Stephen Mitchell was born in Preston, Lancashire in 1954, but lived in the seaside town of Blackpool until the age of sixteen when, in order to escape the catering trade he left home and joined the Royal Air Force. For the next twenty-three years he travelled the world, visiting places like France, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Cyprus, The United States, Belize, Mexico and Coningsby. After leaving the RAF in 1994 he decided to fi nd a job that didn’t actually involve doing any work and so he applied to join the Civil Service, where he has remained ever since as a Training Offi cer. As a lifelong comic book fan, Stephen has only recently forgiven his mother for donating his entire comic collection (including the fi rst issue of The Amazing Spider-man) to a jumble sale shortly after he left home to join the RAF. He reckons that if he still had his comics today he could sell them and become a millionaire and not have to write books to support his meagre Civil Service salary. Permanent Moments is his fi rst book.