The author, his writing and more
En français plus bas…
As a liberal country, Switzerland is proud to bank on individual responsibility as a rampart against the spread of the COVID virus. Yet the only responsibility granted people is to follow state-advised restrictions, restrictions that, in their rigidity if not their apparent arbitrariness, are not always self-evident or effective.… Read more
Asking strange questions and looking at the world from unusual perspectives seems to be my specialty. Here’s one. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to move from being an eternal, omniscient, omnipotent entity to a single body constrained by human perceptions of space and time with a limited life span and a severely veiled understanding of the world, not to mention the pain and suffering?… Read more
My latest novel, The Cloud Catcher, began with this tree – not in Winter as in the photo but in late Summer – plus a cloud and a subsequent chance encounter with a girl on horseback. Her greeting smile burst from her lips like the sun breaking through clouds, warming everything in sight.… Read more
As a novel writer, people’s names are important. A character called Imogen is hardly likely to react the same way as one called Lucie. Just say the two names out loud. The different sounds immediately conjure up contrasting traits.… Read more
I was deeply saddened to read that the high court in England has just ruled to severely curtail, if not forbid, access to puberty blockers for young people under 18 (See the article in The Guardian). This applies to GIDS at the Tavistock Institute, the sole clinic in England working with transgender children.… Read more
One of the suggestions of the author Neil Gaiman in his writing Master Class involved drawing up lists of related words close to the preoccupations of a forthcoming novel. In my experience, being someone who has an inspirational approach to writing, such word lists not only activate a rich store of vocabulary, but also give depth to the subject and nourish the narrative.… Read more
Listen to the author reading The boy who told himself stories.The beginnings of the story…
Even as a kid I used to tell myself stories. All the time. In my bed, at school, on the high street, in the library, on the bus home or the train, out on my bike roaming the countryside.… Read more
One of the fascinating things about imagining the world through the ‘eyes’ of a cloud, something I am obliged to do as I write The Cloud Catcher, is how startlingly different and alien that perspective appears to us humans and how incomprehensible we must seem to a cloud.… Read more
The third book of The Boy & Girl Saga, We Girls, has just been released and is available in ebook format. Links to information about the book, to read sample chapters and to buy your copy can be found here.… Read more
I am currently writing two novels at once. The first is Bursting With Life which is half written, and The Cloud Catcher which I have just begun. Very often, especially towards the end of drafting a novel, an idea for a new story arises spontaneously and clamours to be told.… Read more