The adventures are often set in the Fens, an environment Gordon found mysterious and inspirational in his own adolescence, and contain elements of East Anglian folklore such as the "doom dog".

[4] Starting a new life in Cambridgeshire, the contrast of its flat, Fenland landscape had a profound effect on the young Geordie and inspired him to write many of his most popular stories, including The House on the Brink, Ride the Wind and Fen Runners.

Gordon served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War, on minesweepers and destroyers, and afterwards worked as a journalist in the West Country and East Anglia.

As a reporter in Wisbech he cycled many miles covering events in the Fens, especially in the village of Upwell where his future wife Sylvia Young lived.

[9] Eight years after the publication of his last novel (Fen Runners, 2009) and after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease Gordon died aged 92 in Norwich, the city where he lived and worked for much of his life.