Wilf Jones

My adventure began back in 1981. I was working in Harrods bookshop. My friend Chris McNab and I had many conversations about sci fi, fantasy, literature and classics. We decided that for a book to become a classic it needed to address universal themes whatever its genre, to be capable of reaching out beyond its native audience. I said I might have a story, he said he was good with words and we decided to collaborate. The collaboration lasted maybe two weeks – I was quick to realise that I wanted the story told as I wanted it told.

That story was the origin of the Song of Ages trilogy. So if you have just read The Best of Men, be aware that the book was a mere thirty-three years in the making.

Being the son of a miner, in Leigh, Lancashire, I’m lucky to have spent my life selling books rather than digging coal. As a publishing industry sales professional for my entire career I’ve enjoyed working with many talented and original writers, and I've been pleased to contribute to their success. Now I’m keen to spend more time on my own work.

With a degree in Sociology and Religious Studies from the University of Leeds, I inevitably focus on the difference between the realities of human life, and the belief structures we place around those realities. I certainly like to give my readers pause for thought, but you may be relieved to know that my true mission is to entertain.

I write fantasy, some science fiction, poetry and the occasional blog piece. You may not be surprised to learn that my poems are steeped in reality – aides-mémoire for the events and deeds of daily life. But it is a fact that that the same might be said for the fiction. Invention, outlandish characters and events come thick and fast throughout the Song of Ages, but as with all fantasies, in the end it is mostly about how human beings behave, whatever the settings.

You can check out my Verse Pit, and my Song of Ages section – maps, glossary, previews, Chronicle – at http://www.wilfkelleherjones.co.uk

Wilf Kelleher Jones? Actually, my name is Wilfred Jones, just that. But I promised myself that if ever my fantasies were published I’d find a way to include my mother’s maiden name in the process. So, when The Kraeken of Great Spurl was published by the British Fantasy Society in their 40th anniversary anthology: Full Fathom Forty, I made the author name Wilf Kelleher Jones.

So where are we now? Am I still aiming at producing the classic I dreamed of all those years ago? Of course I am. It’s a tough ask, but everyone needs a dream. In order to achieve it I have learned to work hard, to listen to advice, to pay attention to critique, and to edit, edit, edit. But more than that I’ve learned to express the stories in my own voice, in a way that can make you see what I can see, question what I question, laugh when I laugh and cry when I cry.

I no longer live in the North West of England, but in lovely Suffolk near the splendidly named town of Bury St Edmunds. There I walk a lot through the fields and lanes, sing a lot with the folk band Rattlebag, and dream a lot of the days when I can go skiing in the Alps, or set off striding over the beloved Lakeland fells. My family - Mary, Robert and Isaac, and our beautiful lost Morgan Grace - keep me just about grounded. But it is a fact that wherever I am, and whatever I’m supposed to be doing, there’s always a part of me constantly and gleefully busy, inventing places and histories, and characters and plots, to keep me endlessly enthralled. I hope you like some of them as much as I do.