ED TAYLOR is recently widowed and lives on Mersea Island, a small sailing and fishing community in the Blackwater Estuary. He wrote ‘The Dirty Bombers’ soon after selling his coffee machine business, and by doing so, realised a lifelong ambition. He is a keen amateur yachtsman and races most weekends in the season.

The Dirty Bombers is a heart-warming work of young adult fiction that will also appeal to older readers.

When author Ed was pressed to say which other authors had inspired him, he thought that John Wyndham had intrigued him during his teenage years and that Richard Adams may have influenced him in the 80’s.

Ed says “It always fascinates me that there are almost daily reports in national and regional newspapers about gulls acting strangely and sometimes viciously. They have definitely lost their fear of us. At the same time I was reading reports of the intractable problems of the Palestinians and Israelis and I joined the two thoughts together.”

The Dirty Bombers can be seen as an analogy for conflict between groups such as the Palestinians and Israelis, with peacemakers and hardliners on both sides, making the topic accessible to teenagers. He will be happy if his tale provokes discussion amongst his readers.