I began writing purely for pleasure and for the possibility it gives to creatively imagine. I wrote a novel 'The Strange Case of Madeleine Seguin' which contained a topic - possessiveness in human relations - and placed it within a historical environment and period in which I was interested. I filled it with characters, some of whom were fictional, others who were actually of the late 19th century. The environment was Paris and its Salpêtrière Hospital with its thousands of 'hysterical' patients, some of whom were treated by hypnotism. My own career has been in psychology and I have always had a special interest in the early formation of psychoanalysis. I put artists in the novel too and particularly those of the Symbolist movement who were interested in painting dreams and the figures and scenes from their imagination. This also led to including elements from the occult which were challenging traditional religious beliefs. For the sake of the story I chose the darker side of the esoteric.
I was fortunate to have the novel published, something I had not expected. This was very encouraging and anyway, I felt I had to keep writing - and imagining, so I started to write my next novel 'Camille and the Raising of Eros'. This was published too, as has been my third, 'The Freedom of the Villainous'. They make a loosely based trilogy, so I have kept within the period I have been so interested in - the latter part of the 19th century and the early 20th, and with some of the characters from then that have become part of my life. Sadly, for the next novel, I will probably have to leave them, though the subject matter for the next is still indistinct and the nuclei only very gradually coalescing.
I live in London and also spend time in Dorset. I have always been a Londoner and am now based in Clerkenwell, beautifully poised on the edge of the City and with St Paul's and the Thames within easy walking. I visit Andalusia, Southern Spain, for a week or so every year and feel strangely at home there, but continue to feel regretful that I can't speak the language. I'll learn though. I love the culture there and that gets into my novels too.
