Puppets and Paupers

This book consists of three ‘longform’ stories and one short one that might appear to have little in common, but they share common themes of alienation, isolation and marginalisation. In ST JUDE a night fisherman discovers a human corpse among the bladderwrack that clumps upon the sandbanks around the isle of St Jude. It is the remains of a young woman, and her arrival brings out a sense of responsibility, if not ownership among the islanders. THE PUPPETS is the story of the unbalanced ventriloquist and his malicious dummies (more properly called 'figures’) who consitute a malign double act. Torment and internal struggle are inevitable but redemption comes in the form of a quirky and unconventional romance. EXITLAND was my response to Brexit and in many ways, it speaks for itself. Anyone who cannot afford to live in ‘New Britain’ is to be exiled, either through choice or by force. LIVING MEMORY is based on the real-life experience of briefly meeting someone I knew many years before.