Greetings, folks!
Last week I was told that as of 31st August I’m being made redundant from my day-job at a school in Shrewsbury. For this reason, there’s going to be a short recess while I apply for a couple of jobs, sort out other affairs, and generally get my head together.
My partner Nicci and I are in no immediate danger. Nicci is permanently employed as a bookbinder, and has coped with the news, and supported me, as she always does, while I have various pensions coming in at the moment owing to being 60+. I also have a small amount of income from the music books I’m selling to Pen & Sword at the moment, and this of course is one of the factors in the decisions Nicci and I will be making. For instance: would it be right for me to concentrate on writing, even though the money coming in at the moment is quite small? Or should I go for a part-time job? Maybe doing what I do now, or perhaps stacking shelves locally - I’ve always loved the idea of walking to work!
At the moment my publication schedule is quite full. A History Of Punk: Punk & Pistolry is to be published on 30th August, and is now available for preorder. I’ve delivered the first draft of Pink Floyd; Album By Album to Pen & Sword, and have seen a rough of the cover design. At the moment that is scheduled for May 2026 publication. A fortnight ago I sold two more books to commissioning editor Jon Wright at Pen & Sword: Genesis; Album By Album, and something I took a punt on, but which he accepted and which I’m really excited about - a book on The Goon Show.
This latter book is what I hope to be writing over the summer holiday. My day-job is term time only, so from Saturday 12th July I’ll be free. Since discovering the Goons in the 1970s when I was a teenager, I’ve always loved The Goon Show, and writing a book about it is pretty much a dream come true. But I sold this to Jon with a distinctive proposal, which included analysing and describing the nature of humour itself. This will in fact be a book that speaks of the human condition. It’s for this reason amongst others that I’m so exciting about the opportunity I’ve got here.
For almost forty years I’ve read about, pondered, considered and written about aspects of consciousness and the human condition, yet because I’ve got no background in academic psychology or philosophy I’ve been treated - quite rightly - as a total outsider. But I don’t believe I’m a total outsider with nothing to say. One of the problems I’ve always had, and which led to the setting up of this very Substack, is that nobody takes me seriously because I don’t have a Dr in front of my name and because my degree and subsequent day-job career was in physics and education. But I do have something to say about consciousness and the human condition, as you, if you’ve been reading my Substacks over the last couple of years, will hopefully agree. That insight and understanding will manifest in my book about The Goon Show.
If you want to support me, there are various things you could do. You could pay to subscribe to this ongoing Substack - it’s not expensive. You could buy one or more of my books, the majority of which are easy to acquire. And if you have bought and read any of my books, you could leave a review on Amazon or at Goodreads, since that’s where most review action takes place these days. Reviews are incredibly helpful to a professional author.
So… onwards now into a different future!
And thank you!
