part0051

My wife and I travelled to Hong Kong and then Thailand for our honeymoon. It was perfect and wonderful, but I guess my mind is broken, because even with my wife for company and surrounded by white-sand beaches and tropical jungle, I just can’t seem to switch off the horror.

Well, why would I want to?

There were three separate instances that formed the idea for The Forgotten Island. The first two happened at pretty much the same time. We were on a tour boat, identical to the one that Ana finds herself on. The boat cruised from Koh Samui to Koh Phangan, and on the way we passed an island, on top of which sat an abandoned building, almost hidden by the trees. That would probably have been enough, but seconds later I spotted smoke from a fire coming from further down the hill. I remember turning to my wife and saying, ‘Imagine you were trapped on that island, and you followed the smoke hoping to find safety, but once you arrived you discovered the remains of your friends being roasted over a fire.’

I don’t recall her reaction. Love was truly in the air.

The next night, the final piece of the puzzle slipped into place. We were dining in the resort, tucking into some mouth-watering Thai food, when I noticed a shadow above my wife’s head. Something on the parasol.

Can you guess what it was?

I’ve never seen either of us move so fast. Fuckin’ spiders, man. Fuckin’ spiders.

Thanks for reading my book. I sincerely hope you enjoyed it. I couldn’t have written it without the tireless support of my wife and family, as well as all you crazy folk on Twitter and Instagram. Special thanks to Bradley, Lysette and Sadie for their feedback and advice, and to Boris for being a good boy.

I’ll leave you with my writing playlist. The entire book was written to the following movie soundtracks. Some of them are pretty hard to find, but I feel they form the ideal accompaniment to The Forgotten Island , and also give a pretty good indication of my influences.