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I am really looking forward to talking about Nick Drake & the Late 60s Folk Scene with the wonderful Cathi Unsworth and Richard Morton Jack at Westminster Reference Library on 21st March. Details here.  

Latest novel: The Pieces

The Pieces cover
My latest book, The Pieces, was published by Senex Press in May 2024. In 1968, English folk-singer Adam Earnshaw vanishes during a tour of the U.S. In The Pieces, a wide array of voices – university friends, lovers, fellow-musicians, a pirate radio DJ, an expatriate American record producer, an obsessive, self-destructive teenage girl – contribute their own fragments to the puzzle of his life. All, in their very different ways, have been indelibly touched by their encounter, more than fifty years ago, with the brilliant but elusive Earnshaw. But none, ultimately, can explain the riddle of what happened to him.

Praise for The Pieces

The Pieces is amazing – both as a thriller and as an insightful dissection of the forces at work in the 60s music industry. And the characterisation is superb. Perfect reading for noir fans as well as music fans. I loved it!” Cathi Unsworth, author of Weirdo and Season of the Witch: the Book of Goth “Besides being as catchy as a classic 1960s hit single, The Pieces is so persuasive that it’ll send you in search of records by the fictional 1960s singer-songwriter at its heart.” Paul Willetts, author of Members Only, filmed as The Look of Love “When you read a slice of rock fiction this juicy, with this much ravishing detail about the Woodstock era, you swear the music somehow lives on beyond the book.” Tim Riley, NPR music critic and author of Tell Me Why: A Beatles CommentaryThe Pieces is an absorbing work of literature, with a quality of writing to match its ambition, with pace and plotting that will tease and satisfy, [and] a use of polyphony and perspective that will keep the reader engaged and guessing. It is a real feat.” Lee Oser, author of Old EnemiesThe Pieces is a brilliant novel, intriguing, page-turning—and often very funny—right from the start. . . . I loved it!” Sarah LeFanu, author of Something of Themselves “[T]he book is much more than a recreation of a pivotal time in our recent history: it’s a powerful, dramatic and colourful narrative, which had me gripped from start to end . . . [C]ompelling, deeply moving—and unputdownable.” David Stoll, Professional Composer “Evokes the magic of the 60s without cliché, the dark side without cynicism, and so much else along the way.” Dan Hitchens, senior editor at First Things