‘It contained all I wanted to say about life,’ he said. While waiting for the test results, he wrote a novel that he called ‘The Siege of Dros Delnoch’, hoping to achieve his ambition of having a novel published before his death. He eventually landed a job as a junior reporter for a local newspaper, suggesting later that he only got the job because the interviewer ‘mistook my arrogance for confidence.’ He went on to work as an editor for a number of local and national newspapers.Īt the age of 28, Gemmell was told he might have cancer. Always flawed, but always heroic.’Īfter being thrown out of school for allegedly organising a gambling syndicate, Gemmell worked as a labourer, a lorry-driver’s mate and a nightclub bouncer. Bill re-appeared in many novels thereafter, in many guises. Gemmell went on to base his most famous character on Bill – ‘When I wrote my first novel, I used Bill as the model for a character. ‘Before I was sixteen I’d had over sixty stitches in wounds caused from fights.’ Gemmell’s saviour was his step-father, Bill Woodford, who encouraged him to take up boxing and to stand up for himself. ‘Sometimes adults too would weigh in,’ he later reflected.
Raised by his mother, he was often subjected to bullying and violence from other children. Gemmell was born in 1948 in a tough part of West London. In life, he was as charismatic and colourful as many of his best-loved heroes. This month, the author in the spotlight is: David Gemmell.ĭavid Gemmell, widely regarded as Britain’s ‘king of heroic fantasy’, wrote over thirty novels before he died in 2006.
We hope it will give you all the tools and inspiration necessary to embark upon an new reading adventure, to dip your toe in the waters of possibility and – who knows? – perhaps dive head-first into a whole new universe! The section is designed to give a brief introduction to those who have always been tempted to try a certain author, but are unsure about where to start. We’ll be discussing just what it is that makes their body of work outstanding, their worlds mesmerising and their stories un-put-downable. In our Author Spotlight feature, we’ll be focusing on a different author every few months – be it a classic writer who has stood the test of time, or new author destined to be a future classic.
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