Justin Ruthven-Tyers

Born in 1960, it was at school that Justin discovered his talent for multi-tasking and from then on began to devote much of his time to daydreaming at the same time as staring out of the window.

An early ambition to become a millionaire whilst still in his twenties and spoon about in a brand new Lambourghini Countach proved elusive - he was eventually forced to give them both up due to advancing years, and Lambourghini discontinuing that model.

One lunchtime in a basement office in the Grays Inn Road, London, where he worked selling digital telephone exchanges - a wonder of science in those days - he was eating a cream-cheese and walnut sandwich when he had something approaching a religious experience: Propped up in front of him, beyond the range of the falling walnuts was a battered library copy of 'An Island to Oneself' by Tom Neale, in which Tom - already working on a paradise island in the Pacific Ocean - dreamed of living alone on a deserted island; and overcame insuperable difficulties to achieve it. Wearing a what-on-earth-am-I-doing-here sort of expression Justin walked to the window of his office, looked up at the dirty grey buildings which towered over him, and then resigned.

He bought a boat (wholly unsuitable for its purpose), taught himself to sail and set off on a poorly-planned and ill-conceived voyage. Confounding the expectations of both family and friends who thought they'd seen the last of him, he returned a year later. Without the boat.

Years passed.

Although Justin has been writing articles and radio-content for twenty years, the starvation wages of writing as a full-time occupation have precluded him from writing his first book until now. The wait has been worthwhile: 'Phoenix from the ashes' thrillingly documents his most recent adventures and is widely expected to be a number one bestseller.

There will be a sequel, if anyone cares to publish it, which you shouldn't miss... then future books will take us progressively back through his life - peeling back the layers of the onion, so to speak until, thankfully, there will be nothing left.

He is also a rather fabulous artist and illustrator of boats and the sea, and examples of his work can be seen at his website www.justintyers.co.uk

Justin lives on the Hebridean island of Islay with his careworn, yet radiant, wife whom he doesn't deserve; amid the wild open spaces he loves; buffeted by the savaging winds which have so often nearly been his undoing whilst taking short-cuts by boat.

He is kept by his dog, Scooter.