Tony Durrant

A journalism tutor of mine used to say 'there's a book inside every journalist'. In my case there's been two.

     The first was an action/adventure tale born of the escapist reading of Bernard Cornwell, the best way to ease the pain of a long London commute.    

     I knew the genre, enjoyed the writing journey and Veldt Hunter, the first tale of Harry Swift, hero of the Boer War, was rewarded with a shortlisting in an adventure writing competition. 

      Work has taken me to many places, including Afghanistan in 2012 and 2014, where I had the idea for my second protagonist, a damaged war veteran.

     I used the landscape of my home as the setting and Curlew Song came out of a creative journey mentored by an industry professional as part of winning an international writing prize.   

     To give my protagonists a fighting chance I got an MA in Creative Writing with the Open University (I highly recommend). 

     Will those two hopeful novels ever see a publisher's mark? I hope so.