Dining at the table of ludicrous good fortune
This novel was inspired by what I would’ve done if I’d been given a shedload of money in my twenties. Dining at the Table of Ludicrous Good Fortune is a dramatic satire about wealth, power and media manipulation in the mad, lush years of the pre-crash 2000’s.
Vespa Draykes, a creative young renegade, is given £85million to entertain his billionaire patron with elaborate private jokes played out on a grand scale on an unsuspecting public – schemes of reckless, manipulative creativity. Draykes can keep the profits of his stunts but if he fails to impress, his benefactor pulls the plug. Having agreed to the seemingly generous terms, he becomes the world’s first guerrilla entrepreneur. He launches a series of increasingly provocative projects: the Museum of Modern Baboon Art (MoMBA) in London; Miloney, a foul-tasting baloney milk product for the US market; and NObese, the world’s first and only fat-free airline. As keeping his patron entertained becomes ever riskier, Draykes begins to lose his grip on reality but stays on the creative rampage, putting his own life on the line.
Succession meets The Wolf of Wall Street. The novel has generated adaptation interest in the worlds of film and advertising.
Care to taste a sample?
our stone
This novel was inspired by a long-held fascination of how a new messiah might rise to prominence in the modern world. In writing Our Stone I also got to do something that’s long appealed – to create a new religion…
The novel chronicles the remarkable life of Beniamino Snow, a child who entrances millions with his gifts of language, healing and wisdom. The pressure of a global following weighs on him, but it’s even harder on his family – it’s not easy raising a messiah. Determined to give their son a normal life in London, his parents fight against the burgeoning religion taking shape around him. His uncle, Dominic, sees Ben for who he really is, and stands by his side as the monumental demands of a desperate and divided world propel his nephew ever deeper into the spiritual realm. As the stakes soar, Dominic and Ben are confronted with a grim dilemma: if the boy wants to save the world, he may have to pay with his life.
Our Stone is narrated by the reluctant disciple Dominic and is interspersed with chapters from a religious text about Ben, written at some point in the future. While the twin narratives drive the story forward at pace, intrigue lurks in the inconsistencies between these accounts.
The novel has been optioned and is in development for TV adaptation with Strange Charm in London.
fancy a sample from the tv pilot script?
school of Pool
something different — a lockdown project. having lived with depression for most of my adult life, i had the idea to to write a series of short books, each of which covers a lesson I’ve learned and found helpful in dealing with various aspects of depression.
Each book in the School of Pool series is comprised of blank verse, aphorisms, and a few choice illustrations. The series is warm, witty, and wise – think an artfully printed, poetic amalgam of Kahlil Gibran and Winnie-the-Pooh, or perhaps Mr Men of the Mind.
An instalment of School of Pool can be imbibed in a one sitting of around 20 minutes – perfect for the modern adult or teen overloaded with content, many of whom have neither the time nor the attention span to read conventional books. A School of Pool book functions as a philosophical meditation to which someone who struggles with a particular issue returns regularly to work through the problem.
My dear friends Sean and Jacqui Fandam of Fandam Studio in Johannesburg helped create and bring the School of Pool brand to life. Incidentally, they were the team with whom I worked when rebranding AngloGold Ashanti. They were at the branding agency HKLM at the time. Our meeting of the minds on that job was the beginning of a long and happy friendship.
school’s in… why not sample :
Be More Doughnut Less Hole – Lessons for Lack, one of the books in the series. It’s not properly designed or illustrated, just something I mocked up in PowerPoint, but the prose paints the picture quite clearly.
The brand was designed to live on social media too, and I adapted the material for Instagram and Tik-Tok. The School of Pool brand comes alive in a whole new way there.
Please enjoy the obligatory adorable cat reel
(starring my cat, the inimitable Peep 'n Pop)
