This year, my short novel, Oothangbart, will be published by Pillar International Publishing in Ireland. Because it's a truly guileless book, I've tended to keep it close to me and not try to get it published. I guess in many ways it feels very personal, as I wrote it at a time in my life when I myself was feeling vulnerable and was conscious that I was on the verge of changing my job, my house, the city I lived in .... and therefore, I supposed, something would happen to my writing, something bad that is. It did take me some time to get back into my stride with writing when I moved, but I didn't have any real need to be so anxious about it.

I hope that Oothangbart will be a book that most people can relate to as it is about identity, longing, bewilderment, and being in love which many of us could have been from time to time.

The following is a short quote from the book:-
In The Time of Dreaming, some fellows had talked openly about Bristol, and although there were a few differences in the detail, many had agreed it was a far grander place than Oothangbart, and that all the fellows and sweetfellows there were strong and noble. ‘Much higher flagpoles,’ a large fellow had suggested, ‘very ornate statues and a fellow can reach high office quickly. And where in Oothangbart someone might only have one or two little fellows doing things for his comfort, in Bristol a Grand Fellow has at least ten, if not more.’
‘I shouldn’t suppose they have an escalator that only escalates on the upside either,’ someone else had murmured. ‘Rather, a Grand Fellow steps on, and is taken round full circle without having to move his legs one bit.’
Donal had listened quietly, and said very little, for his own ideas about it were quite different, and he knew it was wise to keep silent. In his imagination, it was a place where a fellow’s own business was not constantly scrutinised, a place where no one needed to compare himself to the next fellow, or put another fellow in an awkward spot with prying questions whose only purpose was to bring comfort to the one who asked. He was much in accord with Hutchinson on the subject of questioning for its own sake, or for devious purposes.
He had not wondered much about the physical properties of the place itself—the streets, the houses and the public buildings. Of course, some fellows, in his imagination, and maybe even sweetfellows—for why not?—had management tasks, otherwise things would not get done. But to Donal’s way of thinking workplaces were not awash with managers, over-managers, sub-managers, under-managers, small bosses and big bosses, and each of them overbearing and pompous. Those in important jobs were modest and quiet, and kept that way in the knowledge that they only held office for a short span of time. In such a place, a street escalator wouldn’t even be needed.'