“Pulling up Beattock, a steady climb:
The gradient's against her,
but she's on time.”

Script moving forward, first draft on its way . . . LA calling . . . Hosting Literary Lunch in April Hangover 2 production team offer to manage filming Scene outline signed off, script on schedule
Film location trip to Thailand with scriptwriter Jessica Townsend was a big success . . .
 Script moving forward nicely.
 Thailand and LA based producers in touch.

Night Mail, by W.H. Auden

When I was 7 years old the teacher in my tiny village primary school asked if anyone could read the 8 letter, 3 syllable word in the poem she’d chosen. I put my hand up and politely read out the word.

“Gradient,” I said.

I remember exactly where I was sitting, remember the beam on my face and the teacher’s smile as I said it. I suddenly realised I could read a difficult word, even if at the time I didn’t really know what that word meant . . .

When I was 16 years old my secondary school teacher told me that he had just given me the highest ever mark of his 30 year career for a piece of creative writing. I realised, again, that I was good with words.

I come from a family of natural storytellers. Stories . . . words . . . people . . . places.
They were all part of the fabric of my life.

But it wasn’t until I was in my mid-thirties that I found my true writer’s voice. I wrote Benedict’s Brother, which like many novels, was initially rejected. Eight years later I removed the dusty manuscript from my bedside drawer and created a blog – even if at the time I didn’t really know what one was . . . Benedict's Brother was then published and six months later selected as a Book of the Year in Publishing News.

My aim as a novel writer is to produce the most beautiful stories that I have in me and to present them to you. It is important to me that the experience of reading one of my books is as beautiful for you as I can possibly make it. It seems with my debut novel, I may just have done that even though at times it felt like the “gradient” was against me.

I hope you enjoy my future work too.

Thank you for visiting my website. Do let me know your thoughts and feedback. I always love hearing from you and I always read what you send.

Patron of Youth Cancer Trust