Looking forward to the Olympics?

London is hosting most of the Olympic events this year. But the sailing events will be in Weymouth and Portland. There's a write-up in The Telegraph calling Weymouth 'The Jewel of the South', with information about the many attractions in the area, including sandy and pebble beaches and lots of interesting nearby towns and villages. Weymouth is in Dorset which is Thomas Hardy country. I lived near Weymouth when I was a teenager and went to school in Dorchester (Casterbridge), so I know it well.

By the time I wrote my first novel, Alison Wonderland, I was living in London and I'd had a child. I wrote about Alison and her best friend Taron taking a road trip from London to Weymouth in search of an abandoned baby. Along the way they encounter an enormous creature called a shig, half sheep, half pig, with beautiful golden fleece. It lives on abandoned Ministry of Defence land near Lulworth but Alison and Taron catch sight of it near the Cerne Abbas Giant, an ancient chalk drawing on a hillside of a naked man with (don't click this link if you're easily offended) an enormous penis.

If you visit Weymouth for the Olympics, I hope the sun shines and you get a chance to explore. And whether you visit or not, if you'd like to read a story partly set in the area, please take a look at Alison Wonderland. There's nothing remotely sporty about it, but it's fun.


Alison Wonderland is available online from Amazon in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, America and the UK and in Hong Kong from Paddyfield. It's also available from The Book Depository and in independent bookshops like The Bookseller Crow, The Big Green Bookshop, Herne Hill Books and Clapham Books. 

If you have an ereader you can find it in the Kindle stores in the UK and the US.