Nic grew up in Penzance, Cornwall and spent
these formative years either hanging out on the beach surfing and diving or
taking photographs. At the age of twenty he talked himself into a job as an
architectural assistant with a prestigious practice in London and spent the
next seven years designing banks and partying in the city. By the age of twenty
seven, the wander lust hit him and he headed off to Montego Bay in Jamaica, there
he both ran a diving school and freelanced as an architect for hoteliers.
For five years he managed to keep this up and
himself narrowly out of trouble. Until after one too many close calls, he
decided it was time to leave. He boarded a plane and headed for Singapore to
visit a Singaporean girl he’d got to know.
Singapore or more pointedly the Singaporean
girl managed to calm Nic down, somewhat, and for a dozen years he based himself
out off Singapore working in various fields. He taught diving and escorted dive
parties to remote locations throughout the South China Sea, the Indian Ocean
and the Indonesian archipelago. He designed the odd hotel or two in the
Maldives and Thailand and expanded his photographic repertoire to become one of
the foremost photographers in the region.
He also diversified, into the moving picture
industry to eventually shoot several short films and documentaries including
Burning Earth for the Discovery Channel. Where he spent many weeks camped out
in the burning jungles of Borneo and hung out of helicopters with a camera on
his shoulder. But he did find the time to get married to the same Singaporean
girl and produce two sons, Adam born in 1996 and Dan a year later.
In 2003 he moved back to the UK and built a
house overlooking the Wye River, on the outskirts of Ross on Wye, in Herefordshire.
The move back to the UK was prompted by two very different reasons.
Firstly, the events in the US on the 11th
September 2001 changed Asia; it had always been a lively place to live and work
but the atmosphere had changed. Throughout Malaysia and Indonesia a
pronounced anti western attitude was
taking hold, culminating in the Bali bombings at the Hard Rock Cafe, where Nic
used to hang out along with his sons.
The second was his awakening to environmental
issues. The fires he filmed in Borneo were
certainly one of the catalysts; another was the visible degradation of the
oceans and reefs, he couldn’t help but notice. The coral bleaching of the
Maldivian reefs, the raw sewage pumped into the ocean by hotel developers,
mangrove swamps destroyed to make way for prawn farms and the over fishing, all
of them taking a horrendous toll, and plain for anybody to see. All prompted
him to be a part of the solution rather than ignore these issues as the
majority of the planet seemed to be doing.
Armed with an idea inspired by villagers
growing seaweed on one of his favourite remote islands groups Nusa Penida and
Nusa Lembongan, he set about working on a concept. This concept entailed
growing macro algae in marine farms along with fish and shellfish; the fish and
shellfish already had a ready market and the macro algae could be processed to
produce renewable fuels.
Being the foolhardy and impetuous soul that he
can be much of the time, Nic thought he could make this contribution on his own
and set up a research company, Taylor Made Marine to work on his concept. The
concept was good and he is still working on it today, although no longer alone
but the financing of it was seriously flawed. And these flaws became evident in
2007, when the bank pulled the rug from beneath his property development
company, developing sustainable and affordable housing, which provided the
funding for the research. Resulting in the collapse of the company and seizure
of his assets on which loans were secured.
Undeterred by this catastrophe, Nic whose
marriage had also disintegrated, a consequence of the stress but not before
having another child this time a daughter named Shakira, moved to Plymouth. In
Plymouth he joined forces with Plymouth University to continue with his
research and work towards a PhD.
Nic now
spends his time equally divided between his research, the Plymstock Oaks Rugby
Club, where he coaches the Under 15’s, runs several projects including coaching
rugby to the disabled and using rugby as social inclusion vehicle to get kids
off the streets. And his writing, his first book “A Plague of Dissent” has just
been published and he is presently working on the sequel, Gaia’s Warriors.
The Plague of Dissent is available on Amazon and Smashwords now!
Reviews for A Plague of Dissent
"Nic Taylor knows how to deliver edge of your seat excitement, and he does it
beautifully in A Plague of Dissent. His masterful prose and intimate knowledge
of crime fighting in the UK is on par with Ian Fleming. Every scene is so well
described, throughout, that I felt like I was right there. It's a consummate
storyteller that he is!" 5.0 out of 5 stars
"If you love a fast paced thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat, with sex, lies and media hacking - this is the book for you!" 5.0 out of 5 stars
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