‘Tis the time of year when I go offline to channel my inner Mr Bennet – drink wine, read books and make sarcastic comments to visiting relatives.
But before doing so, I wanted to extend season’s greetings and wish you the very best for the coming year:
I was never entirely convinced by the idea that a picture is worth a thousand words. Perhaps because I have the artistic skills of a drunk hippo. But also because words have power: the right words stay with you.
Certain phrases remain tattooed on my heart, whether poetic (“Rage against the dying of the light“), practical (“Deny everything, Baldrick“) or romantic (“I am half hope, half agony“). But even if the words fade, the emotions and the imagery remain.
Back in the late 70s, when I was a young boy in English class, the teacher read out a text written by a fellow pupil. It described how police broke up a demonstration, as seen from far above. Blue dots for the police. Black dots for the demonstrators.
The words conjured up such perfect images, I still remember them. Forty years later. It was around then I decided to write a novel. And it took forty years to do so, with Cake and Courtship appearing earlier this year thanks to the support of many around me.
As a result, my soul has finally arrived where it wants to be – creative writing. So look out for more in 2018:
- The paperback version of Cake and Courtship (due out in February)
- My debut novella (on track for spring). A mystery with a dash of romance and a pinch of humour, set in the Pride & Prejudice universe
- The sequel to Cake and Courtship, where the action takes us from Longbourn to London and across the sea. Old favourites return, and we even get to see something of a young fellow by the name of Darcy
- A non-fiction project based on a recent find in the Pemberley archives (I cannot say more than that)
See you next year and remember…
“The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.”