Fencing Books and Other Titles
I‘ve written a couple of books on fencing and a few things that didn’t fit neatly into one category or another. This section will have to serve as a home for them until there’s enough to merit a page of their own.
A Modern Manual of Smallsword Fencing started life as an attempt to crystallise my own thoughts on the subject. 25,000 words later, it had mutated into a book.
A Modern Manual of Smallsword Fencing is intended as a starting point or a companion to period manuals, assisting the reader in interpreting the often vague instructions of historical fencing masters. It is based primarily on a study of the work of Domenico Angelo, heavily influenced by the Franco-Scottish school of semallsword fencing.
Smallsword Manual is only available on Kindle at present.
A Modern Manual of Smallsword Fencing is intended as a starting point or a companion to period manuals, assisting the reader in interpreting the often vague instructions of historical fencing masters. It is based primarily on a study of the work of Domenico Angelo, heavily influenced by the Franco-Scottish school of semallsword fencing.
Smallsword Manual is only available on Kindle at present.
Cut & Thrust is a book I've always wanted to write. There's a limit to how much you can say in a few thousand words, but what I wanted to do was to create an overview of each weapon type with an indication of how it was used and why it had the characteristics it did.
What I'd really like to do next is break out each type for a whole book of its own, and add other related systems such as messers/machetes, swords from areas near to Europe and so forth. A project for another day maybe....
What I'd really like to do next is break out each type for a whole book of its own, and add other related systems such as messers/machetes, swords from areas near to Europe and so forth. A project for another day maybe....
The Art of Surviving in Supply Teaching
I was the very first supply teacher interviewed by an agency outside London, and I made a living at it for several years. This book was a compilation of my hard-won experience and knowledge. It was also my very first full-length published book. In 1996, just after assuring me that I was not about to be dropped from the client list, my agent dropped me from the client list. My response was to wonder what I could write that would definitely get published (I don’t recall uttering the words ‘I’ll show you!’ but that was the sentiment!). I pitched the idea, got a contract and published the book.
This was also the first time I agreed to collaborate on a book, and the first time a collaborator simply failed to deliver his promised text. In the end, the publisher asked me to do it all. I did, and it sold respectably well. Most of the content is still highly valid today, as a rule-of-thumb guide to classroom teaching on a temporary or long-term basis. Many years later, I’m writing a similar volume for martial arts coaches, using the same principles as went into this book.
I was the very first supply teacher interviewed by an agency outside London, and I made a living at it for several years. This book was a compilation of my hard-won experience and knowledge. It was also my very first full-length published book. In 1996, just after assuring me that I was not about to be dropped from the client list, my agent dropped me from the client list. My response was to wonder what I could write that would definitely get published (I don’t recall uttering the words ‘I’ll show you!’ but that was the sentiment!). I pitched the idea, got a contract and published the book.
This was also the first time I agreed to collaborate on a book, and the first time a collaborator simply failed to deliver his promised text. In the end, the publisher asked me to do it all. I did, and it sold respectably well. Most of the content is still highly valid today, as a rule-of-thumb guide to classroom teaching on a temporary or long-term basis. Many years later, I’m writing a similar volume for martial arts coaches, using the same principles as went into this book.
