Writer

I’ve been writing fiction most of my life: poems, short stories and plays. It was probably inevitable really, since my father, John Hopkins, was a writer as was Nigel Balchin, my maternal grandfather, my grandmother Elisabeth and her second husband, Michael Ayrton.

 

Writing my PhD thesis immediately followed by Ayrton’s biography side-tracked me for a while, but although I enjoyed and still enjoy art historical and critical writing, I always knew that what I really wanted to do was tell stories.

   

I took the plunge into full-length fiction around the turn of the millennium, and in 2004 was fortunate enough to be taken on by John Jarrold as a client of his Literary Agency.

 

Since then I’ve written several novels, all near misses so far but at least I learn more of the craft with each one I finish, so I keep telling myself I’m paying my dues towards the day when everything comes together.

 

My imagination seems to work best along the somewhat murky boundary of early history and fantasy: like the earliest map-makers, I look at the uncharted lands looming out of our misty knowledge of the past and happily label them Here Be Dragons. Or witches, shapeshifters, unicorns ...

 

My current project is a series of novels under the overall title Foundling Angels, based in approximately equal parts on Post-Roman history, the Arthurian legends and the Welsh myths of The Mabinogion. The first in the sequence, Set Over Chaos, is currently under consideration by publishers; ever hopeful, I’ve already begun work on the second, provisionally titled Thieves in Darkness.

 

Meanwhile, if you're interested in the kind of thing I write try visiting the Stories section of this site, where I'll be posting some of the shorter pieces that distract me at irregular intervals from the serious business of novel-writing. I hope you enjoy them...