One of the main locations in SIxty-One Nails is Covent Garden Market. Blackbird brings Niall here after they first meet to purchase a token gift before they descend beneath the streets into the hidden world of Gramawl and Kareesh. When they emerge into the plaza, she turns to him…. “Oh, I’ve missed this. It’s one…
I Should Be Writing…
Publication Day
I hope you will join me in celebrating the publication of Sixty-One Nails, my debut novel, which is available from today. When Niall Petersen has a heart Attack on the London Underground he thinks it’s the end. It’s only the beginning. He is revived by an old lady who greets him with the cold solace…
Quit Rents Ceremony 2009
Those of you who follow these postings will know about the Quit Rent Ceremony. For the uninitiated, this is the oldest legal ceremony in England apart from the coronation. It involves the rendering of two medieval quit rents which date back to the thirteenth century. The first is for land known as The Moors near…
The Templar’s Forge
One of the things I get asked when people have read Sixty-One Nails is; where did I get the idea for the Quit Rents Ceremony from? The short answer to that is, I didn’t make it up. I found it. Back when I was developing the novel, I was researching English folk-lore to incorporate into…
Lethal London
The Thames is one of the great rivers of the world, but not because of it’s size. It is dwarfed by the Amazon and the Nile, it is nowhere near as wide as the Chao Phraya where it flows through Bangkok or the Hudson as it slides past the New York skyline. Nor is it…
Fly, Robot, Fly!
Lovely to see so many friendly faces at the Angry Robot Launch at Forbidden Planet on Saturday. A fantastic time was had by all and it was great talking to friends old and new. The Forbidden Planet crew did a great job of managing the chaos. In particular, thanks go to Danie for being such…
Is That Gingerbread?
One of the oldest and most pervasive images in folklore is the Cottage in the Woods. Whether that cottage is where Grandma lives when Little Red Riding Hood comes to call or whether it is older and darker and might suddenly sprout chicken legs and walk about, the iconic image runs like a thread through…