Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am a retired school teacher who studied history at Queens’ College, University of Cambridge. I also have a doctorate from Cardiff University. I live on the Isle of Skye with my wife Helen and our Pyrenean Mountain Dog, Sophie. I am climbing all the Scottish peaks over 3000 feet and love all kinds of skiing.
I have written more books than I like to admit but most of them remain where they belong, hidden in a cupboard! However, I have completed three instalments of The Richard Davey Chronicles and am close to the end of a stand alone fictional biography set in the late eighteenth century.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Serving Shaka. The clue is in the title. The book is inspired by the life of Shaka Zulu, founder of the Zulu nation. I have been fascinated by his life ever since I read a biography of his life by E.A. Ritter in the early 1970s. He rose, despite the odds, to forge an empire that threatened British dominance of southern Africa.
Two coincidences also drew me to his story. Firstly, he was rising to power just as Napoleon Bonaparte was dying on St Helena. But in my book, Needing Napoleon, the former emperor escapes! Secondly, although it has yet to feature in one of my books, a direct descendant of Napoleon died fighting for the British against the Zulus in 1879.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I usually play rock music while I work. People think it must be distracting but I never really hear it, it just protects me from the silence!
I also enjoy editing my first draft more than the initial writing process!
What authors, or books have influenced you?
As a write of historical fiction I must credit Bernard Cornwell, particularly his Sharpe series, and Conn Iggulden’s Emperor series. As Needing Napoleon has a time travel element, I must also acknowledge Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series.
As an aspiring fantasy writer, I am a big fan of almost anything by Raymond E Feist. I was captivated by Stephen Donaldson’s The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever, particularly the first three books.
Finally, I must admit to a penchant for science fiction, where Isaac Asimov and Iain M Banks are my favourites.
What are you working on now?
I am editing the third instalment of The Richard Davey Chronicles, which has yet to be named. I am currently writing a fictionalised biography of a real individual who led a controversial life straddling cultures and continents between 1763 and 1805.
The book deals with issues of cultural appropriation, racism and the challenges of confronting the past from a twenty-first-century perspective.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Nothing beats meeting people in person whether speaking at a school or visiting a book club. Thanks to technology, some of this can be achieved virtually when geography gets in the way!
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Despite the temptation to launch in full of enthusiasm (doubtless driven by a shortage of time), plan first. I spent years rushing new ideas onto the page and inevitably, within a hundred pages, I had tied myself in knots. In contrast, my first published novel, Needing Napoleon, only took three months to write, with barely a misstep, thanks to a similar length of time planning and plotting, developing characters and considering their interplay.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
If you write in the evening, edit in the morning,
What are you reading now?
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
What’s next for you as a writer?
I am planning the fourth instalment of The Richard Davey Chronicles and a fantasy novel, tentatively entitled The Mountain Kingdom, partly inspired by my home on the Isle of Skye.
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?
The Collected Works by William Shakespeare (my grandmother’s leather-bound copy won as a school prize in 1911)
Collected Poems by Clive James (no apologies, he is my favourite poet)
The Old Man and the Sea by John Steinbeck (to remind me how simple words can convey powerful stories)
The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien (the paperback compendium first published in 1968 which I read under the covers as a child)
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