Pevensey Bay author draws on flash fiction for his Holiday Shorts

Garfield, aged 82, promises a compilation of bite-sized stories with a far wider scope than a typical short story collection.

“Quick to read, packed with wit and wry observations, but often set against a background which leaves plenty to think about, these stories cover it all from love and loss, history and sci-fi, wars and terrorism to family and contemporary social issues.”

Some of them are based in London where the author grew up and a number are inspired by Sussex where he now lives.

“They range across time from the medieval to the apocalypse, across the Earth and into the far galaxies, but all feature characters that a reader can relate to.

“I was inspired by the potential of flash fiction ie very short stories. The challenge is to tell an appealing story within a few words giving rapid satisfaction for a busy reader. But it’s also possible to set it against a much wider background – food for thought afterwards.

“The short format also allows a book to cover a wide range of topics – another aspect which appeals to me.

“I’ve had a long term business association with Nepal and have supported a charity there for many years. So all sales revenue from the book will go to Child Rescue Nepal.

“I started writing by joining a creative writing group organised by Roddy Phillips. Each week we were asked to write a story based on the given topic. I used these as inspiration for my tales. After collecting several hundred stories, I selected the best of them for my book.

“Because of its wide range of topics, the book will appeal to many people, those short of time for reading and habitual novel readers alike. There are several local stories, for example, about Birling Gap, The Exeat WW2 massacre, The Sussex Regiments.

“I’m not sure yet about a sequel. Maybe a novel. There’s a lot to publishing a book, but my wife tells me that you soon forget the pain of birth and want to do it again! This is my first work of fiction but I co-authored two books in the past, both of which were published worldwide. But I wouldn’t recommend these to my readers. They were on technical computing subjects and are now very out of date!”