Blog
New Crowley/Jones story in progress
Wasdale Head: birthplace of English climbing. The Only Genuine Jones is, in part, the story of a climbing rivalry between two prodigious talents of the mid 1890s: Aleister Crowley and O.G. Jones. For my story I took the facts of the case (presented by numerous biographies and works of
A selection of recent reviews
The reviews are starting to trickle in for The Only Genuine Jones, and so far they’re all good! I have now received six 5* reviews and two 4* reviews, which I’m very pleased with. Here’s a selection of comments made recently in Amazon reviews. “An historical novel
Winter of the World by Ken Follett: book review
Winter of the World by Ken FollettMy rating: 4 of 5 stars Winter of the World is the second volume in Ken Follett’s ambitious “Century Trilogy”. The first, Fall of Giants, follows several families as they navigate the dramatic upheaval of the Great War. In the spirit of War
The Central Gully of Bidean nam Bian
The northern cliffs of Bidean nam Bian This article was first published on Glencoe Mountaineer on the 1st of March, 2011. It details the culmination of my experiments in Victorian mountaineering equipment in a Scottish winter climbing context. Bidean nam Bian is the most local mountain to the Clachaig, and
New guest blog post: Growing up with Mountains
Today my first guest blog post has appeared! Nick Wastnage has been kind enough to host my blog post, Growing up with Mountains, which tells the story of how I started writing about the outdoors and history. Nick Wastnage is a crime writer with a number of titles to his
The second week: growing enthusiasm, and short stories to look forward to
A selection of recent tweets about the book The Only Genuine Jones has survived its second week in the wild. Sales have been slower this week than they were at first, naturally enough, but things have been ticking over nicely and (more importantly) some readers have now finished the book.
The Mountaineer’s Library
It needs tidying. Three interests that define my personality are mountaineering, history, and literature. When the three combine the result is wonderful. For seven years I have been a collector of mountaineering literature. I started small and practical: just the books I needed, which meant climbing guidebooks. My collection of
The poster campaign begins
This is the first poster I will be distributing to a variety of locations throughout the UK. I won’t be spending a fortune on my poster campaign, because I believe paid advertising only goes so far towards book sales (word of mouth, and a quality book to begin with,
The First Week
The Only Genuine Jones has now been on sale for just over a week. After the huge spike on day 1, sales have naturally slowed down but things are ticking over; this is usual for a new ebook release, as the first batch of readers get through the book and
Contrast
21st of October 2008: the excitement of new snow The beauty of living far away from the mountains is simply this: contrast. In my everyday life I travel to work in Skegness on the bus, sign in with a fingerprint scanner, talk to customers about smartphones, ask them to sign