Utah. The rich history and extraordinary landscapes of the Great Basin never cease to inspire me. People lived on the edge, facing danger every day as they did in the freezing winter of 1940 in Norway, when the threat of invasion hung over everyone.
Becoming a novelist.
Some people know by their teens they will become novelists. For me, the drive to tell stories and reveal something of human life and history through a novel has taken years to mature.
This slow passage of time has enabled me to accumulate experiences I draw on in my writing, using them like the fragments and vignettes in an artist’s sketchbook.
Five years ago, a story from history was forming in my mind: a dramatic adventure set in Norway in a screaming cold winter. It then acquired more than a few twists and inventions along the way to turn research and ideas into a thriller.
My background.
I was born in Falmouth, Cornwall and am married to Karin, who grew up on a farm in Nord Trønderlag in Norway. We often spend holidays walking from cabin to cabin in the Norwegian mountains and visiting the country as often as possible.
I graduated with a first-class (honours) degree in geography and am an honorary professor at Aberystwyth University. After gaining academic and professional qualifications in Landscape Architecture, I spent most of my career as a Senior Partner of LDA Design, where I worked on protected and historic landscapes, climate change and new settlement design. I am pleased to see the company is now employee-owned, still independent and going from strength to strength.
My favourite novels.
It’s always a pleasure to swap thoughts on our favourite novels; they reveal something of us. The books I most value have all endured in my thoughts for many years and have influenced me greatly as a writer. Here they are, in no particular order.
Love and War in the Apennines by Eric Newby, 1971. For its ambiguities and great characters.
Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak, 1957. For its sweep of history and lost souls.
Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay, 1967. For its unanswerable questions.
Fatherland by Robert Harris, 1992. For its evocation of an alternative history.
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett, 1989. For drawing me into late medieval England.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson, 2005. For Lisbeth Salander.
Growth of the Soil by Knut Hamsun, 1921. For its struggles.
Last of the Robbers Roost Outlaws by Tom McCourt, 2010. My wild card. A deeply moving true story from the cowboys of Utah.