Stephen Smith was born in the West Midlands in the UK in 1948. His paintings featured in the Birmingham Mail when he was eleven and he won the prize for Art at Tudor Grange grammar school in Solihull. He qualified with a CEd as a teacher, and , disenchanted with the sixties art scene, he declined an offer of an Art degree because he wanted to do something more useful for society. He taught for eighteen years, mainly Physics and Biology. During this time he undertook youth work, took an Open University degree in Science, trained specifically in Physics teaching for a year at Strawberry Hill and finally retrained in Biotechnology for a year in Blackpool. Since then, 1990,  he has worked at Imperial College, London, on Cystic Fibrosis, and obtained a PhD in Respiratory Medicine. He is currently a research fellow and Project Leader for the British CF Gene Therapy Consortium and is internationally known for electrophysiology. His present work involves the tracking of gene therapy vectors in real time. 

Oil painting has continued in the intervening years with mechanical themes and a continuous fascination for the way light transforms landscapes and  figures has featured in his work along with a propensity for fine detail. He produces his own book cover illustrations and maps and charts.

Writing has come like 'a breach in a dam' and the pent up flood of creativity that was always kept subservient to science, began to pour out in 2002 as the Rise of a Goddess. 'There's something in this for all of us. It goes to our very core'. Along with this ongoing epic that is planned to end deep in space, he is researching for an historical novel on Amy Johnson. Important factors are his passion for aeroplanes and his love of writing liberating, expansive themes of personal endeavour and bravery. In this,Amy Johnson and Debden have much in common.    

Contact the author: nilrem@hotmail.co.uk