Hello. My name is Matthew Dickens, and I am a teacher and writer. Having had a few short stories published in the distant past, I have recently decided to try some writing again. My early stuff was mainly science fiction and appeared in Gollancz’s New Worlds anthologies edited by David Garnett, and I have also appeared in Interzone and even a Japanese anthology called On the Alien Planet alongside such luminaries as J G Ballard and William Gibson.
Since 2016 I have written two novels set in a parallel universe, to be precise in a country recognisably similar to the UK, which I call ‘Blighty’. (See my Novels page to read more about these books).
This idea sort of grew out of my response to the referendum of June 2016. The world of Blighty is one that I suspect many readers would find familiar; nothing seems to work very well, but somehow things manage to stagger along. The books are written in a comic vein – how successfully is for the reader to judge!
On the Freebies page are a couple of short stories I wrote. If you like these – and you can download them for nowt – you might like the longer books. Why not take a look…?
As a ‘freelance’ writer, I am available to write commissions. If you have something you need writing, or some assistance, even if it’s just with the boring old spelling and punctuation, maybe I can help? I am an English teacher, after all, and have been for more years than I care to remember.
Most writers are keen readers – I’m no exception. My favourite writers include Ballard, Jorge Luis Borges, Thomas Hardy, Charles Dickens (of course), Iris Murdoch, P G Wodehouse, Philip Larkin, Cormac McCarthy, Patrick O’Brian, Jasper Fforde and Magnus Mills.
I enjoy travelling, too, and have visited a fair few places over the years, including the US, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Cuba and Jamaica. I admire the travel writing of Patrick Leigh Fermor, Jonathan Raban and Paul Theroux.
Anyway, that’s me. Oh, and I live in Folkestone with my wife and our cat – Bert.
