Aristo, a Cypriot archaelogist, was told his family were all burnt and left unidentifiable during the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. He brings bones in polythene bags back to his private museum and his wife tries to tell him that he cannot dig for a family that can no longer be traced. His only son, Pavlos, has an increasing need to belong to a father who will make time for him. As the practices at Papas' late-night museum 'staff meetings' unfold themselves to Pavlos, the boy is led deeper into a sinister confrontation with the 'family'. This beautifully-written novel, with its vivid descriptive passages about Aristo's private museum and the Troodos Mountains of Cyprus, has a tautness and nervous energy that carries the reader on. This novel will haunt the reader long after the last chapter has been read, and the book finally laid to rest.
Raymond Nickford has said that to him, people are stranger than fiction and in many ways more fascinating. Perhaps this is what first led him to his degree in Philosophy and Psychology from the University College of North Wales and which has subsequently driven him to produce his searching character studies in his collected stories Twists in The Tale, and novels and contributions to anthologies in the USA.
Souls particularly troubled ones, including the outsider, the lonely and any driven to extremity, have been indispensable for his paperback novels, now available in amazon.co.uk KINDLE E-books including: Aristo's Family, Mister Kreasey's Demon and Twists in the Tale .
Of his novel based in Cyprus, Aristo's Family, BARBARA ERSKINE, best selling author of Lady of Hay has commented on the beautifully observed characters, intriguing and atmospheric scenes and, above all, the suspense which made her want to read on.
His favourite producer is ALFRED HITCHCOCK, and he admires the authors Patricia Highsmith, Ian McEwan, Ruth Rendell and Henry James. Raymond is a member of The Society of Authors.
He believes his teaching of English in colleges and as a private tutor visiting pupils from what he describes as shacks to mansions, and meeting the absolutely delightful to the vaguely Little Lord Fauntleroy, has informed his new literary thriller A Child from the Wishing Well.
This new title will also be published in Kindle in August and, as with the above book titles, is already available to buy as an Epub-book from smashwords.com.
It features an eerie music tutor, her young pupil Rosie and Rosie's paranoid and inept father, Gerard, who nevertheless yearns to mean more to his daughter.
The book was selected for the Harper Collins Gold Star Award, May 2010.
Candace Bowen, author of A Knight of Silence, has written of A Child from the Wishing Well : Growing up in a suburb of Chicago, the first scary movie I remember seeing was the 1965 Bette Davis movie, The Nanny. To this day, that movie has always stuck with me as one of the great psychological thrillers of all time. For me, A Child from the Wishing Well, by Raymond Nickford, is reminiscent of that movie. Ruth, the eerie music tutor, and Gerard strap you in, and take you on a psychological thrill-ride to the very end.
Raymond confesses to a passion for plump, docile tabbies and says he is moved by the music and life of the composer Edward Elgar, his interest leading him each year to a cottage in the Malvern Hills and to the Three Choirs Festival. He is a member of the Elgar Society.
The author is currently working on another psychological, Prey to Her Madonna. Here, all he will say is that the intrigue moves between Madeira, an eerie French shrine, an English village and London. Â
