Gordon was born in Newcastle in 1940 ‘But I spent 22 years in Blyth before moving to Seaton Delaval’.

He was a big sci fi fan in his teenage years ‘I devoured any sci fi books or short stories. Time travel always fascinated me and astronomy was my fanatical hobby’.

‘My favourite novels of all time are ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest’ by Ken Kesey, ‘Catch 22’ by Joseph Heller which I’ve read about seven times, and met him a few months before he died’.

What drew you towards writing?

‘I always had an ambition to write but kept dismissing it as an unachievable pipe dream. I remember ‘Lassie’ films in the 1950’s and was envious of the people who wrote the scripts and could influence the feeling of the audience. I can never remember wanting to be an actor, just to write the words’.

‘Later I struggled with writers like F Scott Fitzgerald and Salinger but admired their ability with words and characters and plot’.

‘I enjoyed the short stories of Ambrose Bierce especially ‘An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge’. It has an amazing twist at the end, something I love’.

What do you consider your best work?

‘I think my first novel ‘The Darkness of the Morning’ gave me the greatest satisfaction and became a best seller. I now live a couple of miles from the site of the Hartley pit disaster that occurred in 1862 when 204 men and boys perished. The oldest was 70, the youngest 7’.

‘An old saying came to mind ‘It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good’. I wanted to bring to life a host of fictional characters so the readers might be familiar with their lives, and their deaths would be all the more poignant. Also a smattering of good that came out of all the sorrow’.

What are you working on now?

‘My choice of subject is pretty eclectic. It depends on what suddenly fizzes in my mind. My latest novel, just published in softback and Kindle is called ‘The Priest and the Whistleblower’ and involves a Newcastle based detective sergeant, Jack Shaftoe – far removed from Vera!’

‘Having just finished my latest I’m back to searching for a subject and a plot. There’s a hint in me to write another historical novel, again based locally involving an armaments magnate and stretching from Victoria’s jubilee to about 1920 and takes in WW1’.

Alikivi   September 2023