: About Me

Algernon Moncrieff is, in case you were wondering if anyone is actually called that in real life, a character from the Importance of Being Earnest, by Oscar Wilde.  Perceptive readers will notice that that doesn't actually answer the question, but...tough.

Currently I am an undergraduate of Oxford University, but I am facing up to the fact that in less than two months I am going to have to take my final exams and get booted out into the cold harsh world.  I am also beginning to face up to the rather unpalatable fact that there are few things in life I want to do more than be a writer.  Poverty and obscurity here I come!

When not writing, you can find me in my kayak, probably upside down with my head banging on rocks.  I spend my summers getting lost in foreign countries and pretending to be a travel writer.  I spend the rest of the time planning which country I am going to get lost in next.

I don't like being lost.  It just happens to me a lot.

But I do like stupid challenges.  I have twice managed to complete Nanowrimo in November (and failed once).  I have managed to cross the Pyrenees alone and on foot without dying (although it was pretty close).  This summer I am entering the Mongol Rally and attempting to drive 10,000 miles from the UK to Mongolia.  It should make a good story if nothing else.

My passion is ...

Travelling, white water kayaking, writing.

I know too much about ...

Nothing. Just like Henry's Cat.

My parents always told me ...

Uhh... Guess I should have listened harder

Why I write ...

To earn money, to improve my writing, enjoyment. One day... one day...

What I am reading/watching/listening to ...

Cloud Atlas, anything published by Slightly Foxed

My first job ...

A spot of entrepreneurship on Ebay

My best moment ...

Lying in my tent and realising: I'm still alive.

My inspiration ...

Inspiration is a dangerous thing I find. But in terms of coming up with ideas, certainly for my novels at least it is always a complex build up of little ideas sticking together until I've got something big. It's an interesting process that I still don't really understand.

Politics, News & Issues > Politics in Africa Robert Mugabe and the Zimbabwe crisis

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Standing at the edge of the largest waterfall in the world and watching the entire Zambezi River tumble into a narrow gorge you could be forgiven for thinking that Zimbabwe was a peaceful place, with benevolent rulers and happy citizens. Twenty-five years ago you wouldn't have been (far) wrong. Today though you would have to be newly arrived from Mars to consider such a possibility. Zimbabwe is a country on the brink of collapse. With unemployment at 80%, rampant hyperinflation (6592.8% at the last official announcement), a current account deficit of at least US$264.2 million, and negative...

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