BUMPER ISSUE! feat. travel writing

May and June, what a couple of months they were. From magazines, anthologies and films featuring me releasing, to major updates on four of my own projects and an ideal month in France, it was full and wonderful. Like the bubblegum-croaking pool/marsh frogs I watched for days, let’s dive in.

Things I did

May 1st I had a fantastic time at Balu Brigada’s first headline concert in London, sold out at KOKO! I saw them open for twenty one pilots last year, so to witness their full show, with all the incredible tracks off their album Portal, and have Henry come into the crowd for their last encore track “Could You Not”, was special.

Before we went away, a quick visit to Uckfield yielded a fantastic look at an exhbition at Bridge Cottage about the twenty years of archaeology around Barcombe, where several Roman roads, a villa and bathhouse and more recently some fortified industrial complex has been found and is being excavated… remember I told you this.

And it would be impossible to tell you every instance of our month away, but it was life-changing, rewarding, reassuring, inspiring and every day I met a new species or visited some staggering landscape or historical site. Belonging, peace, freedom, faith, enchanted. I now know how a cricket likes to dig out its hole, how a donkey likes to be snuggled, how damselflies lay their eggs, and how to spot the outlines of large herbivores in rocks everywhere. Something special that comes from observation, exploration. I managed to pick up a few spells from the magic book of our planet that most have forgotten in the last 8,000, or even 200, or even last 5 years.

But that’s enough mushy stuff, right? You want an itinerary! Or maybe you don’t. But I’d like to, so…

I’d set a brief scene of one of my novels in Orléans because of its perfect location on the characters’ journey, and its statue of Joan of Arc. The statue was so much more in person, and so was exploring the rest of the city centre on our brief evening there. The old streets, the bridge, by the river, the squares and architecture.

We had a week at the wonderful Le Moulin de Pensol, an old mill complex converted into gites/B&B and with all their land rewilding. One of their fields was a chateau, there’s a carved medieval tithe stone in a nearby field just off the walking trail that passes through over the Bandiat river, and there are too many animals there to count.

Daytrips from there: the market and 13th-century Weathertop-like keep tower at Piégut; the unique Grotte de Villars - with beautiful cave art of horses, turned blue by calcite, incredibly dazzling ceilings of hundreds of crystal candles like micro Oxford spires, and a very large horse created with a line of paint and the natural rock, next to a painted scene! - and then in the same day, the romantic ruins of the Cistercian Abbaye de Boschaud; Cassinomagus - a fascinating Roman public complex, with impressively intact baths ruins, beauitful finds, and the mound of a Gallo-Roman temple with an artifical spring and sacred grove, made by aqueduct and pits - and on the way back, the perfect views from Chateau du Rochechouart and the art of the tortoiseshell butterfly-full path up meteoric rock to the castle/modern art gallery with wonderful 16th century Herculaen frescos; a dolmen on the way to Oradour-sur-Glane and Roman ruins, perhaps a mansio, on the way back…

Which brings me to Oradour… I put out a post, putting the lyrcis to Charlie Barnes’ Oradour to my photos from the matryr village, left as it was after WWII. The post has quite a long caption which I won’t add here.

Leaving Le Moulin, we stopped at Montignac on the way to Sarlat-la-Canéda. Montignac, a lovely town on the Vezere, against a steep hillside. I climbed up by the chateau for a view out. It was a magical ascent, and Sarlat was equally magical to return to that afternoon. Apart from the touristy shops, it’s really like stepping back in time there. Normally only a daytrip from where we used to stay, having four nights staying on one of the squares was special. We witnessed the old streets in all levels of light and lamp-lit darkness, the bustling market, iconic statues, art exhbitions and studios and the atmopsheric walk by the Lanterne des Morts round the cathedral, above. Plus, we saw Mando and Grogu two days before the UK, in a massive cinema with great sound. What a beautiful, fun film.

Sarlat was our base to visit caves. Just looking up the names will give images showing how special Grotte de Font-de-Gaume and Grotte des Combarelles are. While my brain may have lost specifics, I’ll never forget the feeling of being led into those tunnels, seeing creatures, art from so long ago come to life, in paint or engraved. Crouching down, taking in the persepctive tricks. The magic of a red laser pointer. There were countless stirring artefacts in the nearby Les Eyzies museum, with its incredible views from the old structures above the modern museum. We also visitied the entrance to the closed Grotte du Sorcier, just so I could be close, and experience the otherwordly walk from the carpark, past a pool reverbeating with frog song, past an impressive spring/well/lavoir, through a bamboo forest, up to the cliffside houses, dotted with troglodyte bricks.

