Novels

‘If we cut down all the trees, where will the birds build their nests?’

That was the starting point for me to write my debut novel The Savage Kingdom. The question was posed by my (then) 12 year old daughter Millie after she’d seen photos in National Geographic of before & after ‘clear cutting’ deforestation of the Amazon rainforest. And when you bear in mind this was several years before the amazing Greta Thunberg was even born, you can imagine why I found the question so beautiful and profound. I knew then and there I needed to write something to reflect and give voice to Millie’s concern for the environment, and to try to help inspire her generation to question our stewardship of the planet and our relationship to all the other creatures who consider it home. That it should take the form of an epic fantasy is perhaps no surprise…

‘Red Ruff - The Life Story of a Fox’ (pub 1937) by H Mortimer Batten was the first book I remember being completely captivated by. It’s a non-fiction nature story that nonetheless uses some artistic license to get under the skin, and into the mind of the fox, in order to tell the tale. This from Batten’s own foreword: ‘Most nature writers are so deadly serious about themselves… that the whole show is spoiled for want of reasonable latitude.’ I’m sure I probably skipped that beat as a ten year old boy, but the story that followed, well, it moved, informed, fascinated, frightened and held me absolutely spellbound as it carried me into a familiar and yet entirely unknown universe. I still keep a cherished original edition on a shelf by my writing desk to this day. So thank you H Mortimer Batten, and thank you Millie. Hope you enjoy reading The Savage Kingdom as much as I loved writing it…