Write move for uni graduates

Three former Bath Spa University students are having their first novels published.

Creative writing graduates Samantha Harvey and Nik Jones and creative arts graduate Evie Wyld have all written books since leaving the university.

PhD student Ms Harvey’s work, entitled The Wilderness, is a story about an elderly Alzheimer’s sufferer who struggles to remember if his daughter is alive and why his son is in prison.

Ms Wyld, who graduated in 2002, has written a book about the struggles of a young Australian man trying to readjust to life at home after fighting in the Vietnam War.

The book is called After the Fire, a Still Small Voice and Ms Wyld said her tutors on her university course were a big influence.

She said: “Because they were working authors themselves, they helped dispel the myth of writing being something very romantic that involves a lot of coffee drinking and wearing a black polo neck.

“They also introduced me to the work of male writers – and now a lot of people describe my writing as ‘masculine’.”

English teacher Nik Jones has written 9987, which was rejected by about 20 publishers before he won a talent competition run by a company in Newcastle.

His comedy thriller is set in Bath and is based on his experiences working in a DVD rental shop in Oldfield Park while he was a student.

Mr Jones said: “The idea grew from an exercise on the course and the role of my Bath Spa tutors was absolutely vital. 

“I wrote a short story for them, but it would never even have crossed my mind to extend it into a novel if they hadn’t kept on encouraging me to do so. 

“Everybody was very supportive and thanks to them I managed to write three-quarters of it in my final year.”