Green was born, raised and attended school in Coventry, Warwickshire. His parents, James and Bridget Green, were both natives of County Durham in the north of England and his family retains a strong link to that area. He was the second of three children, his brothers being Michael (b.1938) and Francis 'Frank', (1948-2001).

Teaching

Green left school at 16 with no educational qualifications of note and via a variety of short spells in a number of jobs he found himself in teaching by his early 20's. Over the next thirty years he held positions of varying seniority in Warwickshire, Gibraltar, South Yorkshire, Leicestershire and Shropshire.

Turn to writing

By the 1970s Green was a rising primary headteacher and began writing educational books as a personal sideline. A Thesaurus for primary schools A Wordhunter's Companion was his first best-seller and remains in print in several countries to date. A number of titles in the fields of history, travel, humour and poetry followed achieving varying levels of success. Whilst Green varied his genres of writing, educational titles remained his most frequently published genre until his retirement from teaching due to ill health.

Full time writing

After retiring from teaching in the 1990s Green has been a full time writer and publisher. He wrote and had published a wide variety of publications such as a history of Wales and an anthology of poetry and Christian guide to London. He recently penned the crime thriller Bad Catholics, the book is the first in a trilogy of crime thrillers featuring the reformed gangster Jimmy Costello, the second title Stealing God is due to be published in Autumn 2009. Green is currently engaged in a number of promotional events and tours related to the trilogy.

Bad Catholics has been nominated for The CWA John Creasy (New Blood) Dagger at the 2009 Crime Thriller Awards.

Green is married to wife of 39 years, Pat Green (née Brennan, 1946) and they have had three children; Dominic (1972-1997), James (b.1973) and Joe (b.1981). His wife Pat was born in Grimsby and raised in Nottingham, they met in Coventry whilst both holding junior teaching positions.

Green currently lives in Leicester where he has resided for four years. Green and his family have previously lived in Berwick-upon-Tweed, Telford, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Sheffield and Coventry. Their two surviving sons (Dominic died in an avalanche on Mont Blanc in Chamonix in 1997) both live in the UK, Joe in Leicester, James in London.

Green is a keen golfer and fan of test cricket. He is a devotee of the author P G Wodehouse and pre-World War II jazz.

(incomplete)

• (1976) A Wordhunter's Companion (Prentice Hall) (ISBN 0631938907)
• (2008) Bad Catholics (Luath Press) (ISBN 1906307261)