Me And The Multiverse.

No shift today (thank God!), so after dropping Sarah (my wife) off at the school where she teaches I set off for a walk up the Malvern Hills (which lie just at the back of our house). I plugged my mobile into the radio app and listened on headphones to Jim al-Khalili's programme, 'The Life Scientific' as I headed upwards. He was talking to the physicist, Tejinder Virdee, who is working at CERN, searching for the illusive 'Higgs Boson' particle (or more likely field); it's a fascinating programme. Last week he interviewed the Astronomer Royal, Martin Rees who apart from black holes also pondered the existence of the 'multiverse'. I love this stuff! Quantum physics is a real passion of mine, and I've been writing about it in my first novel, which I finished last year. It's really difficult to get publishers to read unsolicited manuscripts, but as I read a 'book at bedtime' for Radio 4 a few years ago (as an actor), I used the contact to send them my book - they actually read it. Not only that, they seriously considered publishing it. They hung on to it for a while and made encouraging noises, but eventually declined as they felt they didn't have enough experience publishing 'young adult' fiction. It's odd how people categorise fiction now; I thought I had written an adult book with a main character who is a young girl; it's going to be a trilogy, so eventually we'll see her older, and I was kind of thinking along the lines of how Dickens wrote 'David Copperfield. But apparently it's a 'young adult crossover' book. My daughter thinks it's the best thing I've written... I have no idea; I just know how much I enjoyed writing and researching it. But I definitely feel inspired now to carry on with the project.

Washing dishes and writing plays.

'"He writes with fury, passion and compassion about those whose voices are seldom heard" - Financial Times. "A powerful new voice in the theatre" - The Daily Telegraph. "The nail-biting intensity of the disturbing climax demonstrates the acute impact this haunting work deserves" - LA Times. Critics Pick - "Noise breaks your heart with dark simplicity" - Chicago Tribune... reviews for 'Noise' at Soho Theatre, Los Angeles and Chicago.

"Radio choice - Alex Jones's play about a deserter who claims to have seen Christ on the First World War battlefield builds to a compulsive drama about faith and killing from a soldier's point of view" - Daily Express. "Radio choice - The text brilliantly captures the mood of the period and the performances are first-rate" - The Guardian... reviews for 'A Miracle In No Man's Land' where I also played the lead character.

"A gently riveting story, its ecology worn lightly, beautifully acted" - Financial Times. "River's Up was a small masterpiece. Though imagining a world ending by flood, the storyline was grippingly realistic, movingly credible from what initially seemed no more than local flooding to the final catastrophe. Portrayed through the dramatic experiences of an ordinary couple, it could justifiably be described as a working man's Titanic" - Radio Times. "Few productions could be more timely and topical than this. Is art imitating nature, or nature art?" Yorkshire Post. "A powerful evening of theatre, keeping the audience on the edge of their seats throughout. A must see show" - The Oxford Times... reviews for 'River's Up' for Stephen Joseph Theatre, Swan Theatre, Oxfordshire Theatre Company, BBC Radio 4 and Teatro Cometa, Rome.

"Recommended - Romeo And Juliet crossed with Mad Max... a smart and wicked farce... this play's biggest achievement is making the audience roar with laughter as mankind literally devours itself limb by limb" - LA Times. "Recommended - Compelling and noteworthy" - Variety. "Funny, filthy, action-filled, romantic, tragic... Canned Peaches In Syrup is all of this and more" - LAStage.com... reviews for 'Canned Peaches In Syrup for Pasadena Playhouse, Los Angeles.

"Touching bravely on anorexia, peer pressure and teen suicide, I'm A Minger deserves to be seen by anyone who was ever a teenager" - Yorkshire Post. "The gradual ebbing of Katie’s self-confidence is beautifully written. The author’s tour-de-force performance, even including a brief ballet sequence complete with tutu, also spans a wide range of supporting characters effortlessly conjured up by changes of voice" - Birmingham Post... reviews for my one man play 'I'm A Minger!' Arts Theatre, London, 503 Theatre, Latitude Festival and a major national tour.

Not bad reviews, eh? And there's loads more like that... So with all that success behind me, what am I doing at the moment? Well actually, I'm working as a 'KP' - a Kitchen Porter in a busy hotel, washing dishes, scouring pots and pans, sweeping and scrubbing floors and emptying bins in a place with a hierarchy that is positively Medieval, and believe me I really am at the very bottom of the pile! It's exhausting, relentless, physical work and is mind-numbingly boring and I hate it! After an eight-hour shift with one half hour break I get home completely knackered and guess what I do then? I write of course!