About David James

While a student at Portsmouth Technical College, David was tempted to follow his heart and become a writer. Instead, having been brought up in a service family, duty called and he joined the Royal Navy as a seaman officer.

In 1971 he left the Senior Service to pursue his other dream – of becoming a professional civilian sailor. Hard years followed before he was sufficiently experienced and qualified to captain groups of young Londoners on adventurous sailing voyages in a traditional old Norwegian sailing rescue ship. In 1977 David was recruited to run Ocean Youth Club, Britain’s largest sail training fleet. In 1985 he was head-hunted by the Drake Fellowship which he soon merged with Fairbridge to create Fairbridge-Drake. This became the UK’s most effective motivational training charity for unemployed young people in inner cities.

David eventually left London for West Cornwall, where, at the age when most people retire, his wife suggested opening a bookshop. They transformed a local tea-room into a much-loved café and second-hand bookshop where David started writing poetry again, publishing Any Cornish Beach in 2009.

David relished the solitude imposed by the Covid lockdown and began to write his first novel, A Flower in Winter.

Books by David James