Ronan Farrell was born in Preston in 1960. He started his career as a Printing Press engineer before joining the Fire and Rescue Service. Now partially retired, he spent the last eight years of his career as an advanced Fire Investigator, working closely with Police and Forensic scientists. Transferring factual report writing skills for Crown and Coroners Court to his first full novel, A Time to Deceive, has been an enjoyable experience and natural progression. Ronan prided himself that bereaved families, for example, would fully understand the complex circumstances and fire science causing the death of a family member. In his novel Ronan applied the same rigour to the detail to ensure this work would also stand up to an equivalent level of scrutiny. When the various twists and plots are revealed, the reader although surprised will be convinced.
Since retiring Ronan has worked on an ad-hoc basis for a funeral director. This was coincidentally wonderful research for what became his opening chapter. It would be lovely to imply that he was dedicated enough to take the work specifically to research the novel, but that would be another deceit!
Ronan is married to Sue, they have 3 adult sons and one grandson. His current interests include; photography, sailing, walking his dogs (a Labrador and an English springer spaniel), foreign travel and spending time with his family.