Our next stop was three nights in the bastide town of Domme, and we didn’t realise that we were staying in the best-located apartment there! The town with the best views of the Dordogne, and the best sci-fi collectables/bookshop in Europe. I’ll elaborate.

Our door was on the quieter street along the edge of town, leading onto the market/petanque area with the low wall and viewpoint where we could watch the golden river, sunset and twinkling towns appear across the valley. We were also above the best icecream shop around. Our bedroom windows faced the church, so the rose window and Mary watched over me every night and welcomed me every morning. And the living room window looked out across the town square.

While eating dinner, we watched the new Mayor sworn in after a ceremony where a virtually branchless pine was adorned with flag-coloured wreaths, a sign with loads of little flags was hammered in, kids ran around it, and then with many ropes pulled from many vantage points, it was hoisted in front of the town hall. And the bookshop we’d visited four years ago had a whole new property deeper into town filled with so many collectables, it was like a treasure trove childhood dream brought to life. Restrainedly, I only bought five things from the hundreds and hundreds in overflowing boxes, on shelves and in cabinets, ranging from tiny single figures to a lifesize Captain Rex.

From Domme, there were trips to Jardins Marqueyssac and Château de Castelnaud. I could write a whole newsletter on the history of these two places. Most of that will be going into a future novel though, so I’ll spare you. I left Marqueyssac with a ring from the site’s boxwood, a complete understanding of the garden’s three-tiered hilltop layout, and the pleasure of an English tour small enough we got to go up into the attic of the chateau. Castelnaud has incredible views, and the history of its reconstruction, and the reconstruction of trebuchets on site, was just as interesting as anything ancient. Many of the decorated or unique weaponry in the castle’s Medieval Warfare museum were much more inspiring than when I was a kid!

Between Domme and our second stay at Le Moulin (11 nights!), we visited Lascaux IV, the newer reconstruction. I love that place. It’s a huge part of my novels’ mythology. It’s a huge part of my mythology. Can a place be a muse? I left after spending hours in the exhibition viewing every mark from every angle, soaking up every interactive experience that reinvigorated and reaffirmed the mission that is my unpublished universe of novels, spreading that word, or rather, that deep wordless connection. I also left with €100 of merch… and headed straight to the Lascaux II carpark to see the real site entrance. To soak it in, those woods, the fence.

Going from the horses of Lascaux to walking amongst the horses, in the woods, not like in the photo below… wow.

Over the course of three spread out days at Le Moulin, I mapped out a whole overgrown oppidum. Seventeen ticks, hundreds of scratches and lots of turning around was worth it, to match the old plan I’d found of La Redoute de Colginy, as the more ancient structure was supposedly used.

I’d written and heard so much about oppidums that it was magical to discover one, based on the advice to head uphill where the stream changes direction (joins the larger river). The first day, I followed some of that southern band, but only located myself after back and forthing around the north east corner, using a silver birch as a marker to confirm I was between two ‘corners’. Fun! It was tough to find the western half on two more trips, but eventually I ended up back in view of that birch. I’ve never been so happy to see a tree. Apart from in Two Towers.

We were also shown the caves, probably used as storage for the chateau once on Le Moulin’s site. The smaller has an ancient oven on one side; its chimney leads out into one half of the larger cave mouth next door, its ceiling black. Days from Le Moulin this time were:

Châlus, a town with two chateaus, but an old keep tower you can climb, past crows’ nests. It was from that tower where Richard the Lionheart was fatally shot. His entrails are under the ruined chapel! The lowers levels of the medieval hall were especially well preserved.

Using a google pin and a handrawn map, we visited special paths into a quarry bursting with Adonis blue buttereflies and new species. This was close to Grotte du Placard, named after its ancient synmbol artwork, a symbol found across other caves like Pech Merle. Sadly, I could only enjoy the recreated art etched into a rock face by the neighbouring stone cutting mill. There are a lot of other caves in the area around Montbron. On the other side of that town was a reserve where a hoopoe walked past!

We saw the incredible Roman temple tower to Vesunna, town walls, overgrown amphitheatre park, labyrinthine medieval streets and squares and the great museums (Vesunna house and of art and archaeology of Périgord) at Périgueux.

Brantôme, the old town where every building had a sign, surrounded by a river and monk-made canal, was home to a wonderful cliffside abbey, with mysterious and massive carvings. Enthralling in their religious ambiguity, a little like Royston Cave I visited last year. The same day we visited the picturesque Saint-Jean-de-Côle with its 11th century pentagonal plan church with the reliquary head of the baptist. They did admit there are many places to go tête-à-tête with for that title.

