It always pays to do some research, even, when as I am, you are creating your literary world. My novels are set in a post-apocalyptic but not dystopian future England, very roughly Edwardian society meets Tudor politics. This means that I can play a little bit with how things are in relative safety and the … Continue reading Ely… The visit that nearly unravelled my plot…
The night time custom of wearing masks had become a commonplace, as it once was in medieval Venice, in the claustrophobic rabbit warren of the Old City of my grandfather’s youth. It provided a measure of discretion that covered for human frailties in so crowded a space in judgemental times. Business, romance and crime had … Continue reading Chapter 6 – Masquerade
Idressed down for my visit to Vernon’s base near the docks. My oldest coat, a battered wide brimmed hat, a moth eaten checked scarf, a long knife in my outside coat pocket. Underneath the coat a jacket with thin, hardened steel, plates sewn inside it, a prudent precaution even in normal times in that part … Continue reading Chapter 4 – Urban Living
Boredom had won and driven me out into the Old City with some of the usual suspects. Waking up on the couch in Diego’s scruffy flat was a painful experience. My mouth tasted foul. I had a crick in my neck and bruises on my ribs from things I had slept on. The tatty blanket … Continue reading Chapter 1 – October, Anno Domini 2153
A few people have queried some of the technology that is, and is not, present in my vision of a post-apocalyptic world. The commonest queries are about phones... no one seems to believe that the mobile phone (cell phone for our friends across the pond) would cease to exist! Many people of course can't imagine … Continue reading After The Deluge… Part 10: Telephones
Passing the cathedral on the last warm evening of autumn I heard the choir practicing. The building towered away into a bright starry sky and the sound of the organ drifted on the breeze, an echo of the ages. A cathedral has stood here in one form or another since the time of Alfred The … Continue reading Requiem In Pace…
Given my previous post about war and questioning the representation of it maybe it is a little perverse to set down to write a brief canter through the history of fortifications. However, defensive structures can, and have, prevented conflict for millennia. They have also be the focus of conflict, resistance, survival and defeat. Many castles … Continue reading Fortification – A Brief History… Part 1
Modern houses are made, for the most part, of brick and concrete blocks. Topped with tiled roofs. At least in the UK. There is a lot of labour in making the bricks but a major reason that they were, historically, expensive was the cost of fuel. Where timber is used as the fuel there is … Continue reading After The Deluge… Part 9: Houses
Jeremiah Hope 