'You couldn't make it up'

Take a moment to consider poor fiction writers. We’re in the business of making things up and we’re up against 2016. Fact is breaking out at such a furious rate that journalists are having trouble turning it into copy before it becomes irrelevant. Just this week we’ve had devastating hurricanes, the annihilation of the second largest city in Syria, the abandonment of children at the Port of Calais, an unprecedented shrinking of the ice caps, discriminatory laws proposed in the light of Brexit, Third Reich speeches given by British Parliamentarians, fist- fights among the Far Right in the corridors of power, the horrific spectre of a sneering Trump groping women with impunity. And that doesn’t include the world outside the spotlight - Colombia, Kenya, Turkey, Yemen. And that doesn't even include the week before. So please excuse me for passing a deadline with the arrival of my second novel. It’s still set in Crete and it is still about a shy whistleblower and its coming on nicely.