Welcome To This website
Apologies for the very recent photo – even with Vincent’s embellishment. I am aware that it is more common for writers to include pictures of themselves looking young and fit, but it hardly seemed to matter in my case, given that I peaked at the age of eight.
I do not consider my writing to be part of any ‘industry’ or to constitute a ‘brand’. When asked by an agent where I thought my books might be placed on a bookshop shelf, I really didn’t have much of a clue. Not so high that it is difficult to reach? Not so low that a reader would have to crouch? Should I know? Don’t they know in the bookshop where to put them? Or does every author need to be consulted each time a new book arrives?
When I write something it is because the mood takes me to that place. As a consequence, the books might be divided into different categories, a potential problem, I accept for a few inexperienced employees in that bookshop.
Some of my books are written to amuse. Chaplin suggested that a day without laughter was time wasted. I hope some readers, at least, will get the occasional chuckle from ‘How to Survive the 21st Century…’ – or perhaps, from the satirical shorter books, ‘Thus Departeth Warren’ and ‘Ye Olde Sceptred’. I hope that others will find the stories with historical settings of interest, such as ‘Three Boys’ and ‘A Moth Ate Words’.
I don’t view any books to be restricted to a single, niche age group, but I guess that the Babushka trilogy and ‘My Hamster, The Führer’ would be considered ‘Young Adult’ by many, simply on account of the age of the protagonists. There are certain elements that recur in that writing: fantasy mixed with realism; time slip stories; a reluctance to ‘write down’ to readers; the inclusion of themes that might be daunting. One agent advised me that some of the subject material was too dark for the age-group. Well, in the first place, I thought, the book concerned was written to appeal across age ranges, and secondly, I have always believed that teenagers are capable of dealing with difficult topics. Indeed, it strikes me that they often engage with the more troubling existential issues that older people hide away from. Years of teaching young people left me with more optimism with regard to teenagers than with older people, who commonly seem to lose both empathy for others and any sense of idealism.
I have grouped the books here, accordingly, but, please, feel free to ignore such signposting and continue your journey in any direction that takes your fancy.
Levi
Levi M 