Thriller writer, archaeologist and traveller
Winter keeps up its stubborn rear-guard action, but at least dismal February is done with. All three of my personas have been distracted during the cold months. Normal life stopped for Christmas, then stopped again for my second helping of covid. Essential family commitments ate up much of January and February, squeezing my writing time.... Continue Reading →
'Thriller Writer, Archaeologist and Traveller' it says at the head of the website, and that was the plan at the end of 2019. Then guess what happened to spoil everyone's year... and the one after that too. Never one to be in fashion, it wasn't until the second anniversary of lockdown that I went down... Continue Reading →
Festival organiser Isabel Picornell, Jason Monaghan and Paul McCormick of Gower Financial Services who sponsored Jason's talk (Lucie Stribrska) It's back! Alderney's small but perfectly formed Literary Festival returned after a two year absence due to covid. What makes the event special is that it concentrates on historical fiction and non-fiction, achieving a satisfying coherence.... Continue Reading →
In January and February 2021, it snowed, then it snowed again. If this had been a movie it would have been called Lockdown III: The Return of Tedium. I watched a lot of foreign films, took snowy walks and put time into promoting my Jeffrey Flint backlist when it was re-released by Lume. I also... Continue Reading →
My report on the excavation of Roman buildings on Longis Common is published in the latest edition of the Alderney Society Bulletin. Due to the passage of time I have been able to combine the tentative results of the fortuitous discoveries of 2017, the dig where I was assisted by school students in 2018 and... Continue Reading →
Do one thing and do it well, they say. Well, my profile says ‘author and archaeologist’ so I’m hedging my bets. The manuscript of my new thriller Blackshirt Masquerade is with Level Best’s editors in the USA, and although I have a rough first draft of the sequel, I’m not intending doing more work on... Continue Reading →
The Alderney Literary Festival 2020 was due to have taken place on the third weekend of March, but with just one week to go was cancelled due to the looming coronavirus crisis. I was already out there and brushing up for my panels when the news came that disappointed us all. Rory Clements was one... Continue Reading →
I’ve been quiet on the blogging front, chiefly because I spent August digging in Alderney. Running a dig is full-on, 7 days a week but I found time to sit back see the moon rise over Longis Bay, to watch the stars come out over Saye and enjoy plenty of Alderney hospitality. We'd swim at... Continue Reading →
Some of you will have seen shots of my time spent on the island of Alderney during July. It was probably the tenth time I’d been there to lead an excavation at the Nunnery, but time shifts and this year brought new experiences and new surprises. The Nunnery itself has been reconfigured as a Field... Continue Reading →
It was my pleasure to attend the fourth Alderney Literary Festival this weekend, which incoming Chair Anthony Riches declared to be the ‘Friendly Festival’. It is small but perfectly formed, concentrating on historical fiction, non-fiction and biography. The audience is limited to 50 or so for each talk, so there was barely an empty seat... Continue Reading →