Well, I became an Historian of the Victorian, mainly because
it rhymed. On the whole I always wanted to become a novelist. Or a time
traveller, but I don’t have a very good sense of balance, so that was
out. Anyway, in a way, being a novelist means you can go anywhere you
want, any time or place.
When I was 20 I discovered the Pre-Raphaelites and did not
look back. Twenty or so years later I am the author of the one and only
biography of Pre-Raphaelite muse, Fanny Cornforth and a novel about the life of
Alexa Wilding. I am currently working on my second novel, entitled We Are
Villains All, about a poet, a photographer and a girl dressed up as a fox.
My posts on The Kissed Mouth are a way of exploring all manner of Pre-Raphaelite and Victorian subjects in though-provoking and humorous ways. I always find that I remember things if they make me laugh and I hope I apply that to what I talk about here.
If you are the sort of person who worries about credentials,
then rest assured I have done some book-reading in my time. I have a
masters in Victorian art and poetry and my thesis was on Tennyson and the
Pre-Raphaelites. I have published numerous articles and spoken at
conferences on a range of subjects from Pre-Raphaelite ideals of beauty to
Thomas Hardy and cinema. In all my presentations I endeavour to show as
much nudity as humanly possible, mainly, but not exclusively in my powerpoint
presentations.
