Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Hey – novelist, polemicist and occasional poet from England, UK.
Moved to Spain in the early summer of 2011, writing “Jackboot Britain” before leaving for Thailand in January 2012. I worked as a freelance copywriter and a martial arts reporter for two years in Southeast Asia before becoming a full-time author in 2014 and moving to Bali, Indonesia.
Currently surfing, reading, writing poetry, polemics and novels in a jungle of coconut trees – always in pursuit of love, truth, wisdom and beauty in this fleeting dream we call life.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is called “The Atheist Bible”, inspired by the inhumanity imposed on man by man, the tyrannical conditions and fearful barbarisms of religious doctrines that our pattern-seeking primate species produced in its infancy to explain things we now know, or understand more about.
The victories of evil, malice and fear are not predetermined. While perhaps the ancient desert tribes required supposedly celestial prohibitions and savage commandments from a genocidal and incompetent creating deity, we now have microscopes and telescopes, and germ theories of disease, and knowledge of physics and biology. We have better explanations for the origins of the cosmos and the species. Read “The Atheist Bible” for two hundred plus pages of philosophical, burlesque and humorous embellishment.
My penultimate book was “The Acid Diary” – a novelised account of time spent with my compañero in a secluded hippy enclave in Ko Pha Ngan, Thailand.
I will release a short story, flash fiction and poetry anthology, as well as a novella, “The Boy from Buenos Aires”.
There is both a sequel and a prequel to “Jackboot Britain” in the works – “Jackboot Russia” and “Jackboot Spain” – I’d like to think this alternate history trilogy will be reasonably well met.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Is there a *usual* or typical writing habit? Normality and the usual are subjective; slippery concepts at the best of times. I squeeze in writing at odd hours with reading, surfing and other pursuits. It would be fair to say I’m a creature governed by impulse.
There’s no rhyme or reason to the cosmos – annihilation and extermination on an incalculable scale, of atoms, planets and gigantic stars, solar systems and supermassive black holes, mirrored by the extirpation of 99% of all animal life on our own planet. One tries to enunciate the truth, beauty and wonder of existence, the only miracle worthy of the name, in the cosmic blink of an eye for which we’re here. This is what makes the miracle of living amidst such universal destruction *worth living*.
As an afterthought; I *did* write a book whilst tripping on LSD, if that counts as unusual? Even if so, it’s hardly an endorsement of psychoactive tryptamines, as the book sold less than ten copies.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
George Orwell and Aldous Huxley for their insight and wisdom into the human condition circa the first half of the 20th century, and their understanding and enunciation of the nature of power, influence and dictatorship and those who seek it.
Huxley’s understanding of the world continues to bear relevance now, half a century after his death, not to mention his pioneering writing on psychedelic drugs. Orwell was a habitual truth-seeker who experienced imperialist/capitalist, fascist and communist tyranny first-hand in his remarkable life, and it made him the literary titan that he was; that, and a great deal of personal fortitude and courage.
Beyond them, William Shakespeare enunciated the key truths of our human condition and provided moral and ethical comment of a nature that no cult, creed or religion ever could. A special and one of a kind writer, the likes of which we’ll never see again.
Orwell, Huxley and Shakespeare are special to me, but there’s tons of others whose work I appreciate. Charles Dickens, William Blake, Tolkien, J.K Rowling, Alan Moore, Faulks, Tolstoy, Solzhenitsyn, Cervantes, H.S. Thompson, Hitchens, Henley, Kerouac… too many to name.
What are you working on now?
A short story anthology, a novella, “Jackboot Russia”, “Jackboot Spain” and my surf skills. I’m pleased to announce progress with the latter, at any rate.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
It’s entirely in the hands of the cosmos, the physical laws of governance or the Flying Spaghetti Monster. This humble primate merely writes.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Hasta la victoria, siempre. Keep the aspidistra flying. Stay cool.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
“Don’t despair. Your friends [such as they were] will be stable and comfortable, and you won’t be. You’ll always be up and down, with peaks and troughs, depression and failure. Hang tough. You’ve got the force, son. You’ll get there in the end.”
~Simon Darcy Clifford.
Honourable mentions to Andrew Leone and Max Lawless, both of whom have furnished me with spirit-reviving sentiments aplenty. There aren’t words enough for one’s nearest and dearest.
What are you reading now?
Idly revisiting “On The Road” by Kerouac, as well as a biography of Genghis Khan, “Letters to a Young Contrarian”, “Dr Zhivago”, “The Brothers Karamazov”, “Winter in Madrid”.
What’s next for you as a writer?
Doors will open; ropes will part; champagne will fall from the heavens.
Unassailable, invictus, predestined. It’s coming.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Huxley’s “Island” (I wouldn’t have much call for Orwell, alas).
An anthology of classic poetry, featuring William Blake.
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare.
Tolstoy’s War & Peace (this doorstop would be perfectly suited for desert island life)
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