Sentinel

20 | May 23, 2013 | www.cambridge-news.co.uk | Cambridge News

Books

Writer: Ella Walkerella.walker@cambridge-news.co.uk

IFEEL slightly like ‘oh God, whathave I started?’” laughs writerJosh Winning, a mixture of fear,

relief and surprise in his voice. “Onceyou’ve finished a book you almostforget that it was actually quite adifficult thing to do. Maybe it’s a bitlike pregnancy where you forget howawfully painful it can be.”

The film journalist and AngliaRuskin University graduate has justreleased his debut novel, Sentinel,part one in a fantasy trilogy set inCambridge, and he’s currently sixor seven chapters into book two,hence the slight panic. “It’s a hugechallenge,” he admits, “but I’m upfor a challenge. I like to have a go atthings I’ve never done before.”

Born in Cambridge, the 29-year-old grew up in Bury St Edmundsbefore returning to the city to studyfilm and communications. He’s beentinkering with Sentinel on and offsince he was 16, but never reallyknew where to start when it came tomaking his writing a career.

“I had a period [after university]where I was like, ‘what am I going todo with my life?’” Josh says wryly. “Iwent to see one of my lecturers backat ARU and she said: Why don’t youbecome a journalist?”

“For me, journalism was writingfor newspapers and I don’t reallyknow enough about the world I don’tthink to write for a paper,” he admits.“But then she was like, you couldwrite for magazines. And I was like,can you do that? Is that a real thing?”

Bagging a place on a magazinejournalism course in Brighton andpestering Total Film for a workplacement, Josh “just kept buggingthem to let me come in and do morestuff for them.”

“It’s awesome,” he says, now livingin London as a Total Film and LittleWhite Lies magazine regular. “I loveit. Some of the people I’ve got tospeak to has been amazing.”

Has he interviewed anyoneparticularly memorable? “It soundsreally bad but there’s been so manyand they’ve all been amazing thatyou start to forget because, after awhile, they do start to pile up,” hesays. “One of the first ones, whichwas just amazing, was Jodie Foster.

“I spoke to her on the phone fora retrospective on Silence Of TheLambs, and it was a good 20 yearssince the film had come out. She wasactually promoting another film,Nim’s Island, and when I said thanksfor having a chat about Silence OfThe Lambs, she was like ‘Oh, yes,yes, yes!’ She’d forgotten we weretalking about that film but she wasso enthusiastic about it, even thoughit’d been years. She was pretty muchexactly what you wanted her to be,this amazingly intelligent woman.”

Unfortunately he’s lessforthcoming about any disastrous

celebrity encounters, which isprobably for the best. “There wasone phone interview I did a coupleof years ago with a musician turnedactor, who I won’t name becausethat’s a bit mean, but he wasobviously extremely hung over and itwas just like trying to pull teeth. . .”

When we speak Josh has justfinished reading The Great Gatsby–“it’s a beautifully written book,I wish I could write like that”– inpreparation for Baz Luhrmann’sdazzlingly frantic big-screenadaptation (“He likes his glitzand glamour, if anything he’lldefinitely capture the craziness ofthe twenties,”), and I can’t help butask the bona fide film critic what hethinks of the casting. “I felt a little bitlike Leo’s already played Gatsby inDjango (Unchained) – that kind ofdebonair young man who’s obviouslygot this wealth and power and isslightly unhinged. I think he’s prettymuch going to nail it.”

Despite his glamorous forays intofilm journalism, fiction has alwaysniggled away at the fantasy fanatic.Writing Sentinel started out as “justa hobby” but “this world and thesecharacters just seemed to sit in theback of my mind the whole time overall these years and I just chippedaway at it, slowly but surely,” Joshsaid. A year ago he decided to finishit once and for all and just “get thebloody thing done”. “I just couldn’tescape this world. It just keptdrawing me back in.”

Charming and addictive,Sentinel is a coming of age storyabout 15-year-old Nicholas anda hang-dog, 70-something guycalled Sam Wilkins. It’s a tale ofperspectives: Nicholas is on the cuspof independence, trying to unravelhow the world works, while Sam isolder and wiser but still fighting hisway through it. And then Nicholasdiscovers another world altogether,one that exists behind the mundaneand the everyday.

Set in Cambridge, Josh felt the citywas an untapped resource when itcame to fiction. “Nobody had reallyseized upon the idea of it in a fantasysetting,” he says, incredulous. “Ijust felt that was a massive missedopportunity because Cambridgehas this atmosphere to it and thisamazing history and all thesefantastic locations.”

As a result, look out for cameosfrom the Fitzwilliam Museum, therailway station and MidsummerCommon, where Nicholas lives. Butdon’t expect cringe-inducing clichés.“It wasn’t meant to be a guidebook!”Josh jokes. “I didn’t want to makeit into, ‘and then Nicholas goes toKing’s College…’”

“(The fantasy element) is aheightened way of looking atteenagers being tipped into the

world and having to figure it out,”he explains, citing Buffy the VampireSlayer’s Joss Whedon, Roald Dahl andRobin Jarvis as massive inspirations.“I picked up the Deptford Mice whenI was about 9 or 10 and it just blewmy mind,” he enthuses. “It’s just sobeautifully written and you can seeit play out in your head like a movie.I think that’s kind of the feeling I wasgoing for in Sentinel. It’s a movieon the page, hopefully the way it’swritten – not too descriptive, but justenough – that it plays out in yourhead like you’re watching it on amovie screen.”

