about me

My name is Robert, I'm 24 and from the United Kingdom. I graduated from the University of Manchester in 2010, where I studied Internet Computing for 3 years, and am now working as a solutions architect.

Other interests of mine besides obviously reading and occasionally writing include....
Sports, both playing and watching (mainly football, tennis and squash).
Watching movies (my favourites include Lost in Translation, Wall-e, The Departed, The Bourne films, Before Sunrise/Sunset, The Holy Grail, and many more)
Playing Video Games
Music (my favourite bands/artists include John Mayer, Bon Iver, Arcade Fire, The XX, Fleetwood Mac, and The Beatles)

In terms of books I wasn't an especially big reader until about a year and a half ago when I picked up a number of books for free, including my current favourite The Secret History by Donna Tartt. Suddenly I was a reader. Since then I've tried to read as many books as I can, from a variety of different genres, however I still have around 6 or 7 on my shelf waiting to be read over the next couple of months. I'm also hopeful that through this site I'll find a few more hidden gems to join my ever growing to read pile.

In terms of writing it's something I enjoy doing every now and again in my spare time. Sometimes I can spend hours writing each day, other times I'll not write for weeks, even months. It's just something I do when the mood takes me or when I crave some kind of creative outlet. I've not really had any training in creative writing (unless you can count studying English at GCSE!) and would consider my writing ability to be fairly average at best. However it's something that I've enjoyed doing since I started when I was about 15 or 16, and something I hope to continue doing in the future.

My hope is that through talking with other writers and fellow readers on Authonomy, and through putting my writing up for critical appraisal, I can improve both technically as a writer and as an overall story teller. As such I would greatly appreciate any feedback, whether it be positive or negative, from anyone who takes the time to read my work. I also aim to read other writers work when I have the opportunity and to provide any support or feedback I can for those that I do.

Finally, my overall aim is to sufficiently improve my writing so as to finally complete my first novel, which I started 8 years ago when I was 16. The reason I stopped writing this novel was because I didn’t think I was up to it. In fact that’s part of the reason why I wrote One Night (the only current piece of work I have uploaded, and my second attempt at a novel), it was mainly intended as a means of practice, to help me improve my writing by allowing me to learn from my mistakes. So hopefully, with the help of the Authonomy community and the feedback I receive from One Night, I’ll someday be able to go back and complete my first novel.

favourite books

All My Friends are Superheroes - Andrew Kaufman
Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro
Nocturnes - Kazuo Ishiguro
Norwegian Wood - Haruki Murakami
One Day - David Nicholls
The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
The Lord of the Flies - William Golding
The Secret History - Donna Tartt
Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen

my websites