The books and stories written by me are available on the Amazon bookstore through this link
Cliff Dale Books
Well, what do you want to know?

Born in July of 1961 just outside of London, England.
Initially, went to school in London, then in 1969, my parents moved to a new built house, partway between the cities of Bath and Bristol in the south west of England, for me, as a child of 8 years of age, it was a huge change, gone were the concrete tower blocks, and in came the green fields and far open spaces.
There, I went to a school named after a man born in the village who went on to far greater things, I was lucky enough to meet him once when he came to the school to talk about his work. He was Sir Alfred Charles Bernard Lovell, OBE, FRS, an English physicist and radio astronomer, and at the time of our (brief) crossing of paths, some time in the early 1970's, he was the first Director of the Jodrell Bank Observatory, in fact he was its Director from 1945 to 1980.
I was already an avid reader of science fiction books, anything and everything, I don't remember having a favourite author, and still don't, I just enjoy a good story. The television was also full of good things when I was growing up, Doctor Who was an amazing thing to watch, the early special effects are perhaps laughable now, but at the time they were a wonder to behold, though occasionally you could see the strings attached and the tin foil and cardboard. I do remember seeing the grainy black and white images of the first moon landing in 1969, and watching it with my father, he wasn't interested in space and beyond, but he knew I was.
My father drove a truck for a living, and occasionally allowed me to drive it around the yard, I got reasonably good at reversing an articulated unit with a 40 foot trailer onto a loading bay by the time I was 14, I couldn't do it now! Sadly, my father passed away in 1988, just a few months before my brothers wedding, but he got to meet my two boys, and they remember him fondly, as do Caroline and I.
My brother and I grew up in a great household, like all brothers we had our ups and downs, but we survived it, and now, he is here in Spain too, a few hundred kilometers up the coast.
My Mother was an English teacher, with a proper University degree and everything, which is where my love of reading and writing comes from, thankfully, she didn't teach at my school, awkward, but at a school nearer to Bristol (UK).
So, I left school, went to college to follow my other passion, cooking, and on passing my catering exams, I was recruited by the Ministry of Defence and went to work for them for several years. It sounds like it could be dark and mysterious, and perhaps I should say that my work for them is covered by the Official Secrets Act, cloak and dagger stuff, but I can't, it wasn't. I worked as a civilian chef at a local Military base, but it had its moments, we were allowed on the odd training exercise here and there, got to use the gun range several times, and managed a parachute jump or three.
Whilst there, I had started writing for fun, around 1979 I began a story that eventually became Orbiter One, At Worlds End, and 21 years later, it became the first book published in January 2020 at the ripe old age of 58. I also met Caroline, we married, and in time, the Children were born, we did family things, grew up together, and then, as families do, the kids moved out, they had their own lives to lead, and had their own paths to follow.
We had fun though, Phil introduced me to Warhammer 40,000, I showed him how to paint the models, he still builds them and paints them even now, and between us we make model scenery that we have sold online all over the world, as well as painting the model soldiers of the Warhammer world. That painting spilled over to digital art, and I built Phil his own PC to use for this digital work, and he dived headfirst into the software, finding all the trick bits that he could and it was magical to see what he could produce without touching a physical paintbrush. Now, he does all types of painting, oils, acrylics, chalks and pastels, and the digital, and still paints the models, some with parts he builds from scratch, and he also makes model scenery items, all made generally from scrap materials.
That model painting was a blast from my childhood, my godfather worked for Airfix in London, my birthday and christmas presents were always plastic build your own model kits, and I painted them too. My bedroom ceiling at one point held around 70 model aircraft attached by fishing line and drawing pins, and there were model boats, tanks, cars and motorcycles on any shelf space not occupied by science fiction books.
The youngest, Paul, he was into all sorts of things, not all of them good, and he has a family of his own now, and we have two grandchildren, so he has done OK in the end.
