I grew up in southern Africa in a post-colonial society that makes the current whingeing about ‘White Supremacy’ look rather pathetic. I also attended school for three years in apartheid South Africa, before being sent to boarding school in the UK. After leaving school, I spent ten years working all over southern and central Africa before moving to the UK to further my career.
My job has taken me to over eighty countries, including six years living in the Middle East and short periods living and working in India and the South Pacific. I have many friends now from all over the world, many of whom find the rise of woke even more bizarre than I do- one of the characters in my recent novel is actually based on two Arab friends of mine.
I have no academic qualifications, but have always been a voracious reader. Prior to my recent novel, Dadafarin or, the Pessimism, I had written several short stories, including the two currently on here, one previous novel (presently unavailable but I may resurrect it at some time in the future) and a series of articles for trade publications. For several years I was a featured writer on the now-defunct literary website, Cherrybleeds. Dadafarin marks my return to writing after an absence of over a decade. I am currently working on another novel.
Prior to the advent of woke I never had any political inclinations; the reasons for my sudden late interest in politics are described in the afterword of my novel Dadafarin.
I now live in the north of England with my wonderful wife, two cats and several motorcycles.
Hello … just bought your novel, arriving on Tuesday. I grew up (sixty-five years ago) on Heinlein and Clarke and Astounding and Galaxy science-fiction magazines. There’s a PhD — or at least a Master’s — thesis waiting to be written, surveying the Sci-Fi of the 50’s and 60’s, what their authors predicted about future society, and how their predictions have worked out. Analyzing WHY they made the predictions they did and the things they missed: video phones yes, flying cars no. And who would have predicted a stock market in Moscow? Or that we would have landed on the Moon by the end of the Sixties … and then never go back. I look forward to reading your book.
Hi Doug. Thanks for buying my book, and glad you enjoyed it. Apologies I replied on X before here, I have been a bit lax in catching up with things online. I used to read a lot of scifi too, I was especially fond of Heinlein and Phillip K Dick. I also love Stanislaw Lem’s work, especially Tales of Pirx the Pilot