About Me

Tollesbury, Essex, United Kingdom
I was born in the Summer of 1969 in Dagenham, just on the border of East London. School was largely unproductive but enjoyable, setting me up for something of a wayward but interesting life! On leaving school I had various jobs including putting up stalls at Romford Market, working in a record shop, putting up ceilings, gardening and road sweeping. After resigning from an insurance company to play in a band, I found myself unemployed for two years. Then finally I got back on my feet and I've been a psychiatric nurse since 1997. I wrote A Cleansing of Souls when I was 22 years old and followed it up with Tollesbury Time Forever almost twenty years later. I started writing The Bird That Nobody Sees in September 2011 and it was released in July 2012. In terms of writing, my heroes are Jack Kerouac and John Steinbeck. I would also include Kris Kristofferson, Bob Dylan and Tom Waits as literary influences. So that's me I guess - scruffy, happy and in love with literary fiction, music and life...

Thursday 17 May 2012

My first ever radio interview (including footage!)

On Tuesday 15th May I was at Saint FM in Maldon doing a radio interview - my first ever. Sarah Banham, a local author and all round lovely lady started up a writing show called Writer's Block a few weeks back and I was scheduled to be one of her weekly guests. The show lasts for an hour and seeks to address all things writing. Sarah herself is a published author who runs writing courses and was also a founder member of the Essex Book Fair. In the local vernacular she is what would be referred to as a 'top bird.'

Anyway, Rebecca drove me to the studio. We had to be there for ten to seven with the show starting at seven. Screw-top bottles of wine are wonderful. Despite Rebecca's obvious embarrassment (top bird but also posh bird) I took full advantage of the technology by glugging some fine cheap wine on the journey. Fine times indeed. When we arrived, we met Sarah who showed us into the studio. Never having been in a radio studio before, I was really impressed. There were monitors and a mixing desk and foam stuff on the walls. Brilliant. It was kind of weird wearing headphones whilst I spoke but it all felt remarkably comfortable - thanks in part to Sarah and in part to Versare Rosso (two bottles for £7).

The format of the show was pretty much jingle-song-question-answer and round again. I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed every second. Sarah whispered to me what questions she was going to ask whilst each song was going on and I answered with whatever came into my head. My language was clean, I pronounced my t's and I said 'erm' about three hundred times. In between all that I think I got across what I wanted to say about writing in general and Tollesbury Time Forever in particular. I even got to read a paragraph that I had brought with me from the novel I've nearly finished - The Bird That Nobody Sees.

When it was over we went back to the car, glugged a bit more red on the way home and I was finally persuaded to get myself a glass. And I woke up the following morning to more sales of Tollesbury Time Forever than I'd had in the previous three days combined!

So thank you Sarah! Thank you Saint FM! And thank you mum for teaching me how to speak properly when I need to!

Hurrah!

So here's a small clip of me answering a couple of questions and saying erm alot. The jumper cost £4.99 by the way. A real bargain...

4 comments:

Unknown said...

You came across really well then, Stu. Nicely done, fella.

Stu Ayris said...

Thanks Col! Very kind!

Kate said...

You talk with your hands! ;)

Great interview, Stuart. It's a shame I couldn't hear all of it here in Oz.

Stu Ayris said...

Cheers Kate! Yep - I find hands slur alot less!