Introducing The Bloomsbury Trilogy

Chronicling four tumultuous decades in the lives of a remarkable group of friends. Maynard's War is the first novel. A new chapter every Sunday.

Maynard’s War is the first in a series of three novels: it covers the period 1914 to 1919, and explores the life of John Maynard Keynes and his friends in the Bloomsbury Group during and immediately after The Great War.

The second novel will cover the period from 1920 to 1932, and the final instalment will continue the story until 1946.

The story is told principally through the eyes of three people often considered lesser members of the Bloomsbury Group: the economist John Maynard Keynes, the artist Vanessa Bell, and the publisher Leonard Woolf.

To my mind, they were no less important, individually, or as members of the group, than their better known friends, as you will discover if you read the novels.

Illustration by William Gaunt in London Promenade, 1929. Credit: Mary Evans

The tumultuous first half of the 20th century is a fascinating period. Through these novels I hope to shed new light on why, in just three decades, humankind was forced to endure not only two world wars, but also the Great Depression and the Holocaust. And it’s not just the why, I hope to understand a little better how our parents’ and grand-parents’ generations got through these desperate times and found the energy to set about rebuilding the world post-1945.

But it’s not all serious: the way these remarkable people lived, the energy they brought to everything they did, the passion they showed for culture and of course each other, all provide an endless seam of material for great stories.

The first three chapters were released on consecutive days between Christmas 2024 and New Year’s Eve. The remaining 37 chapters will be published, one a week, at 11am (UK time) each Sunday. By the time Chapter 40 lands in September 2025, I will hopefully be ready to start serializing the second novel in the series.

Maynard’s War will be free to read. There is so much great writing on Substack, much of which is behind a paywall. Not everyone can afford to pay multiple subscriptions and I want Maynard’s War to be available to everyone.

However, if you can afford to pay and would like to support my writing, I would be very grateful if you would take out a paid subscription. Subscriptions will help ensure I can deliver a chapter a week across the three novels. I have set pricing at the lowest levels allowed by Substack, £3.50/month or £20/year.

If I was publishing conventionally, you would expect to pay less than £20 for the paperback of Maynard’s War, but a £20 annual subscription will get you all three novels over the next two years. Or, thanks to the way Substack works, you can take out a monthly subscription and cancel it after two or three months while continuing to have full access as a free subscriber.

Whatever you choose to do, it’s great to have you on board: I’m grateful for all subscriptions, paid or unpaid.

I hope you enjoy Maynard’s War and the next two novels in the series.

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