William (Bill) Norris has been a professional writer since joining his local newspaper as an apprentice reporter at the age of 16. After working for a variety of newspapers in England and Africa, he was appointed Parliamentary Correspondent to the prestigious Times (of London) ten years later - one of the youngest ever to gain this position. He held the post for seven years, revolutionising the art of the "parliamentary sketch", then transferred to become Africa Correspondent for The Times, covering political events and wars in Biafra, Nigeria, Angola, the Congo, Mozambique, Botswana, Zambia, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe.He became Associate Director of the PressWise Trust (a British media ethics charity) in 1997, in which post he counselled young journalists and promoted the cause of journalistic ethics. The latter, he said, was rather like preaching the virtues of continence to a shipload of sex-starved sailors. Six years ago he moved to the South of France, where he lives with his wife, Betty, two cats, and two exhausting dogs.He is also an experienced public speaker, having addressed such varied venues as a World Health Organisation conference in Moscow, a European Union conference on journalistic ethics in Cyprus (at both of which he was the keynote speaker), and international post-graduate students at the University of London. A member emeritus of the Academy of Senior Professionals at Florida's Eckerd College, he now spends much of his time advising journalistic students.