I recently wrote an article called “Interrogations of Society in Contemporary African Crime Writing” for a special edition of the journal Moving Worlds. Crime Across Cultures, edited by Lucy Evans and Mandala White, “seeks to examine how discourses of crime and criminality are produced in a global context that extends well beyond the cloisters of…
Results of the Sentinel Literary Quarterly Competition
I recently judged a short story competition for Sentinel Literary Quarterly and they have just announced the results. A lot of fantastic stories were submitted. I enjoyed the variety of literary styles and genres represented, ranging from crime fiction to sci-fi to comedy. The six winning stories are very different in style, but they all…
Sentinel Literary Quarterly Competitions 2013
Look out for New Short Story competitions at Sentinel Literary Quarterly, including the African Prisons Project competition judged by Alison Lock and the Quarterly Short Story competition judged by me. SENTINEL NIGERIA ALL-AFRICA SHORT STORY COMPETITION 2013 Closing Date: 28-Feb-2013 Theme: Open Length: 1500 words maximum (Excluding title) Prizes: N35,000 (1st), N20,000 (2nd), N10,000 (3rd), N4000 x 3 (High…
Seventh Quarry Magazine
Two of my poems, ‘On Mending a Lost Letter’ and ‘Blue Plums’ have just appeared in Seventh Quarry Magazine and it was lovely to get my copy of it in the post and read some of the fantastic writing featured in there. Here’s one of the poems of mine that was published in Issue 17, Winter…
Novel Cover Art
I’m excited to learn that Jason Anscomb of Rawshock will be designing the jacket cover for my novel. I think his collage and design work is fab, e.g. this stylish cover (above). I’ve had a few ideas cover-wise, mainly involving the long, red hair of the main character, Oona, floating away from her in the underwater scene,…
Review of Vanitas Exhibition
Many thanks to Melissa Tricoire for this lovely review of John Brewer’s and my exhibition at the Double Negative Darkroom, Hackney! Here’s an extract – “Magic emanates from Brewer’s still lifes, creating a theatre of curiosities with human skulls, candles, medical instruments, tarot cards and other memento mori. The photographer’s series of acrylotype plates entitled Fragmented Dolls is…
Vanitas Exhibition
An exhibition of unique photographic plates by John Brewer & Kate Horsley 8th December 2012 – 12th January 2013 at the Double Negative Darkroom 78a Glyn Road, Hackney, London E5 0JE; Launch event 8th December 2012 Growing out of the memento mori tradition of Renaissance Europe, vanitas is a genre of art that contemplates the transient nature of…
Podcast of ‘The Argument Man in Winter’
I’ve been doing some volunteer teaching at Start in Salford, and recently our creative writing group has been working on poems with a winter theme. Youth Arts co-ordinator Francine Hayron recorded our pieces and did a lovely job of editing them and adding sound effects, compiling them all into a snow-filled collection. Here’s my contribution,…
First Novel due out 2014
I’m delighted to announce that my first novel, The Monster’s Wife, will be published by Barbican Press in June 2014 as both a paperback and an eBook. Martin Goodman, editor at Barbican describes the tagline for their fiction as ‘Writing from the Discomfort Zone’ and The Monster’s Wife certainly fits that! Following in the tradition of Jean…
Manchester Artists’ Book Fair 2012
I had a lovely time at this year’s Manchester Artists’ Book Fair, selling books at the Hot Bed Bookstars table. As usual, there was a fantastic array of book artists from all over the UK in attendance, including Lucy May Schofield, Elizabeth Willow, Gemma Lacey and Sue Shaw, Oliver Flude and Lucy Roscoe. It was sheer pleasure to ogle and play…









