Write On! interviews Writer Tony Durrant
Tony says, “I’m an unpublished author looking for an agent after being mentored through the first draft of my novel Curlew Song. The mentoring was the result of being chosen as a ‘New Voice’ of the Wilbur & Niso Smith Foundation after I submitted Curlew Song’s first 10,000 words to their annual competition in 2024. I highly recommend the competition and the resulting programme of feedback. I found it a reflective and creative writing journey.
My career was journalism and like many hacks there’s a kernel there, a desire to write Fiction. I studied for a part-time MA in Creative Writing with the Open University along the way to put me on the right track. I’ve been shortlisted in the Page Turner Awards and had short stories published in a couple of anthologies, including the Bedford Anthology.”
WO:How would you describe your writing to someone new to it?
TD: The theme of my work is how the countryside and nature can bring us together and heal us. Descriptions of the landscape run as a thread through my writing. This world-building uses prose that has been described by a reader at Bonnier Books as ‘spare and tight but expressive’. Maybe that’s a reflection of my journalism.
WO: Can you tell us a bit about Curlew Song?
TD: It’s a love story, a meeting of two people who come from different worlds but are thrown together by circumstances. She’s a widow, a farmer’s daughter, and he’s an ex-soldier, a veteran scarred by his time in Afghanistan. They are both damaged people, haunted by demons. Together they work to save her father’s farm, finding solace from their past as they do so. Just when he thinks he’s put it all behind him, there’s a war crimes investigation.
WO: What inspired you to write in the first place, and what inspires you now?
TD: My mother taught English at a state school and introduced me to fiction as a child. I’ve never stopped reading books since then and often wondered about the people who write them. So, there’s always been a seed there, a hankering to create a story, a world from scratch. There was a time when I had a long commute to work and did a lot of reading on the train into London. I was living alone, a post-divorce world where I had time to think, and a slow realisation formed that this was my time to start writing.
WO: The current issue of Write On! explores the theme of ‘(R)Evolution’ comparing natural, gradual changes with swift and radical ones. Do you view your own writing as having gently evolved over time? Or do you enjoy switching it up and trying new things regularly?
TD: I’d say it’s been a slow evolution; an unconscious one. My first work of fiction was an action adventure, a historical novel in the finest traditions of Wilbur Smith and Bernard Cornwell. I was writing what I enjoyed reading and, in retrospect, it was a ‘clearing of the throat’. Although it remains unpublished it was shortlisted for an award which gave me the affirmation I needed that I was doing something right. It’s the contemporary world that inspires me now and Curlew Song is set in the present and a step towards commercial fiction, bookclub fiction.
WO: What one piece of advice would you give an aspiring writer?
TD: Read widely and find a creative crowd, a writing or reading group, for inspiration and support. If you are unsure what to write, start small: blogs, reviews. Find your rhythm. Look online. There’s a lot of advice and expertise out there, some of which you’ll have to pay for. My affirmation was entering competitions. Enter the ones where you get feedback and take it from there. Keep reading and read around the genre you want to write for.
WO: Can you tell us anything about future projects?
TD: Fingers crossed I’ll be addressing changes to my draft of Curlew Song with an interested agent. After that? Planning another novel. The mentoring I received from the Wilbur & Niso Smith Foundation taught me to plan so I’m planning a story with similar themes to Curlew Song. It’s based on real events, things that happened in the place I live. So, it will involve people, relationships and the rugged Pennine uplands of northern England. There’ll probably be a sheep here and there as well.
WO: Lastly, if you could choose one fictional animal/creature to be a pet or companion, who would it be and why?
TD: It would have to be a dog. I have two labs and they’re a hoot. How about Tintin’s dog Snowy? He’s well trained and sounds like good fun.
You can connect with Tony on Instagram: @scribbler.durrant
For more information about the ‘New Voices Award’ please visit the Wilbur & Niso Smith Foundation website or direct prize link page here.
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Issue 26, featuring Patrick Vernon OBE, is out now. You will find it in libraries and other outlets. Alternatively, all current and previous editions can be found on our magazines page here.
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