Philip Tew

Author

Philip Tew has written fiction intermittently since his first draft novel, completed during the summer of 1979. As well as numerous jobs in different fields—as cable drum-maker; van-driver; secondary and primary schoolteacher; stagehand at the opera; researcher in television production—he was a university lecturer in English in eight different universities in Britain and Hungary. 

In recent years Philip published three books of fiction with Brigand, two novels, Afterlives (2019) and Clark Gable and His Plastic Duck (2020), and Fragmentary Lives: Three Novellas (2019). 

Philip says: "I always loved reading, avidly consuming fiction from age eight. My aspiration was always to be a writer, and over the years since 1979 I’ve completed around five other unpublished novels.”

He admitted, “In the early 1980s, I was employed on a Greater London Council inflatables project. I was befriended by a fellow playleader, later novelist, Will Self, who subsequently described my ‘strange phobia about driving through tunnels.’ Self would add about our second summer working together ‘one day he just disappeared. […] He popped up as an academic - as people do - in the guise of an English literature lecturer.’”   

Indeed, in 1997 Philip was awarded a doctorate for a thesis on his favourite 1960s experimental novelist, published as B.S. Johnson: A Critical Reading (Manchester UP, 2001). He has published further scholarly works as variously author, co-author, or editor, including Coming of Age (Demos, 2011), an influential policy report on ageing. In 2016 at Brunel University, he completed a second doctorate in Creative Writing, which much revised, became his first published novel, Afterlives.

Philip is the current and founding director of the annual Hillingdon Literary Festival (HiLF).

Neil Davies

Author

Neil Davies left Secondary Modern School at the age of 14 with no qualifications. He joined the Parachute Regiment at 17 and experienced active service in the Middle East and North Africa. Upon being discharged from the forces and suffering with PTSD, he flitted aimlessly from country to country, continent to continent, job to job. He has worked as a logger, steelworker, on fishing boats, building work, rank & file union organiser, out-door pursuits instructor and lecturer.

Neil eventually became an award winning film-maker. His work has included an award for Broadcast Documentary of the Year for "Raw Spice” (ITV). Artist of the year for two series of "Nights at the Empire” (Channel 4), as well as success with series, "Inside RAF Brize Norton” (Sky One), and “The Hunt” (BBC).

Neil is a member of the Soldiers’ Arts Academy, does volunteer work at the London Veterans’ Clinic, St Pancras Hospital, and over the last few years scratched an itch for doing stand-up comedy, acting and writing fiction.

See Neil's continued work with veterans during the Covid19 crisis

Peter Holland

Author

Barbary Slave is Peter's first novel, and his first published work. He recently completed editing a second book, My Eight Year War, his uncle's personal memoir of World War Two, first written in 2001.

For Peter 2018 has been busy, studious and creative: Two books and completing an MA in Early Modern History (1500-1800). During this course, he became interested in the subject for his novel.

Previously Peter was a teacher for thirty years and worked in business for eight.

Born and raised in Holloway, north London, for twenty years he lived and raised a family in Barnet before moving to Suffolk in 2017. Active in athletics for over forty years, he still runs once or twice a week, and more recently has enjoyed the challenges of the gym and dog walking.

Elizabeth Wilde McCormick

Author

Elizabeth Wilde McCormick has worked as a psychotherapist for forty years in both NHS and private settings, in London and in Suffolk.  She is particularly interested in what it might be that allows us to become present with suffering and find transformation. 

Both her non fiction and fiction bring to life her interest in the many different paths to healing for the human mind and pose the questions 'can people change?' and if so, what is it that changes? 

Her self-help books translate complex psychological concepts into a language that invites readers to find understanding and support for themselves. Her fiction takes the reader on an intimate journey with the characters exploring difficulty and opportunities for change.

https://elizabethmccormick.co.uk

Dr Wasyl Nimenko

Author

Dr Wasyl Nimenko was born in Ipswich. His mother, a devout Catholic, was from the O’Dowd Clan in the west of Ireland and his father, a staunch Atheist, was from Dnipropetrovsk in eastern Ukraine. Wasyl studied medicine and psychotherapy in London and from 1982-1991 he worked with survivors of torture. He has worked extensively in the NHS, with the armed forces, the homeless, as well as with the NYPD in New York after 9/11. 

