I remember lying in bed as a young boy while my dad sat on the edge of my mattress reading me the illustrated version of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island. Desperate fort defences manned by pistol and musket, sword and courage. Betrayal. Heroism. Brotherhood. Villainy.

I remember, years later, falling asleep in class at Terrigal High School because I’d stayed up until four in the morning reading Robinson Crusoe. I remember being so enthralled by Tolkien’s The Hobbit when I was twelve or thirteen, that later in life when I got a copy of the Lord of the Rings trilogy I forgot to go to uni classes because I was so engrossed in the storyline. I remember finding David Gemmell’s Rigante series in a suitcase left with me by an American friend and devouring the entire series in one weekend as his grey characters blew me away.

Reading, taking the words of men and women who dreamt the same dream and letting my imagination run wild with their characters and worlds, has been my ever faithful and obsessive companion throughout my waking life.It was only a matter of time before, when I was fourteen and had just finished watching Interview with a Vampire, I would try to emulate my literary heroes with pen and paper.

Shield of Secunda is my first novel, and the first step in the realisation of my dream.

This website is dedicated to the furthering of that dream, wherever it should take me.