Martin Ash

Joined Extinction Rebellion in Central London. Wonderful atmosphere, people of all ages and backgrounds from so many countries, gathered peacefully and making such a vital point. Incredible to witness Oxford St, Regent St, Marble Arch, Park Lane and more completely traffic-free. Full admiration for all those who’ve camped out all week in London and elsewhere to make this happen. Will

Read more

I’m asked about influences. Always a tricky one. There are so many. Where does one start? Where end? Every experience over a lifetime will in some way filter into and define the nature of a fiction. Studies  we engage in, people  we meet, places we visit, myriad books, films, music and so much more shape our experience and remodel our

Read more

Dawn hot-air balloon flight over Cappadocia, plus the Mevlana Museum (mausoleum of Jalal ad-Din Muhummad Rumi, better known as the Sufi mystic poet Rumi). No photos allowed inside, but it’s beautiful and well worth a visit. Link below.        Also, the spectacular, surreal travertine terraces of Pamukkale, and a couple of dervishes having a whirl. My battery ran

Read more

So the moment the world has been waiting for is upon us. Enchantment’s Reach 1: The Orb Undreamed is free, yes FREE, for four days. And Book 2: The Orb and the Spectre is reduced to $1.50, or local equivalent, for 24 hours only. After 24hrs the price will rise to $2.50 and then revert to the regular retail price.

Read more

I do love it when I come across art that I have no frame of reference for, that stops me in my tracks. This animatronic kid in chains at Tate Modern, by American artist Jordan Wolfson (the younger) is extraordinary. The title, ‘Colored Sculpture’ gives little clue. A big polyurethane child puppet, chained to an overhead gantry, is dragged, hauled,

Read more

Three weeks or so ago I shot myself in the foot, something I’ve learned over the years I have quite an unusual talent for. How? Well, I announced here and on my website and a couple of other places that in about a month I’d be running a promo of the e-book of Enchantment’s Reach. Sales tumbled off the cliff

Read more

Lastly (at least for now) in this mini-series we have a clutch of historic dwellings. First, Monk’s House, one-time home of Virginia and Leonard Woolf, in the tiny village of Rodmell, East Sussex. They lived there for 21 years until Virginia’s self-inflicted death by drowning in the nearby River Ouse in 1941.            Then there’s Bull

Read more

And then there’s the poet John Milton’s former home (now Milton Museum) in Chalfont St Giles, Bucks. Here, near blind and suffering from gout and general infirmity, he somehow wrote the bulk of Paradise Lost (one for you, Aaron Aedy) and began work on Paradise Regained. ‘Weep no more, woeful shepherds, weep no more, For Lycidas, your sorrow is not dead,

Read more

I spent some time this summer hiking in the south of England. It turned into something of a literary heritage trail as I wandered through ancient countryside, hills and woodland, villages, graveyards… With regard to the latter, I came upon the grave of author, artist and poet Mervyn Peake, who lies alongside his wife Maeve in the village of Burpham,

Read more

Finally all books are now in paperback as well as e-book format, and looking rather fine. Huge thanks to Alexia Dima and Mikhel Antonellos for the stunning cover designs for the six volumes of Enchantment’s Reach, and  to akira007 for the equally eye-catching artwork for the three Chronicles of the Shaman novels. See them here: https://www.amazon.com/Martin-Ash/e/B00BV41AKI/ Next step, audiobooks. More later…