Cast new shadows. Are writers born, or formed? Craft or graft? Fix it or bin it? Anyone with creative aspirations will have asked themselves how to journey from blank page to completed manuscript. With a collection laced with a joyful pessimism that ultimately understands that the pleasure of the writing process is as rewarding as the finished article, Thomas Hocknell shares his thoughts on the writing process and Life. From a look at what successful people do before breakfast (one would hope sleep) to the importance of writing in a corner, this collection will be useful to writers, readers and anyone interested in the creative life and living itself. This is the most important book since How Not to Die by Gene Stone and Michael Greger. Praise for his WHSmith Fresh Talent novel The Life Assistance Agency, and its sequel Unfinished loved it! Original, very clever, unusual and very funny. A seriously intriguing read!' - James Dreyfus 'The book is great, every line is punchy as f***.' - Leo Kearse ‘Success hasn’t changed him; he was always an idiot.’ Anon.
Thomas Hocknell is a blogger at idle Blogs of an Idle Fellow - writing in the manner that Jerome K Jerome might have, were he writing in 2016, and not 1886.
The Life Assistance Agency is his first novel and is the journey of a blogger, Ben Ferguson-Cripps, who sets aside his literary failures to join the newly established Life Assistance Agency in pursuit of a missing professor obsessed with the Elizabethan alchemist Dr. Dee.
It is influenced by Douglas Adams, PG Wodehouse, Tintin, Dan Brown, and Conan Doyle.