Thriller writer, archaeologist and traveller
"Don't judge a book by its cover" is a widely ignored cliché, as many book buyers do just that. In general the advice is (1) ensure the book looks like the kind of book it is supposed to be and (2) in the modern age make sure it works as a website thumbnail. My publishers... Continue Reading →
For the first half of my career, I was an ‘artefact researcher’. It is natural therefore that my archaeological thrillers contain plenty of objects. Objects can be dated, as can particular social habits and organisations, so we can quickly spot a piece of period fiction without being told it was set in the past. Fairly... Continue Reading →
Recently I read a book by an academic colleague. It was interesting and ground-breaking but needed a good edit, and I told the author so. The author was surprised. The facts were right, a spell-checker had been used and there were no obtrusive typos. What the book lacked was that final polish which would expand its value beyond just a... Continue Reading →
It was a divers' joke. The object they found was a blue-grey colour, heavy, metallic. It was the size of a man's oustretched palm, with a circular central hole and three vanes each with a screw hole. Three further supporting lugs added strength. They called it the Fiat Gearbox, or the Messerschmitt gearbox, thinking this... Continue Reading →
For the past few months I've been editing a book written by a colleague. Wrecked, Guernsey Shipwrecks, is the work of Patrick Martin. When Patrick was working at Fort Grey Shipwreck Museum he asked if he could write a book about the wrecks on display. This seemed an ideal opportunity to publish some of the... Continue Reading →
Back in 1985, the divers departed leaving me with occasional volunteers to record the timbers. Some had been planned in position on the seabed, which was fortunate in the case of one keel timber - the largest on the ship- which vanished overnight and was never seen again. We think it was dragged out into... Continue Reading →
'Upchurch' was my first book, published by BAR in their no-frills fashion directly from my manuscript. It was a distilled-down version of my PhD thesis, typed on a 256k Amstrad. Incredibly the statistics were processed on a 124k Spectrum fed by a tape recorder and viewed via a black and white portable television. As the BAR is... Continue Reading →
Easter, 1985. The Roman ship had been found on Christmas Day, 1982 by local Diver Richard Keen. The wreck was buried between the pierheads of St Peter Port harbour, and due to the lack of shipping that is the only day in the year divers are allowed to go down for scallops. Fortunately Richard had... Continue Reading →
Undertook two quick test digs on Longis Common, Alderney. One by the Nunnery was looking to explain a depression (a 19th century road?) and a mound (a sand dune). The other sampled the previously fertile site at the Kennals where Roman deposits still lurk within a metre of the surface.
I'll be posting a fair few bulletins about Guernsey's Roman ship over the next couple of years, but I thought this time I'd look back to the very beginning. During the winter 1984/85 I was working on my PhD research on North Kent Roman pottery. For much of that time I was huddled over a paraffin... Continue Reading →