Article for Authors' magazine

I was asked to submit an article about how I came to write Narwhal.Always a tricky one.But here goes:-
What were the chief aspects you considered when writing ‘Narwhal’ your last novel?

The main trigger came from knowledge of the number of shipwrecks off the shores of the Isles of Scilly, particularly St.Agnes which I renamed (St. Hellicks).and from stories of the islanders which abound, telling of many strange objects being washed ashore. On St. Agnes one of the bays is named Beady Pool because even today, coloured beads , part of a cargo of a wrecked vessel, are still , after 200 years being washed up with the tide. The idea of the narwhal’s tusk came from my fascination with the idea that the narwhal was once called the ‘unicorn of the sea’ and that in the past the tusk was held to have special magical qualities. So I imagine it could have been carried aboard one of the many wrecked sailing ships in the past carrying valuable cargo. There are at least three famous ship wrecks off the coast of Agnes which were transporting loot from the Med. And recently a haul of gold coins valued at millions was discovered off the Scillonian shores.The Colossus, to name just one, was wrecked between St Agnes and Bryer in 1784 while carrying the entire wealth of Sir William Hamilton and only a fraction of that cargo has ever been retrieved.
.I have been visiting the beautiful windswept island of St. Agnes ( St. Hellicks) for well over 16 years and consequently have a detailed knowledge of its flora, fauna and terrain. Being close to nature is an integral part of the way of life of the island. I suspect only people who love isolation and the real beauty of such unspoilt places would ever bother to visit there. .
On Agnes there are less than 60 inhabitants and it is of necessity a close community. Resources tend to be pooled and shared and it doesn’t take a great leap of imagination to picture how an outsider might rock the boat. Indeed anyone from the mainland is still regarded as a foreigner and even those from the other ‘off islands’ are regarded as being ‘different’ Clearly I have exaggerated the tightness of the community and the insularity of the islanders to fit my story.
. The basic premise in the book is the need to respect the differences between peoples and while communities need to work together the book does not support the rejection of individuals who think and behave in idiosyncratic ways. I think you could probably express it as an awareness of a wider malaise in society, which is something I keep going back to in my writing. It seems to occur as a major theme in all my books particularly in the trilogy which begins with ‘The Brain Changers’
The other aspect that intrigued me was the wealth of material connected with the Scillies and so I found myself researching for fun ..I researched Runic inscriptions, the value of Narwhal tusks, Earth Mysteries on the Scillies, the Roman Tin islands, The Drowned landscape of the Scillies, Scillonian myths and legends, shipwrecks , specifically HMS Colossus, the work of Tesla, the effects of ultra sounds on humans and other natural species, Taos Hum, Tones of Planet Earth, the effects of 6-10HzELF on brain waves, Backwoods home magazine, living the ‘natural life’ Government use of ‘Mind control methods’ Cold war methods of Mind control. Bronze age monoliths, barrows, ancient inscriptions, the list is endless and much that was researched did not of course end up in the story to which I might add the many books of fiction and non fiction about piracy on the Scillies, ‘Hell Bay’ “Zanzibar” to name a few.
While I love the research part of writing I do try to restrict it only to those parts of the story which demand it because for me the pace and flow of the plot and the characters are the most important and vital aspects.