NEW "QUIRKY" SHEFFIELD AUTHOR RELEASES HIS DEBUT NOVEL
There is a new author on the Sheffield scene. John Donkeyplonk, originally from Essex but a long-term resident of Sheffield, has released "Prepare for the Zargian Delegation" and it is now available on Amazon at a reduced price till 1st August. In this article, he explains what made him write the book and also, why sometimes someone who is not native to Sheffield may be able to appreciate all that the city offers a little bit more.
I came up to Sheffield as a student in 1977, didn't like the course, dropped out, but stayed here working for another three years. Then, after living in London for 32 years and raising a family, I came back again in 2012. I always said that if the opportunity came I would go back and, when the time was right, I did. Because I love it. The authenticity; people actually make things here! The friendliness of course. And the sense that you are close to nature; the wildness, the hills are just a short bus ride or drive away, you don't have to trudge through endless waves of suburbia to reach them.
I spent 25 years in the civil service and witnessed the best and worst of it. Including the back-biting, self-serving and gimmickry. So when I decided to try my hand at writing a novel, two things were obvious. Firstly, that I had to use that experience to the full, and second that it had to have a strong Sheffield connection. I like to write quirky stuff, to imagine a normal situation and then put something truly absurd slap bang in the middle of it.
So in "Prepare for the Zargian Delegation!" I imagined that a disparate group of servants were asked to form a project team to make proposals on how to engage with beings from the Planet Zarg who were sending a delegation to visit us. Their proposals range from the absurd, to the patently self-serving, to the plain scary, with an unexpected plot twist at the end. It is a great satirical read for anyone with a quirky sense of humour. I hope you buy it and enjoy it.