About Geoff Parkes

Geoff Parkes grew up in Hertfordshire and studied Philosophy and French at Newcastle University. After graduation, he taught for two years in London, and then alternated between further study and work. He had spells in a dustcart factory, a bank, a timber yard, and a ladies’ underwear firm before completing EFL teacher training in Leeds and an M.A. in English Language at Cardiff University. There followed eight years of teaching English in Norway, Germany, Denmark and Spain, mainly at university level, after which he returned to the UK and co-founded Southampton English Language Centre. Ten years later, he founded Englang Books. (See blog, April 2016.)

Geoff enjoys foreign travel and studying languages. He speaks German and Spanish and gets by in several others. He began writing fiction in 2013, and at Southampton’s Literary Festival So To Speak in 2015 won prizes in both the short story and poetry categories. He has also won first prize in the Greensleeves Trophy for short stories at Southampton Writers’ Circle.