A narrative of first lines

Typing

The rationale: I wrote this piece about three years ago, and initially didn’t dare publish it as I was worried I might fall foul of copyright law. However, I like it too much to let it sit in my ‘Miscellaneous Projects’ folder gathering dust, so I’ve decided to publish it with the proviso that, if it turns out I’m breaching […]

In defence of fantasy

The Lord of the Rings

Fantasy writing often gets a bad press. It’s accused of not being serious literature, providing nothing but escapism, and encouraging us to sit around waiting for a magic resolution to all our problems. I disagree with all of the above. I will declare an interest in the matter: speculative fiction (SF; encompassing many sub-genres including fantasy, sci-fi and, yes, the […]