Thriller writer, archaeologist and traveller
January is a hectic time at Guernsey Museum, as we turn around all the temporary exhibition spaces in three weeks. For me it means checking and proofing all the wall text, and numerous press releases. New Year's Day is also when I like to pitch into the new book - NRT in the case of... Continue Reading →
Following up from the earlier post ‘Bring up the Bodies’, the island of Alderney continues to throw up exciting finds. We had only two short days this summer to rescue as much as we could from an electric trench that ran for some 300m along the edge of Longis Common. The trench was barely 1m... Continue Reading →
It was close to home in more ways than one. I’m not on the organising Committee, but our Castle hosted some Literary Festival events and I had three slots to participate in, so it was a busy few days preceded by a week of preparation around the ‘day job’. The fun began with a reception... Continue Reading →
Having considered ‘Poor Decisions’ and the millennia-old revulsion against killing, let our thoughts turn to murder. The Sixth Commandment of God gave humanity an early steer that murder is a bad thing. Centuries of religious and moral codes have been reinforced by laws and penalties, backed up by law enforcement agencies which threaten... Continue Reading →
'Artie, could you kill a German?’ ‘Course, easy.’ ‘No, but really kill him if he was standing just over there?...’ George challenges his brother as Glint of Light on Broken Glass enters the summer of 1917, with the Great War at its height and no sign of it ending. Artie’s reply is off-the-cuff, the stock... Continue Reading →
In a recent debate on a writers' forum the question was asked whether you had to actually have visited a place to use it as a setting for a novel. My answer to this is both yes and no. YES if the place is well known, such as London, and many of your readers are... Continue Reading →
In a previous blog I asked "Tell me something I don't know". Glint of Light on Broken Glass is a historical novel - I hope people will learn things by reading it, but it is not a textbook. I have made stuff up. What? You might ask. Let's backtrack a few years when I started the... Continue Reading →
“Tell me something I don’t already know,” says Gordon Gekko in ‘Wall Street’. I’m rather like that when choosing a novel. I used to like science fiction because it was not us/here/now, and dislike kitchen sink dramas for the same reason. I know what it’s like to struggle in a grim northern town, I don’t... Continue Reading →
Most of the locations I used for Glint of Light on Broken Glass still exist. The sun still sets over Cobo and can be enjoyed from the terrace at the Rockmount, but no longer from the Cobo Arms, which is long gone. A visitor to the Castel Church can see the statue-menhir I have called the Gràn’mère, the... Continue Reading →
The novel is finished. 'Glint of Light on Broken Glass' is my first historical novel, although my editor reached the half-way point still expecting a body to turn up. It began life as an unpublished short story way back in 1990 called 'A Ghost in my Eye'. During the First World War, a crippled boy drops... Continue Reading →