Not that he’s expecting it to

immediately be picked up by afilm studio such as Wool or FiftyShades of Grey, which both similarlystarted out as online e-books beforeattracting lucrative Hollywood deals.“I think I’m still a bit far off fromthat but that would be amazing,”Josh buzzes. “As I was writing it Iwas imagining actors who mightplay those roles, just to get my headaround how they would move, howthey would talk and how they wouldinteract with people. That would befantastic, but I’m not going to holdmy breath.”

Now he’s focused on piecingtogether the final two books in the

Josh

“I just couldn’tescape thisworld, it justkept drawingme back in”

After more than a decade oftinkering with his first novel, filmjournalist Josh Winning talks toELLA WALKER about the releaseof his debut fantasy, Sentinel,set in Cambridge

Cambridge News | www.cambridge-news.co.uk | May 23, 2013 | 21

FYI Josh’s top film tip: Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing, out in June: “It’s really, reallyfunny, injected with this very charming slapstick vibe – it looks gorgeous in black and white.”

Music

tickets tosee BlondieBLONDIE will be performing atThetford Forest as part of the ForestryCommission’s annual concert seriesForest Live this summer.Blondie emerged from New York’scelebrated new wave scene, producinginnovative music with their rock/disco,reggae and hip-hop influenced songs.Fronted by pop icon Debbie Harry, theirground-breaking material brought thema stash of hit singles such as Denis,(I’m Always Touched by Your) PresenceDear, Picture This, Dreaming, UnionCity Blue and Rapture.Few acts can match their 20-year span,nabbing No 1s with Heart Of Glass,Sunday Girl, Atomic, Call Me, The TideIs High and Maria.Their singles success was matchedby more than 40 million album salesthanks to classics including PlasticLetters, Parallel Lines and Eat To TheBeat, ensuring the worldwide superstarstatus of this pioneering band.Special guests, The Lightning Seeds,will also perform an acoustic setwith pop songs Pure, Lucky You andChange.Forest Live is an independentprogramme, organised by the ForestryCommission, bringing music tonew audiences without commercialbranding or sponsorship. Incomegenerated from ticket sales is spenton improving the local forests for bothpeople and wildlife.With everything required for a greatnight out, including full catering andbar facilities, the gigs are renowned fortheir atmosphere.Blondie and The Lightning Seeds,will perform on Saturday June 15 inThetford Forest, near Brandon.Tickets cost £36 from 03000 680400 orwww.forestry.gov.uk/music.What’s On has two pairs of tickets togive away to see this incredible show.To be in with a chance of winning,simply answer the following question:Which special guests are supportingBlondie at their Forest Live gig?Send your answer, with your name,address and daytime phone numberto Blondie Competition, PO Box 268,Cambridge CB24 6HF, to arrive no laterthan Monday, June 10. Alternatively,you can email the answer, with yourdetails to competitions@cambridge-news.co.uk. Please put “Blondiecompetition” in the subject box.Your details may be used byCambridge Newspapers and sharedwith interested third parties. If youwould prefer for your details not to beused in this way please write the words’NO CONTACT’ in the subject boxof your email or on the front of yourenvelope.

Win

trilogy. “I’d love to say that I amlike a JK Rowling, where I knowevery single cranny of this world,but I don’t. It’s very much a worldthat I’m still exploring as I goalong, but that said, I do like toplan, so book two is pretty muchplanned up to the final chapters.”Book three, however, is slightlymore “embryonic” at this stage.“There’s something to be saidfor just writing it out,” says Josh.“Sometimes, if you get stuck,you can just sit down and writeit and feel where the narrative isnudging you to go and where thecharacters want to go.

“If you knew all the answers,why would you write it?”

So far the reaction to Sentinelhas been hugely positive, but thathasn’t stopped Josh being slightlytentative about his new found

author-dom. “Even though I dohave faith in the book, and I’d liketo think it is a decent read, you’renever really sure because you’reso close to it, and whenever I readit back I just see all the things thatmake me cringe, things that I’dlike to change.

“I feel like I’ve just chucked thisthing out into the world, I’ve justgiven birth and chucked it outthere, and feel like, please be niceto it, don’t treat it too harshly.

“But of course I’m going to getbad reviews. I’m waiting for thatto happen, so hopefully theywon’t be too harsh when theyarrive.”

Once he’s finished the thirdSentinel book though, he’d quitelike to get stuck into more thanjust writing.

“There are just so many things

I’d love – film making, scriptwriting, I just don’t know,” Joshmuses.

“There is so much opportunityif you can just get yourself inthere somehow, and I thinkthat media making – if you’remaking a film, if you’re writinga book, if you want to become aphotographer – thetechnology nowadays is soaccessible and so much cheaperthan it’s ever been that you canliterally pick up a camera, buya laptop, buy a photographycamera, you can do whateveryou want and I think that’s quiteinspiring.

“It means there’s probably alot of rubbish out there as well,but I think no matter what youwant to do, you can actually do itnowadays. Which is fantastic.”

Winning:

� Don’t give up, that’spretty much No 1.Never give up.� Forget abouteverybody elseand do what youwant to do, whatyou love.� You’ve gotto be hard onyourself becauseeveryone else isgoing to be hardon you as well, so beyour own worst criticto begin with, but don’t letthat stop you. Try and use that to

push yourself to be thebest you can be.

� Read as muchas you can, writeas much as youcan, read asmany differentthings as youcan. If you’rewriting fantasyor writing crime,

don’t just stickto those genres

because you’ll findso many unexpected

things elsewhere that caninspire you too.

� Sentinel (The Sentinel Trilogy) isavailable for Kindle on Amazon, andfor iPhone, iPad and Sony Readersat Smashwords.Find out more about Josh andThe Sentinel Trilogy at http://joshuawinning.com or follow him onTwitter @JoshWinning.

Josh’s advice for buddingwriters: No. 1 Keep at it