He became a fan of SF from childhood TV, began writing when he was 9, sold his first story to a local Belfast magazine when he was 22, and in 1987 became a full-time writer. He has also worked in TV consultancy within Northern Ireland, contributing scripts to the Northern Irish Sesame Workshop production Sesame Tree. He wrote the satirical cyberpunk graphic novel Kling Klang Klatch, illustrated by David Lyttleton and published by Victor Gollancz in 1992.