Chris Bee

Chris Bee. Born and raised on the edge of the Lincolnshire fens, I attended the prestigious Aveland Secondary Modern School in Billingborough, which has sadly since been turned into some allotments and a desperately needed area of rubble and waste ground. But it was fun while it lasted, although fun wasn’t perhaps the main idea suppose.

But it did have very large windows and coupled with far too much imagination, I left there in 1976 clutching a CSE grade 4 in English and one or two other similar scraps of paper.

My first cunning plan and career choice was to go into Theatre and stage lighting, unfortunately as competition was high and places scarce, my somewhat lacklustre performance at school precluded this path, so instead I got an apprenticeship and trained as an Electrician at Grantham College.

In 1981 I was made redundant and as work was a little thin on the ground, I started up my first business casting decorative Victorian street lamps. I came up with the idea of using reinforced concrete instead of iron. Which worked remarkably well, in fact after over 40 years, I still see quite a few of them in gardens around the county which still look to be as good as the day I made them.

But after a about 3 years of doing this and being a much better engineer than a salesman, I then decided to go into the family business of plumbing and heating, after my father, grandfather, Gt grandfather, etc, etc., which I did seem to have a bit of a aptitude for and quite enjoyed, but I’ve always loved creating things and still hankered after something that would allow me to follow this ambition.

So when an unexpected opportunity came up, I took a bit of a gamble and a definite sideways step and set up a new business and went to work in Film and Television, which was, while challenging at times, with long hours on location, was much more fun and interesting. It also brought me, closer to the world of stories and storytelling, which is an ability I have always admired.

Now after nearly 25 years, I recently and reluctantly retired from the world Film and TV, as all good things must come to an end. So I thought it was time to open a new door and I decided to put my overactive imagination to some use and write my first novel “The Agency of the Inexplicable.”

Set mainly in Lincolnshire in the 1920s it tells the story of one Dr Madeline Drake who has just inherited a time machine. Unfortunately time is a complex and sensitive thing and messing with it has consequences, it’s rather like dropping pebbles in a pond, it causes ripples. Well best stand back, because with Madeline it’s more like throwing in half a brick.

The story whilst science fiction it is what I wold call Si-Fi with a small “s” and told with gentle British humour and was written as a fun, feel-good story.

In conclusion, I continue on doing some plumbing and heating, the rest of my time is divided between my collection of stray moggies and the odd stray chicken, tinkering with my old cars and motorcycles and now a also bit of writing.