Hi Friend
It’s been four months since I last popped up in your inbox. I hope you and your family are well? I’ve been heads-down finishing a major personal passion project, and I wanted to share what’s been happening.
If you’ve ever read my DI Tom Blake or DI Jessica Ryan novels, you know that the real beating heart of those stories is Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire Peak District. The atmosphere, the working-class grit, the backstreets, and the shadow of the old derelict potteries, disused mines, and poverty aren't just backdrops—they shape everything my characters experience.
As some of you might know, long before and alongside my writing, I spent 35 years behind the decks as a local DJ. I still get out and DJ a few times a year, playing vinyl sets spanning Northern Soul, 70s disco, house, and 80s new wave.
Over the last fourteen months, I’ve poured that lifetime of lived experience into a raw, unvarnished non-fiction social history of the city called Dance of the Ceramic City.
It documents fifty years of Stoke’s nightlife, venues, and youth subcultures, tracing the line all the way from the 1970s Northern Soul scene at the Golden Torch, through the disco era, and into the heavy acid house, house and rave scenes of the late 80s and 90s. It’s semi-autobiographical, packed with my own personal memories of growing up and DJing here, and built on extensive, deep-dive interviews with the working DJs, promoters, and venue owners who lived through the industrial decline of the Potteries.
In the first week of its launch, the book became an Amazon number one bestseller!
It has dropped off to number 14 and 18 in various music categories, but it's still holding strong as a bestseller, having only been out for a couple of weeks—keeping great company with books from global icons such as the Pet Shop Boys, film score and French music producer Jean-Michel Jarre, world-famous DJ Carl Cox, and eighties new wave icons Ultravox!
