Welcome to My Website
I write novels in my spare time and I set up this website primarily as a means to publicise them. The Road to Kadesh is my first — a tale of revenge set during a war between two god kings, which features more chariot-related action than the race at the end of Ben Hur and climaxes with a huge and spectacular chariot battle. Some background notes can be found under the Novels tab above. I used the novel's title for the website too, since I couldn't think of anything better.
About Me
Most of the authors whose works I admire are dead (although I'd like them just as much if they were living). Their novels span a range of genres and styles, from Kurt Vonnegut's deceptively simple observational weirdness to the dystopian-esqe works of J. G. Ballard, and from the bleak Southern Gothic of Cormack McCarthy to John le Carré's wonderfully cynical spy fiction and the hard-boiled poetry of Raymond Chandler. I even occasionally read SF. But if there's one genre I read more than any other it has to be historical fiction. There are plenty of modern authors whose works I have enjoyed, but few of them have equalled, and none have surpassed, the likes of Patrick O'Brian, George MacDonald Fraser and C. S. Forester — all of whom I think rank among the best in the genre. And then there's Mary Renault, an author who, if I absolutely had to choose, would be my favourite. I've read my copy of The Last of the Wine so many times its pages are falling out.
A few years ago, after finishing Renault's The Persian Boy on a train coming back from Paris, I decided to have a go at writing my own novels. I make no claim to be on the same level as any of the authors listed above; still, I hope my efforts provide enough entertainment to be worth the purchase price.
What's Here
A few introductory thoughts on historical novel writing and the perils of introducing too much realism can be found under the tab labelled Musings. Under Novels, along with notes on The Road to Kadesh, there's a page devoted to my current project, a piece of mythic fiction entitled Anat.
But there's more. I'm a theoretical physicist by training and I have included a page in which I evangelise about science. It can be found under the tab named "Science".
Everything here is only my opinion, informed by things I have read. Some of it may be wrong. None of it was created with the aid of generative AI, which I refuse to use.