Some authors spend their whole lives writing. Others, like Alan Miles, spend their whole lives living, then write. After an eventful, utterly unplanned career — starting as an English language teacher, moving on to journalism and broadcasting in the Middle East, then suddenly finding himself a partner in an award-winning computer business with a spectacular rise and fall — he has plenty of stories to tell. 'The Foreign Aide', published in 2026, is a dark literary thriller shaped by his experience in Beirut as the Lebanese civil war erupted. It's historical fiction, but with a present-day warning: don't let people you shouldn't trust lead you into a war you don't understand. Coming soon is 'The Marathon Years', a memoir of Alan's decade as the carer for his wife after her diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimers. Sometimes comic, sometimes tragic, this is a story showing how love and hope can survive even in the darkest times. Read sample chapters of both books at Alan's website, Miles Posts. Now back in the UK, you'll often find Alan helping out at Salford's iconic Lowry Theatre, or pounding the nearby streets in an effort to prove that old writers never die — they run!