Keith Melton was born and brought up in North Hykeham, near Lincoln, attending school at the North Kesteven Grammar School. He went on to university at UMIST in Manchester, reading mathematics and management sciences. On
leaving university he became a media and marketing analyst for Lintas, a
multinational advertising agency then owned by Unilever. He left there to undertake a research degree in marketing back at UMIST and, from there, went on to lecture in International Marketing at Nottingham Trent University. Keith set up and became founding Director of the Institute for Sustainable Development in Business at Nottingham Trent in 1998, advising businesses on environmental issues. He retired in 2006 and has since been researching and writing this novel about his namesake, Nicholas Melton.

Although he has yet to uncover definite genealogical links to Nicholas Melton – who became famous around the country in 1536 as ‘Captain Cobbler’ – the author, Keith Melton, has ‘adopted’ him into his family, bringing insights as to how Captain Cobbler may have behaved and felt around five hundred years ago. So far, Keith’s genealogy takes the Melton line back to about the 1680’s to Barton-on-Humber in north Lincolnshire.

Keith and his brothers, their father, grandfather and great-grandfather Melton have all played a part as business and community leaders in diff erent ways, both in Lincolnshire and more widely. A great-uncle played both the organ in chapel and the piano for the silent movies in Lincoln in the early part of the last century!played both the organ in chapel and the piano for the silent movies in Lincoln in the early part of the last century! So Captain Cobbler’s community links would have run deep and his commitment to the task he faced would be strong, ntelligent and charismatic.

Keith married his Lincolnshire-born teen sweetheart, Tricia in 1971. Tricia died in 2008 and, the following year, Keith met his Brazilian-born lady, Fatima, who had also been widowed in 2008. They married in July 2011 and they now live partly in Brazil and partly in England.

““With a cast of more than a hundred characters—many genuine historical figures”, the author, “…channels the spirit of his namesake…while presenting a vivid portrait of early 16th-century England during a most tumultuous time. With a thread of insurrection sewn throughout, the novel unfolds a colourful tapestry of the townsfolk of Louth and surrounding Lincolnshire as they debate and execute their plan to take on the royals.””
– Kirkus Reviews