I have recently arrived as an author, previously having been in marketing, advertising and to some extent, in business. That’s when I had a career. I have now abandoned careers. And/or they have abandoned me. (You must read my guide to being a TRaMP… but more details elsewhere…)
I have also worked as a picture framer, a barman, a publican, a silver service waiter, an ironmongery delivery driver, a filing clerk (I was a “Kelly Girl”), a Sunday school teacher, a sub-editor, a copywriter and a decorator, as well as other interesting and diverse roles.
I have been told to be a writer (or that I was one) since I was 17, forty years ago, by my then girlfriend. She became an accountant. She also wanted me to be 6’3″, when I was only 6’2″.
I have no genre, per se, in which I write.
- I have just finished Just Give It A Go, a romp with music which should be a film, not a book. My friend thinks I should re-write it as a film script.
- And a biography-slash-explanation/critique-slash-catalogue about an artist called Hett Witedski. (Hett Witedski: An Explanation, with pictures.) He’s a man I met in a pub in Soho and the project has been tormented and frustrating but I have finished the first draft which you can see & read on this site. I am pleased with it.
- And I have some short stories in a compilation called “The Man Who…”. These stories are of no particular time, almost avoiding modernity and I hope they have a simplicity of olden times. I want these stories to read like a wood cut picture looks.
- And I have an amazing book ready to print, about how to make up stories for very young children, called “Made Up Stories”. I use a pseudonym for that, being Prince Asa Cator Gladiator. He has 103 children from ages 1½ to 97. He lives in a castle in 1862 and has lions as pets as well as peacocks and llamas. When he was 57½ he won the Olympics. He thanks his children for their help in this work.
- I have also written a book called the “F” effect, about staying youthful, healthy and happy by enjoying a healthy sex life. But this needs a serious re-write. Someone said a few years ago when they saw the first draft, that it was bitter…
- Other works are in the pipeline but be assured that they’ll be different to the above, one way or another.
- I’m not sure which medium the TRaMP guide will be in yet…
I live in Hampshire, with my dog. If you read more into my books than I think fit… and you may think that you know why. But it’s not true.
My intention is to start every book I write with the same words, give-or-take… “This story starts in a bar…”. To paraphrase my friend Hett, No jolly good stories start with eating a jolly salad.