Norman is an established novelist and academic writer, an MA of Jesus College, Oxford, and a PhD of Birkbeck College, University of London. An English specialist, he taught English for many years in a Liverpool comprehensive school before becoming a full-time writer. Norman has had over twenty novels published. He is a recognised authority on Victorian finance and its reflections in the 19th century novel, and his book on the subject, The Novelist and Mammon, was published by the Oxford University Press. Norman has also had three academic books of Roman Catholic interest published.