大象传媒

My name is Philip Neale, I am 56 years old and have been an accountant for over 25 years.

Lynn and I were married in 1976, live in Heanor and have two grown-up children.

I have been writing for around two years and one of my short stories finished in the top ten of an international competition advertised in the Derby Evening Telegraph in 2007.

Bashing out more prose

Subsequent to this I posted a series of works on to a number of internet sites, principally Storiesville where they have been very well received, and this gave me the encouragement to take my writing to the next stage.

My first venture into the world of publishing was to compile a collection of short stories on to one of a number of self-publishing websites in 2007, but it was not until I had completed three manuscripts that I began the search for a commercial publisher.

'A Ticket to Tewkesbury' began life as one of 100 pieces which I have written. It was intended to be the tale of two young people thrown together at the end of WWII, who then became separated and destined not to meet again.

The discovery of an old letter written by the soldier, Roger Fretwell, to his sweetheart nurse Madeline Colson in 1946 changed all that.

It had remained lost until 1992 when Julie Martin found it amongst the possessions of her recently deceased Aunt Molly.

The end of the story was to have been the reuniting of two old and lonely people who would then spend the rest of their lives together.

Proof reading

However, the 2,500 words seemed incomplete and I wondered what would have happened if the soldier had brought something of great importance back from Germany with him.

The more I though about it the deeper the plot became, and it developed quite naturally into something far more sinister than a mere souvenir collected as the spoils of war.

I submitted the customary synopsis and sample chapters to a publisher, Pneuma Springs, at the beginning of July this year and within two weeks they had approved the full manuscript for publication.

I decided to use a pen-name because Philip Neale sounded exactly what you would expect from it - an accountant. 'Neal James' has the feel of a writer and is unashamedly borrowed at no extra cost from my son James!

The finished article was released on October 2nd and is available through Amazon, Waterstones, WH Smith, Blackwell and the publishers themselves.

The book is my third completed work, the other manuscripts being 'Talk About Laugh', a sentimental journey through our family life, and 'Two Little Dicky Birds' an 85,000 word novel about the chase for a serial killer.

I am currently half way through a fourth work 鈥淎 Tangled Web鈥�.

Philip Neale