It’s the summer of 1995. The US Peace Envoy, Fred Martinson, begins to broker a peace deal for Northern Ireland. The world holds its breath as the first tentative steps are taken.
Jones, an 18-year-old from suburban England, has stumbled through education and yearns to be a football reporter. He is offered a place at Milton College, a former secretarial school with a clandestine partnership with GCHQ in seeking the communication stars of the future.
Before he knows it, Jones has been recruited, paired with Jenny Richmond, who is every bit his equal, and sent to Northern Ireland to undertake skills development and resilience testing with the Young Communicators Unit (YCU).
Training becomes a matter of life and death when a group of trainee spies learning on the job are betrayed to their death, and their most promising member, Isadora Brown, is taken hostage. MI5 and YCU are sent a video of her reading demands by a mysterious organisation called Red Line.
What if a group of young trainees were forced onto the frontline to deal with one of the most sensitive issues in UK history? What if political relations were so sensitive at the end of The Cold War, that only a group of deniable students could change history and keep super powers from ruining the first steps of a peace deal in Northern Ireland?
It’s a race against the clock to find and free Isadora, and make sure the US peace talks aren’t sent up in flames.
But who, exactly, is betraying who?
The book is available at tinyurl.com/3r6psybw (released on 30/06/23)
- How did you get started writing?
I’m a trained journalist and have written for as long as I can remember. I enjoy creating new landscapes with words and trying to fill them with colourful people. One of my earliest memories is standing up and reading a story I created at primary school. However, the notion of writing a novel never really hit me until I needed to rethink my life. I lost my father in October 2020 and needed something to throw myself into, to divert my brain away from that pain. Hence, after only eight months, Topaz was born. - What drew you to write a novel
I think the turmoil of losing a loved one led me to want to temporarily live in a different universe, that I could shape and hone. In the past, when I needed space or to reset, I’d disappeared to Northern Ireland and I’d previously spent time living near Belfast in the 1990s. But in the middle of the pandemic, I decided to build that new universe in my head, on paper and then add interesting dimensions. That’s not to say I hadn’t attempted novels in the past, I did once in the early 2000s, but this came together due to the perfect storm of life at that time. - Which writers past or present have influenced your style of writing?
I studied English Literature and have always enjoyed the classics, I like to delve into a character irrespective of the era or genre and try to get under their skin. I enjoyed reading Thomas Hardy and D.H. Lawrence. However, it was John Le Carre, Ruth Rendell and Ian Fleming that inspired me to look into thriller and espionage fiction. The only tweak I needed for my own style was to remove to machismo element and perhaps look at the flaws, weaknesses and humour of the main protagonists.
So, my style is somewhere between the humour of Andrew Cartmel (Vinyl Detective) and the spy thriller fiction of Charles Cumming. - When you first started writing did you find it hard to get publisher interest?
I had no intention of publishing Topaz. Tough love by my family was used to urge me to look into publishing and I have to thank Hayley Webster, the Book Doctor, for helping me pluck up the courage to send out the manuscript to Spellbound. The team there have been fantastic and I enjoy the flexibility and warmth of working with Sumaira and Nikki. - There are many interesting characters in your Novel, do you have a particular favourite one?
There is a character called Declan McNally, a Derry man, who is a grizzled former spy and in Topaz becomes part of the management team at Milton College. I’ve enjoyed seeing his character change from a rather forlorn and frustrated man, to a reinvigorated and re-energised operative. He seems to get his inspiration from the youngsters on the team and discovers his humour whilst holding onto his little quirks. I enjoyed seeing him develop. - What kind of research have you have to undertake for your Novel?
Not a great deal for Topaz. The story has been rooted in my head for an awfully long while. However, when you’re writing about places and themes so dear to you, you need to double check for accuracy and ensure you’re not being insensitive about certain communities. I had friends who I could call upon to help with aspects of that, but nothing beats returning to Belfast, Lisburn and other key areas to ensure everything is correct! - Are the characters in your books based on any real life?
I’m tempted to skip this question! In all honesty, I think every character has traits that I’ve garnered from people I’ve met in my life. But I’ve also tried hard not to re-imagine friends, colleagues or contacts in the Topaz universe, as that wouldn’t be fair. - Do you have a particular favourite scene in the book and why?
There is a scene where the main protagonist, Jones, phones back to his university Halls to arrange for his clothes to be delivered to Lisburn. His two friends have been drinking all day and the carnage of trying to hold an important conversation with someone so drunk and so easily distracted still makes me laugh when I read it. There are other, more emotional, explosive and violent scenes throughout the book, but without giving away spoilers it would be difficult to explain. - Do you see any of your characters personality in yourself and vice versa?
Both Jones and Jenny Richmond have my humour, challenges and traits in abundance. But neither are based on me. Jenny’s imposter syndrome, Jones’ struggle with his unique set of skills and even how their relationship blossoms due to their need for mutual support and care in a challenging context, reflects my own experiences in life. But Jones and Jenny are braver and more intelligent than I’ll ever be! - If you can, would you give us a sneaky peak into any future novels you might planned.
Topaz is book one in the Topaz series. The second book, Wild Flowers, completes the first and takes us on another more exotic journey where the team meet politics, relationships and their first steps into international espionage head on. The third, which I’m currently finishing, is called The Mainstay, and is back in Belfast, Lisburn and the fictional village of Ballyramsey. This is a standalone story with a strong whodunnit vibe. - If you had the opportunity to write a novel with any writer alive or dead, who would it be and why?
In his books, Ian Fleming used to understand the technical detail behind every piece of equipment, the geography of every landscape and even the cuisine of every location. John Le Carre added the layers of emotion and feeling that brought his characters to life without being prescriptive to the reader. With that in mind, I’d probably want to meet those two incredible authors in a bar somewhere and craft a story together - Do you have words of advice you can share with anyone who is interested in writing a Novel.
Write about what and who you know and don’t expect the reader to have any prior knowledge. Take them on your journey and help them through the different aspects of your story. Use your language and narrative to add colour and don’t try to be someone else or mimic a style, as that can often come across uncomfortable. Remember, the literary world is now full of celebrities and influencers who see writing a novel as part of a portfolio career. We all need to complete against that troubling trend - www.thetopazfiles.com
- Twitter: @thetopazfiles
THERE'S BEEN A MURDER 