I’m thinking back, trying to discern how I came to write an historical novel. When I was tapping out Morse in the pitching wireless cabins of tropical steamers, it was not in my mind – though I read all the books in the ship’s library. A career in television studios might have brought it about – thirty years working with stories in pictures soaks the mind with images. Now I’ve retired I have more time to imagine at leisure - perhaps I’ve just reached the proper age to be a teller of stories.
So my first story is about ‘Tom Fleck’ and his struggles to be a free man in our own district of Cleveland – but a Cleveland of five centuries in the past.