Also visited were Saint Saud’s grand etang and town, Abjat-sur-Bandiat with its snake-fountain Place du Temps Jadis and church, a massive stone head (double Easter Island size) in a cemetery, Roc Branlat and the incredible burst rosary of boulders the river there flowed through - and a sign from there led us to a chambre megalithique on the way back, in the farm track bank on the side of a forest near Saint-Barthélemy-de-Bussière. It was just there, intact.

On the drive to our final stop, we visited Argentomagus, a pre=Roman then Gallo Roman town. You could walk the sprawling ruins by the museum but the nearby theatre built into the hillside was a highlight. Two men came to change the display as we were there, the last tourists to ever lay eyes on the previous sign, or parts of it.

We stayed in the midst of fields near Sambin, in between our final three visits to the Loire, surrounded by tens of different birds, hares and a family of foxes. Blois’ porcupine trail let us down, but the city was wonderful, walk across the river, parks, monumental churches, the chateau exterior in all different styles.

Château du Clos Lucé/Parc Leonardo da Vinci, the place where he spent the last three years of his life, the place I only remembered from the gift shop which still had many models of Leonardo’s inventions. The more I looked at his sketches, the more I felt they were just fantasy designs. But to be in the rooms, and experience all the wonderful galleries, interactive additions and lifesize models in a beautiful garden was so inspiring. So many what if? stories and little links.

Then walking down into Amboise was like walking into a da Vinci dream, the imposing walls of the chateau with the little chapel on top.

Château de Chenonceau was our last stop, recommended by Sebastien de Castell. (On the way there we stopped at the amazing Roman structure of Tasciaca…) So many incredible stories of incredible women wrapped up in that incredible archicture, from the dark symbolic mourner’s bedroom, to the scientific minds and apothecary collections, to the bridge-chateau being used by the resistance to smuggle people out of the occupied zone. A real culmination of every human thing I’d seen on the trip, every arty achievement that’s a different sort of beauty to the natural world.

As usual, more photos are on the ‘gram… But the trip really changed me, and I think its ripples are hard to see with everything I was already working on before going that’s still in motion. They’ll be easier to see when the flow slows, I suppose. For now I’m back in the rapids.

Going to London was pretty frightening and depressing after being out in nature. It was worth it to see Banky’s statue and then some of my favourite actors in Romeo and Juliet though. I loved the alternate reality camera flashes, the giant clock screens and the dream sequence added to the end. The team really brilliantly conveyed the whole range of emotions in the text.

Seeing Clark Gregg after a decade of being a fan of his Marvel work and beyond was brilliant, as was Sadie Sink as Juliet. Special though, was seeing Kasper Hilton-Hille, maybe three years above me at school, and brother to someone in my class. He was so much fun as Mercutio. I witnessed a little of what he was like back at school, but also the actor, like his parents, he’s become. He’s also had parts in Peaky Blinders and Dear England (as young Southgate) this year!

As this month wound down, I saw a friend at Battle Abbey -good foreshadowing for the Bayeux Tapestry coming to the British Museum. Then the heat came. I had some exciting calls while hiding at home, though.

And then came something else exciting, which will continue into July, so I’ll save it for that newsletter. Remember that archaelogy exhibition about Roman finds at Barcombe?

Things I wrote

This newsletter…

The last issue of Star Wars Insider arrived while I was away. It contained some incredible final articles, a wonderful short story and… a cameo…

I'm so honoured to have contributed two articles to the magazine's historic run (maybe the youngest contributor?). I'm so thankful to have been included in Melissa Miller's retrospective feature, amongst so many legends. You’ll have to grab a copy of the magazine yourself to see what they all have to say!

Star Wars Insider was my first step into a larger world. The fact that my first byline was for Star Wars will always be special to me both personally and professionally and I’ll always thank Christopher Cooper for that. Seeing my words beside the Mortis gods as laid out by graphic designer David Colderley is a moment as unforgettable as when I first saw a lightsaber onscreen.

It wasn’t until issue 199 that I subscribed to Insider at a time when I was diving even deeper into my fandom. Growing up, I read The Clone Wars Magazine and Captain Rex was my favourite character. I treasured the Lego figure, had the helmet and even created a wooden sculpture of him with my grandfather. So, my Rex & Roll feature was very meaningful. To be able to define his journey in ten moments was a rewarding challenge – now I’m older, following Rex through three shows and his comics appearances revealed his brilliant character arc. The Bad Batch, and its return to the Teth monastery, was that satisfying last piece of the puzzle. I still think there’s many more Rex stories out there though, before The Clone Wars and after Rebels!

