key influencers:

Mr Stern encouraged my enthusiasm for writing at Dartford Grammar School

Mr Johnson developed my fondness of the English language at Drayton Manor Grammar School (DMGS)

Mr Aiston led me to my first 100% result (arithmetic) at DMGS. The same exam got me 99% for Algebra, 97% for Geometry

Mr Herrera gave me a deep appreciation of music and its composition at DMGS. Later, programming resonated with 4-part harmony writing

Alderman Joe Sherman gave me confidence to articulate and follow my dreams. He used to visit the company where I worked

Philip Maylor invited me to do a programming aptitude test. Got100% and joined NCR as a programmer. This led to DP management roles.

E F Schumacher's Small is Beautiful book influenced my environmental awareness. Made me want to learn to communicate/spread the word.

John Gooder's The Spoilt Earth book was another strong driver of my environmental awareness

Mike Benson (my CEO) told me I needed to 'think clearly'. This pushed me to learn to think and manage better and probably sparked BrainStorm

Tony Buzan's Use Your Head book helped me improve my thinking skills. His 'mind mapping' techniques influenced BrainStorm design

IBM's BOMP was the inspiration for one aspect of BrainStorm. I came across it as a DP Manager for an NCR client

Jude and Ede explained my flaws as a manager. Calling me "pompous" was a wake-up call.

Anne Simm Wanted a management skills trainer. This gave me a way to learn about both communication and management

Sue Knight taught me to develop and run training courses - a wonderful person and a wonderful course.

Peter Honey taught me behavioural skills including Transactional Analysis. I learned how to interpret and use behaviour effectively

Programmers at Calor Gas triggered my awareness of the microcomputer world. Responding to a magazine's 'small ad' led me to Felix Dennis

Felix Dennis hired me to help create a new personal computer magazine. He also made me a MicroScope columnist. This led to loads more.

Ted Nelson's Creative Computing magazine inspired our relaunch of Personal Computer World. His Actor Language articles were helpful too

Martin Banks joined me as a Personal Computer World columnist writing Banks Statements. We co-founded PRESS HERE media skills training

Alan Wood wanted a co-founder for Caxton Software to select and publish UK software authors

Mike Liardet converted my 8080 assembler version of BrainStorm to C then became my partner in BrainStorm Software

Martin Kochanski wrote Cardbox - Caxton's first outside author. Cardbox was our first international 'hit'.

Marck Pearlstone Wrote the Windows version of BrainStorm and has been my 'goto' techie ever since.

Michael Moore's Stupid White Men book spurred me to get back to 'green' stuff. It made me realise that tech/IT writing had gobbled 24 years

Matthew Pudney was a collaborator on the Personal Computer World shows. He got me to write up a Sustainability project proposal for nmsi

William McDonough co-authored Cradle to Cradle - a massive influence on the Science Mus eum project within nmsi

Dale Vile wanted an analyst for Freeform Dynamics. Tony Lock, Martin Atherton and I wrote Green IT for Dummies

Simon Leadbetter We met while helping people pitch to investors, he asked me to co-create and edit Blue & Green Tomorrow

David Topping was a Press Here client who, later, wanted a co-creator for THINGUIDEs We also worked on creating The Messagery.

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And here's the (alphabetical by surname) list of a further 52 people (don't count - one person is in twice due to a name change) who've helped make my journey such a pleasure:

  Andersson,Tabita

  Aryanpur Burgess,Sarah

  Atherton,Martin

  Bell,Frances

  Bendall, Carrie

  Birchall,Anna

  Blake,Caroline

  Carpenter,Paul

  Chillingworth,Mark

  Cohen,Derek

  Coley,Judith

  Demolis,Marie-France

  Eiler,Tracy

  England,Stephen

  Everhard,Steve

  Fallows,James

  Foremski,Tom

  Guinebertiere,Danielle

  Henderson,Tarquin

  Higgins,Joanna

  Hough,Ken

  Kavanagh,Sarah

  Kayley,Maggie

  Kellogg,Dave

  Kewney,Guy

  Lang,Tari

  Macdonald,Wendy

  Mainolfi,Gino

  McLening,Maggie

  Moores,Toby

  Murphy,Phil

  Nichols,Bill

  O'Leary,Alison

  O'Leary,Ian

  O'Mahony,Frank

  Otto,Justin

  Parkin,Wayne

  Perkins,Alison

  Pickering,Bobby

  Pittham Wiley,Cathy

  Pountain,Dick

  Powell,Glenn

  Quinlan,Tony

  Redfern,Andy

  Rock,Stuart

  Simpson,Ronnie

  Spencer,Nick

  Stevens,John

  Terrar,David

  Tweddell,John

  Weber,Valerie

  Wirszycz,Rob

  Zgorelec,Angelo