Tag Archives: Literary Fiction

The Green Man Appears in Many Forms

I have discussed in earlier posts how the expressions of English representations of the Green Man changed over the centuries. They were sculpted at their jovial peak from around 1300, before declining through merry, smiling, serene, worried, distressed, tormented and finally to resignation. A distinctly menacing image can be found in Bamberg Cathedral, Germany, supporting […]

Biblical Quotes and Inspiration in Another Life

I ended my new novel ‘Another Life’ with a relevant quote from Ecclesiastes 1:11. ‘There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after.’ Although not an adherent of any religion, I have an eclectic interest in its many forms, including […]

The Challenges of Writing Another Life

My speculative fiction novel, Another Life, combines themes of family life, myths and legends, a quest and cutting-edge science. These elements are introduced in a natural, uncomplicated way, avoiding technical explanations, so as not to alienate the reader. To bring these disparate elements together, I had to overcome several challenges, the biggest being how to […]

Under The Hill

Before I started working on my speculative fiction novel, Another Life, I had the idea for a story that followed the sequence and narrative of T S Eliot’s Four Quartets. This was not to be: Faber restricts ‘fair use’ to a maximum of 800 words in multiple extracts for inclusion in academic works or reviews. […]

The Quest for a Hidden Village

My novel, Another Life, is centred on a quest by the main protagonist, Oliver, to find a woman who waved to him from a window of a village cottage thirty years ago. Oliver begins with no motive, other than to understand a moment from his past when he glimpsed the prospect of happiness in an […]

The Dobunni: The Tribe of Witches

As part of the scene-setting for Another Life, Oliver visits a small printing press in the Cotswolds. He is attracted to book on display, bearing the title ‘An Illustrated Account of the Old Religion, its Beliefs and Practices, by a Believer’. The owners of the press relate how they were visited by a stranger who […]