Despite being a relative newbie to Insider, I think its legacy, like that of the first Star Wars, will be one of exponential growth and future stories. Though the magazine is ending, all the writers and artists that worked on its two-hundred and thirty-seven issues will go on and make new things, not to mention the countless fans, like me, who were entertained, informed and inspired by reading each issue. Insider brought fans and creatives closer together, and it fostered the best side of the fanbase, the side which celebrates the whole tapestry and always looks for new ideas and angles to view nostalgic old threads or weave in shiny new ones.

Printed Resistance 01
Artists and writers respond to the word: ERASE
A limited first edition anthology of poetry, prose, art and a film. Short run of 150 copies. Made with funding from Arts Council England. All Backlash proceeds will support the UNICEF Gaza Relief fund.

My contributor copy of this wonderful anthology arrived just before I went away. Thanks to Gret at Backlash Press for including me! Please consider purchasing a copy. There are so many beautiful contributions.

The idea of resistance from this anthology tied in with everything natural and historical I felt and learnt in France, so was the obvious title for this newsletter. And as I was finishing writing it, I had another poem published!

“Light” was written for NYPL’s Library Zine! on the theme of good vibes. You can read the whole zine here! My contrubtion starts on page 10 of the pdf.

I had my name in an excavation report for the first time, for work I did last August. I can share now that I was digging a trench for a grill to protect the bats and… oldest art in the UK, in Bacon Hole, Wales. It was incredible to spend two days working at that site, right next to the art. A bone I found made it into the report too, studied by experts at Creswell Crags. Then the dating of the art fully hit the news (articles were everywhere!) at the start of June.

Cave markings dismissed for years confirmed as Britain’s oldest prehistoric art

While we’re on the topic of not really my writing but exciting things I was involved with, I have my first official acting credit now that A Life in Colour is on letterboxd! If you’re on that platform, please give it a like and add it to your watchlist. I had a great time on set in March. You may remember I was an SA on a music video in February too… the video’s out and it’s beautiful!

Obviously, I wrote less when I was away. But, I’ve still managed to begin work on a new comic, sending character descriptions and an outline to the artist! And, thanks to advice from some producers, I’ve been developing my pitch deck with more wonderful art and stills from other films. And I may have written another short, which has gone through five drafts already… things are on the horizon!

Including the South London Comic and Zine Fair on July 19th. The comics group I’m a part of, WIP Comics, are sponsoring the Discovery Hall, as well as having a table. And the zine I’ve contribtued to, GLUE, will be exhibiting as part of the ‘new discoveries’. So a major crossover for me and a great day out for anyone who can make it. I’ll be there supporting both tables and checking out the fantastic work from everyone else. Free entry!

2026 Projects Written

Comic: 1

Comic Outline: 1

Pitch decks: 3

Poems: 6

Rewrites: 8

Short Films: 2

Short Stories: 6

Steam Page: 1

Things I gained

The galaxy far, far away continues to deliver. It’s funny reading the prequel now that Maul - Shadow Lord‘s first season has ended, spectacularly, but the comic does deliver some deeper dives into the characters. Then we have the Cassian sequel to the prequel to the prequel to the first Star Wars, and also the prequel to the prequel to the first Star Wars. Gotta love non-linear release timeline gap-fillers. Speaking of, now that Disney’s Star Wars parks are changing some of their cast to original trilogy, Ethan Sacks has written another fantastic series set in Galaxy’s Edge to deepen links in that world.

A few finds include a (slim, hidden) 1938 guide to Corbridge, The Green Roads of England which has fantastic colour-coded maps and other inserts and Chaos & Flame by Justina Ireland and Tessa Gratton. Then comes everything from France.

The Les Eyzies National Muiseum of Prehistory was giving away six massive back issues of their Paleo journal. I couldn’t resist the wealth of information contained within the articles, even with the language barrier… Atop those are guides as mementos and mnemonic aids, for Font-de-Gaume and Lascaux. On top of everything is a signed edition of Felix and Bigotto’s The Secret of the Forest of Lascaux, a graphic novel published by their Dolmen Editions telling the story of the cave’s discovery, for which they worked directly with the men who found it when they were boys in 1940. As luck would have it, the artist Bigotto was signing outside the tourist office on Sarlat market day. I had to get a signed edition, and not only that. Working like one of the cave painters, he effortlessly sketched and then inked over the face of one of the four famous bulls, and the face of one of the four boys with his lamp, all the while being impressed as we told him all the caves we were visiting. He proudly stated this landscape was his home, as he wrote my name. In a way, it feels like a home for me too.

Thank you so much for your continued support. I missed writing for you for a month! And if you’re a new reader, welcome. I hope you’ll consider subscribing to hear about everything I’m doing, writing and gaining. These are normally a little shorter, I swear!