5. June 2026

Where it began ...

Tuesday 26th May 2026

In the words of Neil Diamond… “Where it began…”

There’s so much swimming around in my head these days that I suspect I’ll be back here rather often. It feels only right that the very first post should begin with a story related to my first novel, The Heroes of Harrand & Blythe.

The strange thing is that the book itself — or at least fragments of it — had been quietly living somewhere in the back of my mind for forty or fifty years. Odd scenes. Half-formed ideas. A department store that felt just a little unusual. A hidden place beneath it. Characters who never entirely went away.

Then came a long winter train journey from London to Blackpool.

I’d never seriously attempted creative writing before, beyond the usual school essays and the occasional abandoned idea scribbled on paper. Yet something about that journey unlocked the door. Around twenty minutes before departure, I opened my laptop and started writing. I barely looked up again until more than three hours later as the train rolled into Preston.

And from there, everything changed.

The first draft of Harrand & Blythe was, if I’m being honest, fairly dreadful in places. But the heart of it was there. Over the following months I rewrote, reshaped, deleted, expanded, doubted myself repeatedly, and then started all over again. Entire sections vanished. Others appeared from nowhere. Slowly, very slowly, the story became the book I had hoped it might be.

A few months later, The Heroes of Harrand & Blythe found its way onto Amazon.

I’ll save the tale of that first publishing experience for another blog post — because trust me, there’s plenty to tell there too.

To round off this first little introduction, there’s an AI-generated image that's evolved from my description of Arthur Jennings, the central character, and company … or at least very close to how he’s always appeared in my imagination. Not all of these characters and names survived, so don't be confused! Click on the gallery link to view.