crisis while imports grind to a halt. Europe and Britain are erupting
into chaos as food runs out and desperate people take matters into
their own hands.
Harry Miller takes an offered discharge to get his sister and her
kids to safety. But he’s not fast enough. Trapped in the city with
a rag-tag collection of ordinary citizens, Harry struggles to create
a small pocket of stability – a place to ride out the coming
confrontation between rioters and the Army, and save themselves from
complete annihilation.
spent a busy life working in many different fields – including the building and rail
industries, as a workshop manager, trouble‐shooter for an engineering firm,
He also spent time in other jobs, and is proud of never being
dismissed, and only once made redundant.
help with the aftermath, Vance tried writing though without any real structure.
his cats, since his legs no longer work well enough to allow anything more strenuous.
novels, his writing tends towards those genres.
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What are some of your pet peeves?
People who complain about waiting when attending appointments at hospitals. The NHS (National Health Service) is FREE! They are getting top class medical treatment, drugs and equipment for nothing. If they don’t have a way to get there, the NHS send a FREE car or ambulance. If they end up sitting in a waiting room for an hour or two, so what?
Politicians who are more interested in clever quotes, or causing trouble, or fighting for influence or power, than in doing the job we elect them for.
What are your top 10 favorite books/authors?
Hard to stick to 10: So, (not in any particular order)
Robin Hobb
David Weber
Elizabeth Moon
Mike Shepherd
- E. Stirling
Steven Erikson
Isaac Asimov
Neal Asher
Alexander Kent
Jim Butcher
Kim Harrison
and Vance Huxley? 🙂
What inspired you to write this book?
An article about how the Gulf States, China and Russia were building super-refineries, and a comparison with the existing ones in India, Russia and Venezuela. It occurred to me that, within twenty years, up to half the world’s refining would be carried out at a handful of refineries, and how vulnerable refineries are to simple sugar rockets. What would happen if all of them were attacked at the same time. Why would they all be attacked. The attack on the Russian Parliament showed how vulnerable our democratic representatives are, and the idea grew.
What can we expect from you in the future?
The rest of this series, Fall of the Cities.
I am also writing a series about teenagers who discover magic, in a world where the church and sorcerers conspired to keep knowledge of magic from most of the population. Since most magical creatures are invisible unless a human connects with the magic we all have, our world is actually overrun.
There are also the bones of at least twenty more books or series on my computer.
Do you have any “side stories” about the characters?
Not in these series, or not yet. The nearest is an idea for a book about a character in Fall of the Cities who disappears in book one but returns in the last two books. I know the back histories of all the characters in my books, so side stories wouldn’t be difficult but I’m busy with the main story.
I have the drafts of at least twenty books or series on my computer, and there are ‘side stories’ in some of them.
Where were you born/grew up at?
I was born in Hull but we moved when I was four because my sister was ill. The doctor warned my parents that the smog at that time (1950) would have killed her. I grew up in a succession of tied houses out in the Lincolnshire countryside because my dad worked as a farm labourer.
If you knew you’d die tomorrow, how would you spend your last day?
On my electric scooter, with a flask and sandwiches, out in the countryside with my dog.
What kind of world ruler would you be?
Erratic, and most people’s worst nightmare. I don’t like either flattery or people who dress up their own agenda as ‘in the public interest.’ I haven’t the faintest idea what would sort out the current world problems, because there are too many people, not enough resources, too much easily avoidable pollution (like plastic wrappings), and too many entrenched interests that would fight any real change. I’d end up saying the wrong thing and we’d have a Thomas Beckitt moment. (King Henry II – “Who will rid me of this troublesome priest?” – and someone did – with a sword – oops.)
Mine could be something like “as far as I can see the only practical way to fix the world population is nerve gas.” I might not intend doing it, but there’d be a lot of people wanting to curry favour with a world ruler.