One day, the three of us will perhaps get to ride out together, we all have motorcycles, mine, of course, is the biggest! The pair of them are on their sporty tin cans, I had something proper, an old V4 1100cc Honda Pan European named Rosie, at the time of purchase it was exactly half my age, which the wife tells me, is often the way I rode it, still, when riding pillion, she did occasionally tell me to ride it like I stole it. I rebuilt a 1992 Suzuki GS1100F during Covid, and still ride it when I can, Phil and I have ridden together with him on the GS1100 and me on my most recent purchase, an adventure bike purchased new in April 2024, a Benelli TRK702 which is the preferred ride these days. Does Caroline still ride pillion? Of course, she prefers two wheels to four everytime.
What's that, no Officer, speeding, 220kph? No, wouldn't dream of it, its a tourer, honest.
So, back to the timeline, the kids leave home, we leave England, some years before, Caroline had suffered a lung injury whilst at work and this left her with breathing difficulties, and as we had visited my mother in Spain a few times by then, and found the drier air was better, we moved out of the UK and did our own Brexit long before the term was even invented.
We have been on the south coast of Spain, on and off, every since.
At the very begginning of our Spanish journey I discovered the old typed up notes from the book started way back in 1979, Orbiter One, that was 2005, and it has taken another 15 years to get it finished to a point where I became brave enough to actually publish it, the book had been ready for it since 2012, I wasn't.
We moved about a bit, hopped from one country to another on occasion, but we always seemed to be drawn back to Spain, and now, we have finally settled into a life here, and there is more time to write. We are now at house move number 5, this one, in part, was to look after my aging mother (who was well into her 80's, bless her) and this one is a change, no longer a town house or an apartment, we moved into a Finca, it is basically a 2,500sq meter orchard with a single storey house and a (most welcome) swimming pool, all not far from Malaga on the Costa del Sol.
My Mother was no longer independent; we took this house together, and I was her cook, chauffeur, gardener, DIY man and dog walker, I sorted out all her IT problems, and in between, I found the time to write, and occasionally, I got to talk to my wife. Sadly, my mother had dementia, and it took more and more of her away from the friends she had made and from the four generations of family who had grown up with her, it was not a nice thing to witness. There was a gradual fading of a lifetime of cherished memories, drifting into the blank darkness, and every so often, she realised what was missing but not where it went or why, on those days the tears fell like rain. One of the reasons for not being able to write or publish more content was that I became her full-time carer, and enjoyable as that experience was (most of the time), there was always the knowledge that it would all come to a halt one day. That day was early October 2023, and in many ways, it was a relief, her torment was over, but for me, it has taken a long time to come to terms with. The 'job' I was happily tasked with, ended, no one had asked me or required me to do it, I felt it was the right thing to do; my mother brought me up, and it was only fair that I helped her in return. I will say that it has been difficult to find my rhythm again, it is not quite there yet, it still feels like something is missing, just out of reach, you know it is there, but you can't quite grasp it, I am sure it will come right in the end.
It was perhaps a long and sometimes difficult seven years, but would I change it?
The dementia, of course, dementia is so indiscriminate, plucking memories at random and deleting them, and no matter how much you try and return them to the consciousness, those precious moments are gone forever, irretrievable, for someone once so full of memories and proficient with words, it was hard to witness the struggle to recognise faces or make a coherent sentence. The plus, if there was one, was a rebinding of the bond between mother and eldest son, and although the role of carer was reversed, it did not matter, I hope I made her final moments comfortable, I would like to think I kept her safe and at peace when the curtains closed in and the spirit darkened, for now, I am thankful that she is at peace.
In between looking after the house and grounds, my mother, her two dogs, our cat, and Caroline, who to be fair, looks after herself and takes very good care of me too, I did still get time to write more stories and had the opportunity to release my scribblings to an unsuspecting world, with luck, others will enjoy reading them, there are more to come.
There you go, about the author!
All that is left to be said is, have a fun day, a good week, a great year, and a brilliant life, but just remember this,
what ever life throws at you, chuck it back, you probably don't need it.

Cliff - Servus Ad Artem.
Cliff Dale Books
Author of -
At Worlds End - Orbiter One (1st book)
Silent Night - Orbiter One (5th)
Anecdotes of a Zero (2nd)
The Genesis of Capsaa (4th)
The Genesis of the CPDF (7th)
Breaking News (3rd)
Earning the Spurs (6th)
and several online only short stories