Literary Fiction
Date Published: September 27, 2013
British ex-diplomat MICHAEL BLAKE has been blinded and is confined to his flat in Cairo. Every few days a visitor comes to read to him. It’s a year since he took early retirement and booked a long–awaited birding trip on the Nile.
Half way through the voyage he meets LEE YONG and finds himself falling for her. But she’s falling for REDA, their tour guide. He isn’t all he seems either and when the Egyptian revolution kicks off, BLAKE finds himself embroiled in a tangled web of love and intrigue. When REDA is captured and thrown into jail, BLAKE will be forced to decide – to help LEE YONG and join the revolution or stand aside and risk losing everything.
Set against the background of the events of January 2011, BIRDS OF THE NILE is a powerful story of loss and self discovery as three disparate characters, each with their own agenda, seek to come to terms with change. Part political thriller, part love story, BIRDS OF THE NILE reminds us of the complex nature of global cultural interaction and how, as individuals, we try to deal with it
Nick David
N.E.David is the pen name of York author Nick David. Nick tried his hand at writing at the age of 21 but like so many things in life, it did not work out first time round. Following the death of his father in 2005, he took it up again and has been successful in having a series of short novellas published both in print and online.
Nick maintains he has no personal or political message to convey but that his objective is merely to entertain the reader and he hopes this is reflected in his writing. Besides being a regular contributor to Literary Festivals and open mics in the North East Region, Nick is also a founder member of York Authors and co-presenter of Book Talk on BBC Radio York.
His debut novel, Birds of the Nile, is published by Roundfire.
Website: www.nedavid.com
Twitter: @NEDavidAuthor
Literary Fiction
Date Published: September 27, 2013
British ex-diplomat MICHAEL BLAKE has been blinded and is confined to his flat in Cairo. Every few days a visitor comes to read to him. It’s a year since he took early retirement and booked a long–awaited birding trip on the Nile.
Half way through the voyage he meets LEE YONG and finds himself falling for her. But she’s falling for REDA, their tour guide. He isn’t all he seems either and when the Egyptian revolution kicks off, BLAKE finds himself embroiled in a tangled web of love and intrigue. When REDA is captured and thrown into jail, BLAKE will be forced to decide – to help LEE YONG and join the revolution or stand aside and risk losing everything.
Set against the background of the events of January 2011, BIRDS OF THE NILE is a powerful story of loss and self discovery as three disparate characters, each with their own agenda, seek to come to terms with change. Part political thriller, part love story, BIRDS OF THE NILE reminds us of the complex nature of global cultural interaction and how, as individuals, we try to deal with it
N.E.David is the pen name of York author Nick David. Nick tried his hand at writing at the age of 21 but like so many things in life, it did not work out first time round. Following the death of his father in 2005, he took it up again and has been successful in having a series of short novellas published both in print and online.
Nick maintains he has no personal or political message to convey but that his objective is merely to entertain the reader and he hopes this is reflected in his writing. Besides being a regular contributor to Literary Festivals and open mics in the North East Region, Nick is also a founder member of York Authors and co-presenter of Book Talk on BBC Radio York.
His debut novel, Birds of the Nile, is published by Roundfire.
Website: www.nedavid.com
Twitter: @NEDavidAuthor
Interview:
Q : What inspired you to
write your first book?
A : Egypt! And if you’ve ever been there, you’ll know why. It’s just such a fabulous place. My wife and I visited to celebrate a special wedding anniversary and we were simply blown away by it all. Writing a book that’s based there is the best way of remembering it without actually going back.
Q : Do you have a
specific writing style?
A : I think so. I try to
keep my prose simple and easily accessible. I’m not one to overcomplicate
things as I don’t want my reader to be distracted from the story I’m trying to
tell them.
Q : How did you come up
with the title?
A : Besides being a
writer, I’m also a keen bird-watcher. I took my binoculars and a bird-book with
me on the trip and kept a record of what I saw. When I got back I wrote a
travel article for my writing group. The title was BIRDS OF THE NILE and that’s
how it all got started. When it eventually turned into a novel I kept the title
as a metaphor for the characters rather than the birds themselves.
Q : Is there a message
in your novel that you want readers to grasp?
A : Not really. I want
to entertain my reader rather than impart any message. My primary objective is
to convey the personality of the main character, Michael Blake, and I try to do
that through telling his story. If there is any message, it’s about bringing
the perilous state of things in Egypt to public attention.
Q : How much of the book
is realistic?
A : Hopefully, every
word. I don’t write fantasy or anything I think isn’t entirely believable. The
scenes in and around Tahrir Square toward the end of the book were meticulously
researched so as to be as accurate as possible. There really was a furious
battle for possession of The Cairo Museum and it went down to the wire. People
died trying to defend their heritage and I wanted to get that across. As for
the descriptions of the birds – as you can imagine, I saw them all myself!
Q : Are experiences
based on someone you know, or events in your own life?
A : Events in my own
life, certainly. In the book, we very soon learn that Michael Blake is blind.
I’ve had two episodes of double vision myself and they scared the hell out of
me. It made me wonder what life must be like for a keen bird-watcher when they
lose their eyesight. As for the revolution, I wasn’t there at the time but I
lived every moment of it on TV.
Q : What books have most
influenced your life most?
A : Most everything
written by Ernest Hemingway, whom I worshipped as a young man. THE SOUND AND
THE FURY by William Faulkner which showed me there were other ways of writing
books. And REVOLUTIONARY ROAD by Richard Yates which has to be just about the
most perfect novel ever written.
Q : If you had to
choose, which writer would you consider a mentor?
A : Yates. His prose
style is so pure that when you’ve finished reading his work you don’t notice it
at all. And yet it’s so rich with descriptive detail that you feel you know all
there is to know.
Q : What book are you
reading now?
A : A GIRL IS A
HALF-FORMED THING by Eimear McBride. It’s a difficult read and I can’t say I’m
enjoying it. But it won a prize so somebody must think it’s good.
Q : What would you like
my readers to know?
A : I see you’ve saved
the hardest question until last. As I say, I’ve no specific message to convey.
Unless it’s the fact that the ebook version of BIRDS OF THE NILE is only £0.99p
for the whole of July!
Here are the links
BUY LINKS
Amazon: http://amzn.to/1eMBzMI (UK)
Barnes and Noble: http://bit.ly/1tiZTgD
Kobo: http://bit.ly/1gOcF4T
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