Hi!
My name is Andy Wiseman, I'm an indie author and I'd like to welcome you to not only my new website but also to my very first blog!
This website is my ‘shop window’, it’s where visitors can see and buy my books. It’s also where I get to talk about my work, my love of reading, and any random observations on life.
I grew up in a working-class family of book readers. My younger siblings and I inherited our love of books from our parents, and they from theirs. Books were read then passed around, the reading material usually commercial fiction, Jack Higgins, Wilbur Smith, etc., rather than Dickens or Shaw.
In the seventies, early on a morning and after I'd done my paper round, and before my father going to work on a building site, he and I could be found sitting at the kitchen table, he on one side, I, on the other, feet up on opposing chairs, legs outstretched, each with a book cradled in our hands. On the kitchen table would be empty plates that had once held slices of hot, thickly buttered toast, along with individual pots of tea, the kitchen warm and cosy from the residual heat of the freestanding cooker’s grill, the smell of burnt cotton tea towel lingering in the air on the (often) occasions Dad forgot to remove it from the top of the grill where it had been left to dry. The house would be still and quiet, my mother, brother and two sisters still in bed. Bookworm harmony and happy days!
My love of reading served me well, through my Comprehensive schooling. In junior school, we had what was called 'reading class' - one of the few classes I enjoyed and looked forward to - where each child would sit and quietly read to themselves. Once we had read our book completely, we then had to give a summary to the teacher of what the story was about before we would be given another. Because I was a voracious reader, I was frequently requesting another book, which often drew some suspicion from the teacher, and who would then want an in-depth summary before fulfilling that request. Had I been aware and brave enough, I might have pointed out that when you've been weaned on Wilbur Smith, the school curriculum reading level wasn’t overly challenging - but I wasn't, and I didn't. I remember the day I approached the teacher - book in hand - to overhear a boy on the 'top table' - the Comprehensive system had its quirks! - comment to the kids around him, that I was reading the same book as he was. I got the impression he was a little surprised, if not a little put out that someone from the 'lower tables' was on a par. From that day on, it became a competition between the two of us. We would take our books home to read, often discussing their content going to or from school, to then exchange them for another the following day, much to the disquiet of the teacher who would raise an eyebrow as we approached her desk!
The imagination is an amazing thing, we can all read the same book, but conjure up a completely different image. For me, reading a book of fiction is to venture into another world; to be somebody else for a while. I like to think that books are a one-dimensional key to the imagination, unlocking a three-dimensional wonderland. And the better crafted the writing, the easier the key turns!
NEWS UPDATE: Harry’s Revenge is close to being finished, it just needs to be edited, and so should be available early 2020. Anybody wanting a signed paperback copy of Harry’s Justice for Christmas, please purchase through this site. If you want a personal message adding, email me the wording using the contact box below.
Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Andy
