Carl is retired from the Civil Service and now coaches and writes about chess, walks his border collie dogs and generally enjoys life with his wife Susan. He is an amateur arachnologist and has written two books about his rainforest experiences. He volunteers to work with chess in prisons and wrote Chess Behind Bars on that subject. He is also the author of Chess Crusader, confessions of an amateur chess player and he is a chess columnist for Chess Magazine of London and Inside Time prison newspaper. Whilst confessing not to be a particularly strong player he has been school, club and county champion and also represented his country (twice as Captain) in the NATO chess Championships. In April 2024 he became the UK Armed Forces Chess Association veteran Champion. The highlight of his chess ‘career’ was a simultaneous game against his hero Anatoly Karpov in Chartres, France in 2019. Whilst he lost, he was the last to finish in a creditable fight. His life motto is ‘Don’t complain about the darkness, light a few candles.’