Since the publication of his first novel That They Might Lovely Be in December 2017, David has been working on a trilogy, Soft Apocalypse. Whereas That They Might Lovely Be looked back to the first half of the twentieth century, Soft Apocalypse looks forward to the second half of the twenty-first.

This is no dystopia although some of the social and political issues of the current age have developed, shaping life in Britain (no longer a United Kingdom) as seems reasonable to expect. These books are not Sci-Fi, in the sense that they focus on technological advances, although scientists do have the ability to map brain-activity and ‘harvest’ memories. Rather, they explore the way that humankind has reacted to the dominance of virtual living. The stories, spanning a decade, focus initially on two teenagers, Pee-Bee and his friend Prudence. There is adventure and danger. There is also a gradual awakening as to how homo sapiens must adapt, in order to have a fulfilled existence.

The title of each book in the Soft Apocalypse trilogy, Wasted Powers, A Sordid Boon and Triton’s Horn is drawn from one of Wordsworth’s greatest sonnets.

David is also working on a suite of radio plays, based on a remarkable set of letters written during World War II between a Major in the Royal Artillery, on active service in North Africa and Italy, and his fiancée, back home in Ayrshire. He hopes they might get an airing in time for the 80th anniversary of the end of the war in 2025.

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not. Great God! I’d rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.

His interest in the past and the lives of his ancestors, either imagined or based on stories passed down the generations is prompting him to write a series of ‘moments’ shaped into short stories. He hopes these Tales of Our Forebears will last as an enduring family history

Poems for special occasions, or when inspired by particular experiences (like our 2020 trip to New Zealand) slip out every now and then.