

I have a second novel half-written but my first novel remains unpublished.