Stuck in a limbo and desperate to do something meaningful, what to do? That is where writing began for me. A creative way of expressing myself and a chance to harness my wondering imagination. I close my eyes and I'm there. Wish I'd picked 'there' as a warm sunny day on a sandy beach, with the waves gently lapping on the shore...but I have to let the story load in my mind, then watch it unfold, wherever it may be. Currently I'm on a windy bridge, or a Devon beach, or a Cornish ti mine, or a submarine, or looking towards a Hebridean port...
Catherine Murphy, my great grandmother, was a publican’s wife. They ran the Prince George in Warbreck Moor. My mother and her sister were born upstairs above the bar, in the front room – as was the way of the time for many. Her husband had worked up in the brewery trade, mainly on the Liverpool […]
My latest foray into the world of Arts interviews finds me in conversation with the legendary punk poet, Attila the Stockbroker. Veteran of 3800 gigs, over a 40 year period, he has performed in such diverse places as the USA, East Germany, Australia and New Zealand, Belgium and the Druid Inn in Goginan (twice). He […]
New month, new title? After a bit of a lull, I have managed to get out the final book in the trilogy set in wartime Estonia. Foula and Beyond, is the final leg, but as such, takes the characters away from the war torn shores. Most of the action is based in […]
New Year. New Reviews. thanks to the Aber Ego magazine for a review of ‘A Time of Goodbyes’ in their January edition on p44-45. The full magazine is available here: https://ego.today/jan22/
When you think of progressive rock music, it is very easy to get locked into the stereotype of long straggly hair, interminably long solos of everything that they can get their hands on, concept albums where the whole recording is ‘a track’, rambling conversations about things being ‘silver’ and ‘gold’, or inventing languages for artistic […]
The new novel, A Time of Goodbyes, is now available on Kindle, as well as paperback. The further adventures of the lead miner, Owain and his family can now be added to your collection via the usual outlets. This brings all the current e-books up to date My next adventure in the New Year, is […]
One of the scenes in the book, A Time of Goodbyes, shows Owain’s encounter with the ‘Tithe Wars’. It’s a concept totally alien to us, but was part of a larger question on religion and the state in the 19th Century. Although prevalent in Ireland, it hit Wales and to a lesser degree rural England. […]
The novel, ‘A Time of Goodbyes’ takes the story of Owain Thomas onwards from his young adult days in ‘The Turn of the Wheel’. The tale is of Owain and his family, amid the changing times of the late 19th Century. People in their lives come and go, as age and circumstances dictate. The story […]
This Tuesday (16th November), Radio Aber will be broadcasting my interview with COAST band members Paul Eastham and Finlay Wells. It will be available via www.radioaber.cymru and afterwards, via a podcast. Those who have become accustomed to my novels will wonder how this all came to pass and so I thought I would […]