Nick’s novel career change

FORMER Oldham Sixth- Form College principal turned novelist Nick Brown has released his first book.

“Luck Bringer” is set in Greece at a time he calls most “exciting in all of the ancient world”.

It tells for the first time the story of traitor-turned reluctant hero Miltiades, who led the Athenians to victory over the Persians in the Battle of Marathon in 490BC.

The tale has fascinated Mr Brown (61) since he studied archaeology at Leeds and Manchester universities. The victory is hailed as the violent birth of democracy.

Surprise

Mr Brown said: “On my first day at my first tutorial we were talking about Miltiades. I had done my homework on him but the tutor said I was wrong.

“I went back to the next tutorial and they apologised and said I had got it right, to my surprise.”

Mr Brown, who also has a masters degree in philosophy, worked in insurance, as a farm labourer and an archaeologist, before teaching.

He taught in Manchester and Leeds before coming to Oldham as an education adviser.

He was then put in as head teacher at Breeze Hill school to deal with discipline and racial problems, having previously been at a Burnage school where a pupil was fatally stabbed.

Mr Brown was the first principal of Oldham Sixth Form College, which opened in 1992, and retired in 2010. He has been to Greece many times for research and he has also written a field guide to the ancient town of Pythagoreio, as well as a number of articles about archaeology for journals, papers and magazines.

“Luck Bringer”, fiction based on historical fact, is the first in a series set in fifth century BC Athens.

“I started out to write it as a history book then, because there wasn’t much evidence, I thought about writing a novel where all the people I was interested in would come to life,” said Mr Brown who was awarded the OBE for services to further education in 2007.

Luck Bringer by Nick Brown (published by New Generation, RRP £7.99 paperback, £3.99 ebook) is available online at retailers including Amazon.co.uk and can be ordered from all good book stores.

For more information visit www.nickbrownbooks.com