Chris Dolley has written five books, started one revolution, and solved an international crime, the details of which take exactly 94,000 words to explain.

The Beginning:

Chris Dolley was born in Bournemouth, England where several attempts to educate him were made by staff at Winton and Moordown and Bournemouth School. But he was too fast, graduating at a tender age with a degree in Geography and a talent for spinning a tale – which came in handy when…

The Revolutions:

Just the one so far but it was memorable. March 1974, Chris forms the Free Cornish Army, who declare Cornwall an independent nation and stop all traffic entering from England. Passports are issued by uniformed customs officers, flanked by masked paramilitaries. "The torches of freedom have been lit throughout Cornwall and we will not see them extinguished in our lifetime," proclaims The Daily Telegraph, quoting from Chris's Declaration of Cornish Independence. While pictures of hooded FCA irregulars secretly training push the 1974 General Election off the front pages. As Punch said in its 27 March issue - A Splendid Hoax. The customs officers were maritime college students (knew those uniforms would come in handy) and the paramilitaries were Plymouth students publicising their Rag Week.

The Computer Games:

Created Randomberry Games in 1981, probably the first UK computer game company. Apple User did a feature on Chris in their June 1984 issue. Necromancer (1980/1) may be the first 3D First Person perspective D&D game. Necromancer was inspired by a First Person perspective maze generator he saw in Practical Wireless - yes, there really was a time when computer magazines didn't exist. In 1978, he wrote the world's most aggressive Chess program, TR George. A name that still strikes fear on every chequered board. Who can forget TR's first match? Playing white, he opened with Pawn to King's Four. Then followed with King to King's Two. A silence descended. What gambit was this? What subtle ploy? By the third move, we all knew. King to King's Three. This was not subtlety, this was a player out for blood. A White King who had but one thought - to fasten his hands around the Black King's throat in the minimum number of turns. Four moves later it was all over. A solitary White King, deep in Black's half, surrounded by enemy pieces and yelling abuse at the Black King. Chess has never been the same since.

The Band:

Formed in 1990 by a group of ageing, balding wished-they-couldabin rockstars who wanted an excuse to wear wigs, dress up and re-invent their youth. A great success.



(Picture taken from the legendary band's farewell 1991 tour of pubs in Edgware)

The Move:

In February, 1995, Chris moved to France - a 1,000 mile journey due south to the foothills of the Pyrenees. Thirty-two hours into the move, Chris and his entourage (wife, two horses, three cats and a large constipated puppy) were 250 miles due east - and abandoned in a French hotel after a gust of wind ripped the roof from their horse transport. And then it got worse. Read the account here. And there's more. If you want to read an unfortunately true account of how a man can be impersonated, robbed, arrested, pursued by wasps, stalked by a ten-foot long caterpillar and still have time to solve an international crime and make his league debut in French soccer, then Nous Sommes Anglais is the book for you.

The Move 2:

In 1997, buoyed by the success of the first move and having watched too many DIY programs on TV, Chris bought a semi-derelict farm complex in the Normandy-Maine Regional Park and set about rebuilding it. And, in between the plumbing and roofing, appearing in the occasional French film.

The Films:

JOAN OF ARC

Who can forget his imposing French knight in full armour at the Dauphin's coronation or the dashing English noble at the trial and burning of Jeanne d'Arc? The editor, for one, apparently. We await Luc Besson's Director's Cut.

SADE

Playing the pivotal and, until then, little known role of the mysterious Aristocrat in Green to Daniel Auteuil's Marquis de Sade.