Fiction
Short stories: I’ve won some prizes for them and have been long and short-listed in various competitions, but the stories remain offline because if I want to enter them elsewhere then the rules insist they are unpublished. It’s a fair system but means that some work takes a long time to see the light of day. I will probably publish an anthology of them soon, as it seems a waste for them to remain mostly unseen when (to date) ten have been endorsed by the authors and publishers who judge short story competitions. In the meantime , there are a few which have done well enough in competitions that I won’t be entering them elsewhere:
My story King Of The Rec was highly commended in the main category and winner in local category in the 2024 Bath International Short Story Competition. You can read the actual story in the competition’s printed anthology, available in real bookshops and online. Here’s how the judge described it: ‘The King of the Rec’ begins with John being man-hugged by Sean, evoking a sense of nostalgia and reflecting on how some things, especially people, remain fundamentally the same over time.
John has travelled to the town where he grew up for the funeral of Mark, a friend from his youth. A few of the “old gang” are gathering at the local “rec” – recreation fields – to honour him. As John and Sean converse, the undercurrents of their past relationship and changes in their lives are revealed.
Old wounds and unresolved issues surface. As the story concludes, Sean’s attempt to give John an envelope of money for his sister is met with rejection and violence – a final break in their tenuous connection. King of the Rec is an exploration of friendship, loyalty and the immutable nature of some individuals. Through vivid characterisation and authentic dialogue, the story captures the complexities of growing up – and trying to move on.
My stories usually start, at least in my head, with a question: ‘what if?’ Many are set on the wild edges of the British Isles, where I like to walk, and where all things seem possible. Others are set in places where little seems possible: a suburban park, a locked storage box, and even the inside of an envelope.
The Draugr won third place at the 2024 Frome Festival Short Story Competition, main category, and first in the local category. It’s a bit creepy, allegedly a bit funny, and based on an invented Scottish island.
On The Border was highly commended at the Frome Festival 2024 in the local category and is about two men finding awkward companionship on a disturbingly hot day as they walk Offa’s Dyke.
Now’s Not The Time won second place in Hastings Book Festival 2022 and is about a woman wandering the Black Mountains to ponder grief and change during the Covid pandemic. It made the judge cry.
CENTURY is my novel, an historical thriller with a love story at the heart of it. It’s set in the first two decades of the 20th century, in the world of newspapers and espionage, and the setting ranges from New York to London to Cologne. I’ve published it myself, done the cover myself, edited it myself … I like to think of it as the artisan approach!
Journalism
You can read some of my more recent feature writing here. It’s about: prisoner-of-war art; paintings of the River Severn; portraiture and storytelling; kings and funerals; and for those in peril on the sea. I did these pieces pro-bono for the charity that supports the Royal West of England Academy.
Columns age less well, but here’s a sample of one from my weekly slot in the Western Daily Press and associated newspapers which ran for 23 years. And here’s a feature I wrote for the New European newspaper.
The majority of my newspaper career was spent editing, and there is no easy or interesting way to capture that. It’s a thing of the moment. Making quick decisions, cutting, re-writing, designing pages, crafting headlines, looking out for libels …
Academic work
I have a chapter in this beast of a book.
and I co-wrote this book
And, finally, here’s an abstract from my PhD which informed much of the above work, and underpins my novel.
