Celeste and the Witch Garden

The Witch Garden is more than just your average, typical back garden – it’s more like a large and diverse, self-contained magical ecosystem, with fields, forests, rivers, villages and towns – even a castle – spread over its lush and green lands. Harper, the clumsy talking owl lives there, as do Alditha the white witch, the Green Man, and Skoros – the less than pleasant, megalomanic steampunk wizard. When a giant flying teacup appears over the Green Man’s nook, Harper is convinced Skoros is up to no good, and reports the matter to Alditha. They discover, however, that the occupant of the teacup (which is really a spaceship in disguise) is actually a humanoid alien called Celeste, who looks about thirteen years old.

“Stories of imagination tend to upset those without one.”

-Terry Pratchett

The Orb Forest

I'm working flat out on a new sci-fi thriller and soundtrack called 'The Orb Forest'.

Androids and genetically-engineered 'super apes' are used as pawns, as two major AI corporations battle it out for a stake in an advanced metaphysical technology that will, ultimately, change the world.

'The android looked back over his shoulder, along the narrow service road that linked Zone 40 of Pumijig Island to the depths of The Orb Forest – the island’s vast, wooded recreation and holographic-pod facility, frequent hangout of Rishni Lab’s android “foot soldiers”, human researchers, and management alike. Swathes of deep bluish-green spruce trees lined each side of the tarmac, and tall firs – their topmost branches rustling and swaying in a faint breeze – reached for the sky. Soon, a bright yellow hoverbike robot would be coming along this route, bringing Cutter a fresh supply of precious Vibrant-7.'

COMING SOON!

“Good books don't give up all their secrets at once.”

-Stephen King

More about Celeste and the Witch Garden

.

My latest novel, a children's/young adult sci-fi/fantasy entitled 'Celeste and the Witch Garden', is a distant relative of a fantasy website project I created twenty years ago called 'Aliens In My Garden'. My son, Aaron, who was about ten years old at the time, created a range of colourful clay models (aliens, witches, wizards, trolls - and a whole host of other fantasy characters) that I photographed in my back garden, and around which I created stories. It was an excellent father and son project, and we still have all the models in the loft.

And finally....

It's been great working with my present publisher, Richard Mayers, who has helped me bring 'Celeste and the Witch Garden' to market. From February 2023, the novel has been available in paperback and on Kindle. Thank you to Toby French for an amazing cover. I'm already working on a sequel to Celeste and the Witch Garden, and also an adult sci-fi thriller entitled 'The Orb Forest (Where Androids Have Souls)'. I aim to compose a soundtrack for the novel in the near future. Four of the tracks are already completed, and have been released as singles, as well as appearing on my 25 track album, 'Music From Slate Bird'.

Le Grand Meaulnes by Alain-Fournier

When Meaulnes first arrives at the local school in Sologne, everyone is captivated by his good looks, daring and charisma. But when Meaulnes disappears for several days, and returns with tales of a strange party at a mysterious house - and his love for the beautiful girl hidden within it, Yvonne de Galais - his life has been changed forever. In his restless search for his Lost Estate and the happiness he found there, Meaulnes, observed by his loyal friend Francois, may risk losing everything he ever had. Poised between youthful admiration and adult resignation, Alain-Fournier's compelling narrator carries the reader through this evocative and unbearably poignant portrayal of desperate friendship and vanished adolescence. Robin Buss's translation of Le Grand Meaulnes sensitively and accurately renders Alain-Fournier's poetically charged, expressive and deceptively simple style. 

My Favourite Books

Each month, I'll feature one of my favourite novels here. This month it's 'Le Grand Meaulnes' by Alain-Fournier.