‘Life begins on the other side of despair.’ ~ Jean-Paul Sartre
‘My visual art has always leaned towards the sublime and formalist – be it Romanticism’s imaginative relationship with nature, Jungian ideas of the collective unconscious (notable in Abstract Expressionism), Kandinsky’s notion of the spiritual in art or Eastern philosophical musings about connectedness. Such themes continue to inform my work but, somewhere along the line, I began writing and despair towards the unrelenting banality and ugliness of modern life just poured out – often with the mouth of a sailor! I think I get that from my father who was a builder, for they tend to have a similar command of the King’s English. I decided to harness such disillusioned anger and channel it through the above pseudonym, Percival Alexander, which culminated in my first novel, Adrift in Amnesia, and book of poetry, The Cycle Diaries (samples below – I expand on the literary influences behind each book in the introductions). Other pieces come in the form of short stories and poems.’ ~ Christopher Sharp
adrift in amnesia (extracts of chapters 1-4)
click here to view a ten-part reading of chapter one recorded on Dartmoor.
paperback and kindle editions available to purchase here.
the cycle diaries (extracts)
paperback edition available to purchase here.
teleport me off this rock (short stories)