Tony Aston

I am a former police detective who spent several years working at Scotland Yard before embarking upon a second career protecting Government classified material and information from the threat of state-sponsored foreign espionage activities against the UK Defence Industry. I grew up in Redditch during the 1950s and 60s at a time when the town. like hundreds of other towns and cities, was striving to rebuild, repair and reinvent itself after World War II. My first book, REDDITCH - From the Chip Shop to the Batchley", published in May 2022 by Brewin Books  tells of my day-to-day life as a child, teenager and young adult during this time. This came about during the time when my sister-in-law, Pauline Aston, was creating the family tree. Very often, when you start going back in history, all you get is a date of birth and date of death, with a tiny dash in the middle. That insignificant dash actually represents the whole life of that person, so it becomes really important. It occurred to me how lovely it would be to have an account, written by the person, decribing the whole or part of their life. So I decided to write my childhood stories so that my children, their children, and so on, could read exactly what life was like at that time. The Chip Shop book was the result! 

In the following years I have self-published a further five books:

The Bomber and the Weathervane - non-fiction 2024

This Is How It Was - Non-fiction 2024

The Last School Bell - Non-fiction 2025

Hanukkah to Hell - Fiction 2025

Were Were There...and other wartime poems - Poetry 2026

I was elected as a Fellow of the Security Institute in 2011 and am proud to have been accepted as members of both the Society of Authors and the Historical Writers Association.

Aside from writing, I love to watch cricket, accepting that my playing days, including for a short time in Australia, are a thing of the past. I also have a passion for Birmingham City FC and look forward to the day when the club makes a return to the Premier League. I visit my home town regularly but now live with my wife, Kay, and pet dog, Harvey, in deepest dark Devon.