Bruce Macfarlane

Bruce Macfarlane is the author of the humorous and sometimes romantic Time Travel Diaries series, following James Urquhart, a 21st-century scientist, and Elizabeth Bicester, a Victorian Cambridge graduate, whose chance meeting at a cricket match in 1873 leads to a life spent slipping unpredictably through time.

Many of the stories are set in and around Chichester and the South Downs, where Victorian logic, modern technology, Martians, and the occasional fairy collide with often unforeseen consequences.

Bruce spent most of his working life in radiation protection and emergency planning with the nuclear industry before retiring to the West Sussex coast, where he lives with his wife, Julia, and their cockapoo, Lulu. A career spent writing scientific reports, combined with a lifelong love of early science fiction — particularly time-travel writers such as Poul Anderson, Clifford D. Simak, Michael Moorcock and H. G. Wells — eventually led him to write his own time-bending adventures.

When he is not writing, Bruce can often be found walking on the South Downs, attempting to remember the names of flowers and mushrooms his wife has identified for him. He also enjoys drawing and photography, especially of mushrooms and sunsets.

His time-travel stories have been described as “Tom Holt meets P. G. Wodehouse meets Philip K. Dick meets Fortean Times.

You can find more about his work, including additional stories and updates, on his website of the Time Travel Diaries.