A) PUBLISHED NOVELS
BLUE POPPIES
11:9 Books (Neil Wilson Publishing), Glasgow UK 2001
ISBN : 1-903238-5-52
Other editions: Editions Heleniki (Nikas Books, Greece) 2002; Bantam Dell (New York) 2003; LIKE Books (Finland) 2005.
Blue Poppies is set in Tibet in 1949-50. Jamie Wilson, a young Scottish radio operator, is hired by the Tibetan government to set up a listening post in a remote on the Tibetan-Chinese frontier. There he meets Puton, a young woman who has been crippled during a murderous attack on her husband. The love that develops between Jamie and Puton is violently interrupted by the Chinese invasion. As the villagers flee, Jamie travels with them but Puton is left behind…
The book is based in part on Robert Ford’s memoir ‘Captured in Tibet’ (1957), and also on Geoffrey Chaucer’s ‘Troilus and Criseyde’ (c.1370). Other sources include Jamyang Norbu and Sven Hedin.
POOR MERCY
Polygon Books (Birlinn), Edinburgh UK, 2005.
ISBN : 1-904598-28-5
Poor Mercy is based on JF’s experiences working with a British aid team in Darfur, Western Sudan, in 1991. The novel centres on two Sudanese working for such a team. Mr Mogga is a refugee from the south of the country. Always the misfit in Darfur, he nonetheless makes himself indispensible to the Europeans through his competence and his dogged good humour. Leila is a Khartoum-trained biologist whose family is in trouble with the security services. The tender and often comical relationship between the two is set against a rapidly worsening political situation. Meanwhile, the team leader, Xavier, must confront the dilemma that faces all aid workers: is the relief team’s very presence not in fact making matters even worse?
GLENFARRON
Two Ravens Press, Ullapool UK, due September 2008.
ISBN : 978-1906120337
Glenfarron is set in a remote area of the Scottish Highlands, and concerns the fortunes of three generations of incomers: Polish aircrew at a military hospital in the 1940s; young Glaswegians inheriting property in the 1970s; and African diplomats in 2006.
The three sections are in markedly contrasted styles: a tragic romance, a psychological haunting, and a comedy of post-colonial hangovers. But many of the characters reappear in all three, as do the locations and the themes: property and theft, the strange effects of cultural collision, the ways we use memory, and love between the mismatched.
B) ETHNOGRAPHY
TRUE LOVE & BARTHOLOMEW : REBELS ON THE BURMESE BORDER
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK, 1991
ISBN : 0-521-39920-3
In 1986-7, JF spent an illegal year with the Karen, a large ethnic group fighting for their independence in the jungles of Burma. He was there to help with training village paramedics. This unusual study is a full-length ‘portrait of an ancient culture remade for ethnic rebellion’, and includes chapters on Karen food, love and marriage, warfare, religion, music, language and other topics. It is illustrated with photos by JF.
The book was originally a CUP hardback, and is now reissued in a digitally printed paperback.
C) SHORT STORIES
Stories have appeared in the following: London Magazine, Cencrastus, The Scotsman, Product, New Writing Scotland, and Chapman. Also, on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio Scotland.
