Knight
What can you tell us about your new book, Knight?
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‘Knight’ was started when my life was at its lowest point. My wife had died of cancer and the sadness and the emptiness which followed seemed to have become all-consuming. Perhaps, it was a moment of self-pity, but, one morning as I lay staring at the ceiling, I began thinking back to the young man I had been; the young man who had once had the world at his feet; and I wondered, “How did it all come to this?” And, as I pondered the sadness of life, I felt that there must be an answer; something broad, and bold, and romantic; something heroic; some place where sadness and despair could be beaten, where quest and chivalry were a way of life; perhaps, something ‘knightly’.
I wrote the beginning and the end of the story over the next few days. There were a few key points I knew the story had to pass through, and I knew the main characters, but not their names. Beyond that there was nothing but possibility. It was several more months before the setting and the period were established, but the fundamental story was there from that very first day. And, the focus provided by the story had its impact upon my life, and gradually, the purpose in the story became the purpose in my life, and the hope of the hero became my hope. And I found that, over time, it was not me working to create a story, it was the story gently pulling me forward; and the slow, but steady transition from despair to hope was real.
I remember the seasons as I wrote. I remember sitting on the grass, in the summer sunshine, whilst my daughter was at her ballet lessons, totally engrossed in another world, and feeling so uplifted as the characters emerged and the story gained substance. I remember evening flights above the clouds on the way to Dublin, disconnected from day-to-day activities, immersed in another life, another time. And I remember the many Sunday afternoons spent in the Costa coffee shop in Haslemere, sitting alone with my laptop, separate from the other customers, but comforted by the quiet presence of humanity around me.
Sometimes we are granted something truly special. ‘Knight’, the journey, has been very special for me. |
The book is set in the early fifteenth century; what research was required for the book?
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From the time I was a young boy in Australia, I have always been interested in the old English romanticism of Robin Hood. And an early encounter with T.E. White’s “The Once and Future King” had a lasting impact; the poignancy of the final scene in Arthur’s tent staying with me to this day. And so, the general feeling of the story had been within me for most of my life, it would seem. However, once the period established itself as early fifteenth century, it became necessary to create that world honestly. In this endeavour, the writings of Juliet Barker became significant, since she had written historically authoritative books on Henry V’s campaigns of 1415 (Agincourt) and 1417.
For personal reasons, the story has a European-Asian link, and there needed to be a cross-over point. With Gavin Menzies’ book “1421: The Year China Discovered the World” as background, one episode of Francesco da Mosta’s TV series “Francesco’s Mediterranean Voyage” became the inspiration for this. And, later in the story, as Henry’s second campaign moved through France, points along the way required fleshing out. Accordingly, I used the internet extensively, to research locations and buildings, and in some cases characters who were present at the time of the story. |
You normally write for a technical audience. How liberating was it for you to write fiction?
I found that the prior discipline of writing technical documents provided a solid foundation for the structure of the story. There were several points through which the story had to pass, and I feel that this background made it easier to achieve these marks and hence maintain the integrity of the story.
However, outside of these anchor points, there were no limitations, other than plausibility. What I found was a wonderful freedom to allow the events and the characters to virtually tell their own stories. In fact, some of the characters were unknown to me when the story commenced, but, by the end, they had not only defined their roles in the story, but had also acquired personalities to complement those of the main characters. So, it was not so much a ‘liberation’, as it was a ‘journey’.
You were born in Western Australia; what brought you to the UK?
We were in Ireland at the time of my wife’s death. However, my step-daughter’s Australian visa was associated with her mother’s application, and when her mother died my daughter’s Australian visa was cancelled. The project in Ireland was coming to an end; I had no visa to live in my daughter’s home country, and my daughter had no visa to live in my home country. We were facing an impossible situation.
However, my grandparents had been British, so I applied for a UK Ancestry visa, which was granted shortly after the project finished, and my daughter and I were able to move to UK, temporarily. Since that time, I have worked here and completed the adoption of my daughter, and my daughter has completed her secondary schooling here, and, over the years, we have both fulfilled the criteria for UK citizenship; which we have both now been granted.
I have to say that I feel very much at home in England. I suspect that, deep down, there is an affinity born of many generations of English and Scottish ancestry.
You have an interest in music, theatre, history and literature. Who and what are your favourites in each of these areas?
In music, my tastes are somewhat varied, including Beethoven, Gershwin, Dave Brubeck, Queen and Dire Straits. I also find Russian choral music inspiring. In theatre, it is musical theatre which attracts me; without doubt, Les Misérables being right at the top. In history, as indicated above, it is the romanticism of the medieval period which has been with me all my life. And in literature my tastes are again somewhat varied; favourite authors including Sebastian Faulks (first met through The Fatal Englishman), Stephen Donaldson (The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever), Robert James Waller (first met through Puerto Vallarta Squeeze), and Derek Robinson (Goshawk Squadron).
I am also interested in film and television; favourite actor being Ralph Fiennes (for the intense, brooding and troubled characters he frequently plays) and favourite director being Stephen Poliakoff (for the enveloping lushness of the imagery he creates).
Have you always had an interest in fifteenth century history?
Not specifically; the interest has been in history in general, and in particular, that of the British Isles (by whatever names they have been known over time). In fact, there was a period when I was trying to place the story, during which it might have found itself written around Geoffrey of Anjou in the early twelfth century. However, although the characters fitted what I had in mind at the time, I just could not make the locations compatible with where I wanted the story to go.
You were an engineer in both military and industrial spheres; please tell us about your working life before writing.
There have been a variety of roles - all predominantly technical - from teacher of secondary school maths and physics, on to the Royal Australian Air Force, initially lecturing then moving into software development, followed by industrial process control in the alumina processing industry in tropical northern Australia, then production management in the electronic circuit board industry, and finally system design and R&D for the transit smartcard industry in Hong Kong, Singapore, Ireland and England. And, in the later years, there has been a great deal of technical specification writing, as the hands-on software development has passed to the ‘young guns’.
Which historical novelists do you most admire?
I have to say that the writers I admire most do not necessarily operate entirely within the ‘historical’ boundary. Sebastian Faulks, for instance, has written the beautifully evocative World War One story ‘Birdsong’, but has also written some wonderful contemporary pieces.
However, I must acknowledge Juliet Barker’s wonderful research into Henry V, which was so important in establishing the background for ‘Knight’.
This is your debut novel; do you have plans for another?
The second book is already under way. It is set in the early twentieth century, and I am currently researching several threads which will be intertwined to form the backdrop to the story.
What is next for you?
The reality is that, until one becomes a ‘successful’ author, one needs to continue to earn a living from one’s ‘normal’ activities. So, for the foreseeable future, I will continue to work in engineering, but generate as much spare time as I can to write. Hopefully, a time will come when the income from writing will allow me to tail-off my engineering work, and focus on the writing. After 40 years of engineering, it’s been wonderful to find that a new field of endeavour is opening up. I am hopeful that, one day soon, my airline flights will be for the purpose of searching out locations, rather than the current airport-hotel-office regime.