In 1984 he researched the stress of virtual reality for Xerox in the first users of the Xerox Star; the forerunner of almost all personal computers. In 2011 he researched the use of archaeology in the psychological decompression of wounded soldiers, and in 2015 he described Post Repatriation Stress Disorder. 

The theme of his writing is searching for inner happiness, which he first expressed by writing about his travels to India in ‘Searching in Secret India.' He continued by writing about his travels around New Zealand and Australia in, ‘Searching in Secret New Zealand and Australia.’ He explored healing his own wounds, as well as his search for happiness, in the autobiographical ‘Searching in Secret Ukraine.’ He openly reveals the notes he uses when he is with people in crisis in ‘Notes from the Inside

Michael Martin

Author

Michael Martin’s first novel has just been published by Brigand Press. Little Flowers uses fictionalised Barnet landmarks to tell the story of Guy Brown who comes under the influence of fanatical town planner Maclean, whose mission in life is to create a suburban Utopia. Seeking escape in a fantastical book about St Francis's battles against the Holy Inquisition, and a werewolf, Guy find disturbing parallels with his daily worries. This is his first novel to be published following earlier success with several short stories. Since Michael’s first story was broadcast on Radio 4 as part of their ‘Opening Lines’ series to introduce new writers, he has continued to be published in magazines and online. In 2014 he won the Irish Post short story competition, reading the winning entry at the Listowel Writers’ Festival, and coming third in the inaugural Benedict Kiely prize, which has become the centre piece of the Omagh Literary Festival. 

Allen Peppitt

Author

Allen was born in 1958. In terms of current writers, he sees himself as being taller than Martin Amis and shorter than Will Self. He has been attempting to write novels for over twenty-five years and now feels he has got the hang of it. 

Allen was educated at Brunel University, and it was this connection that led him, via Will Self and Phil Tew, to Brigand. He was a teacher of economics, English and other subjects for over thirty years until his retirement last year. He now works as a teaching assistant and admits to not missing the marking and preparation.

Married (happily) for the second time, Allen has three children from his first marriage. He considers raising a family, as a single parent, the greatest achievement of his life. 

Killer Queen is his first novel with Brigand, although he has written other full-length pieces of fiction which are available on kindle. 

Many years ago, Allen was a keen club runner and broke two minutes for 800 metres when he was just sixteen – an achievement he never fails to mention.

Martin Ouvery of Jericho Writers has recently described him as being sentence by sentence, idea by idea, the best writer he knows. Martin does not get out very much these days.

Kingsley Poole

Author

About the writing process, he says: 

“I’m not ashamed to admit I followed a few rules in the way novices do: first, I used the mythic ‘hero’s journey’ template for the storyline (ordinary world, call to adventure, special world, ordeal, reward); second, I wrote about what I know (doctoring); third, I was mindful of an adage – unearthed in one of those ‘how to write’ books – stating that story=characters=dialogue. Fourth, I tried to write like my heroes (Orwell, Hemingway, Salinger, and others), and even though I wrote like none of them, still found they inspired me. Fifth, and most important, the ‘not giving up’ rule – no matter how hard it seemed, I just kept going. The further I went, the more the story took on a magical life of its own, and when that happened, I began to see why people write for a living.”

How about your publishing journey? As a first-time novelist was it hard?

“I wrote The Sudden Metropolis in my days off work. No-one was very interested at first, but I kept going and wrote two more books. Having three made a difference; a local publisher signed me up and the subsequent novels were well received on the Amazon platform (see reviews for The Sudden Metropolis below). Then just over a year ago, I decided to change to Brigand, encouraged by the easy-going attitude of the team and their credo of allowing the author their autonomy. From the first phone call, Brigand showed real interest and a refreshing honesty, and as the months passed, we forged a good relationship. Their experienced team helped me shape a slightly revised and improved version. I suppose all first novels need small tweaks. At some stage I hope to bring out the sequels, but in the meantime, enjoy The Sudden Metropolis – I’m thrilled to have it back out there.”

“This book is unusual in many ways - the subject matter, the breadth of settings, the extraordinarily colourful characterisation and its sensitive unfolding of the emotions, human compassion and spiritual opening up of a maturing young man. The storyline itself is hugely imaginative. This book is truly multidimensional - not many authors achieve this so successfully. As a first novel this is remarkable, I loved it and couldn’t put it down - who doesn’t want a book like that?”

G. E. La Haye