Gordon S. Dickson was born near Inverness, Scotland, but left there at a young age when his family returned to Northern Ireland. He was educated at secondary and grammar schools and scraped through English 'O' level as essay writing was not a strong point. He was employed in the Civil Service for several years but is now retired and has only recently taken up writing novels. Des Pond, Special Agent is his third novel. The previous two books by the author are Verdict Unknown and The Sheriff of River Bend. He enjoys: reading several genres of books but mainly historical novels, gardening, going to the gym occasionally and to the cinema.