Years ago I had a debate with an acquaintance who insisted he would never read a work of fiction because it is not true, and therefore by definition, it is a lie. But although characters and events may be made up, fiction can still help us see the truth in a way that whole volumes of facts and statistics cannot. A history book can accurately tell us what happened when and where, but it cannot take you there and make you feel it, unless your powers of imagination are truly ext

I must confess that to me, the Pride flag is a horrible looking thing, but I have bought one anyway to display on the weekend of the London march. Its meaning transcends any aesthetic objections I may have. Also, seeing as it's Pride month, I’ve chosen to share the story of how in 1982, I went to read in the park and left it changed forever, having failed to absorb a single paragraph. Me in a 1980 photobooth snap. In the spring of 1981, without consulting anyone, I dropped ou

When people ask me what I most like to photograph, the word I find myself using often is ‘survivors’ - I like to record examples of things that have largely been swept away over the years - a ghost sign, a telephone box, an old shop front or a traditional pub. We hear so much nowadays about communities losing their pubs, but here is the story of The Palm Tree, a pub that lost its community. Bethnal Green 1922 Imagine for a moment that it’s the early summer of 1922 and you’ve

1930's issues of Health and Strength magazine. Physical Culture In Until the Real Thing Comes Along, Malcolm Trevelyan, a young man struggling with his sexuality, found it hard to get advice regarding his predicament. Malcolm's predicament. But, there was at least one publication which a young man struggling with his sexuality might have turned to. Health and Strength, a magazine established in 1898, was ‘the official organ of the Health and Strength League’ and it was mainst

Cigarette Cards In the 1930's they had their ‘celebrities’ just as we have today, but to a modern eye, most of their household names seem...

Between the wars, aviation became a national obsession. Besides the thrill of it, its potential for drawing the rest of the empire closer was increasingly appreciated - and unfortunately the Great War had also proven how effective it could be in attacking an enemy. Not that aviators were much safer in peacetime, in rickety wooden planes and gas filled dirigibles. R101 at its Cardington mooring tower (British Newspaper Archive) In November 2024, I caught a train to Bedford to

When I read a book or watch a film set in the past, I want to be taken there. I want to live it - to feel the good and the bad of that...

The everyday experience of ordinary people in any era has little to do with the words and deeds of monarchs and politicians, and everything to do with work, transport, shops, food, sport and pubs. These things are so common that an appreciation of them only seems to grow as they change or fade and disappear. In recreating the past, I aim to recall these things and immerse the reader in the period, which means getting the details right, as far as I can. Take a simple bus ride.

Some of the many books I bought from Gay's The Word over the years. Growing up in a Saucy Postcard World The occasional sex scenes in my...

It is fortunate for me, that the era I choose to write about is well-covered by some wonderful documentary films, as the genre was really...

To write about people in the 1920s and 1930s I attempt to immerse myself in the period as completely as I can. I listen to the music. I...

When young people buy gifts of music for older people they often assume that if it’s from their era, then they’ll like it. My brother...

A few readers have been kind enough to comment that the London I have tried to recreate in the first two novels seems real - in the case...

My second novel When Summer is Gone is published tomorrow, being the second part of The Likes of Us series covering the experiences of...