About me - Alan Goodwin

I'd like to tell you something about myself and how I came to write this book.

I have been a lawyer for twenty years and for the majority of that time practised as a family lawyer. I've worked in both England and New Zealand. Although my book Gravity's Chain is not about family law, the area of law I practise has  influenced my writing. Family law is about relationships, particularly their fracture, as much as it is about law; and at its heart Gravity’s Chain is about the effect of fractured relationships on people and the emotions they experience from such breaks.

Although not a Quaker, I was educated at a co-ed Quaker boarding school (picture below) in Saffron Walden. There are very few such schools in England.  Although not the best academically, it provided a rounded education and most importantly taught me how to get on with people and how to respect them.

I grew up in the small market town of  Saffron Walden, in north Essex. Originally, I wanted to be a graphic artist and thought I would go to art school. However, I left school in 1981, at the height of the Thatcher unemployment years and being an artist didn’t seem such a great idea. Besides, I was never really good enough to draw. The urge for some artistic expression though has always been there. It ended up in writing rather than drawing.

Looking back on my schooling and interests, which were humanities based – art and history in particular, it is rather ironic that I have written a book that is written around science and physics theories such as quantum theory and relativity. My interest in these subjects came from reading about the personalities of the great scientists, in particular Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein. It is the creative nature of science and the affect it has on our society that I find fascinating, rather than the science itself.

I can remember the day when I knew I wanted to write. In 1983, Norman Mailer published Ancient Evenings. I was watching a programme on TV about Mailer and the book and it included footage of him reading from his novel. It was the narrator describing his own embalming. It had an immediate effect on men. Until then I'd had little interest in books or reading. Since that day, both have been a passion. I bought the book immediately. It was the first book I remember buying. Mailer has continued to be a literary hero.

Norman Mailer

I have written for twenty years. I became far more serious about writing when I read Ernest Hemingway. He is my second great literary inspiration. In the space of a few months I read all his novels and short stories. Reading them was like discovering a giant key of understanding. The same year I wrote the first draft of Gravity’s Chain. It evolved from just playing with a suicide, something that came from Hemingway’s story. The desperation that drives someone to such an act was the starting point of the book. The story developed from there by exploring the theme of what happens to a genius when they have achieved their greatest work. What is left?

The biggest move of my life was immigrating to New Zealand. It again reflects another of the themes of the book – the ultimate need for home.

I live in Auckland with my wife Peta and two children Carys and Toby.