07 October 2013

October 3rd, in a dark cellar in London, with a live band playing the sounds of a forest, Tom Huddleston began to read about Aran, a boy from The Waking World... and a reader can follow his story in Tom's exciting debut novel.

First in a trilogy called ‘The Future King’, this new adventure story incorporates elements of Arthurian legend and dystopian fantasy. Below, Tom Huddleston explains how the book began to take shape:

‘The Waking World’ started with a single image. I can’t for the life of me remember where it came from – a dream, possibly, or just an idle inspiration. But suddenly in my head there was a boy. He was about 14 years old and he was wearing battered old leather clothes, hand-stitched, almost medieval. He was in the woods, it was snowing hard, and everything was still. The trees were tall and ancient, their branches black and laden with snowfall, and in the bottom of the valley there was a river, all clogged up with ice. As the boy walked, he came across something he didn’t recognise. A rusted heap of metal, half covered with ivy and tangles of blackberry bushes. He stopped and peered inside, brushing the snow from the half-smashed windscreen with the cuff of his jacket, and there he saw a cracked rubberised steering wheel, and rusted indicator switches, and the shell of a seat, crusted with grime and old age.

This exact scene never made it into the book, but it was the root of everything that came afterwards. A little later I remember reading TH White’s ‘Once and Future King’ and wondering what happened to the Future part. I also read Russell Hoban’s ‘Riddley Walker’ and John Christopher’s ‘Tripods’ trilogy, and became fascinated by that idea of a future world where all the mistakes and achievements of our time have been forgotten or twisted into myth. And somewhere along the line all these things got tangled up together in my head, and ‘The Waking World’ came out.

Of course, there were lots of other stages along the way – the idea that everyone lived underground sheltering from the wild and unpredictable weather got me quite excited. The thought that Merlin might not have been an only child set off a few lightbulbs in my head. And one day the Marauders turned up, bloodthirsty pirates sailing the world in their vast floating cities. But it all started with that single image of a boy lost in the woods, stumbling across an ancient relic of a world he couldn’t even begin to imagine.

You can read more about the films, books and music that inspired me to write ‘The Waking World’ by clicking on the links below. And if you enjoy the book, be assured that there’ll be a further instalment along very soon...

To celebrate the launch of his first book Tom did a Brilliant Blog tour, visiting a different blog every day for 5 days. He tells you everything from film inspirations to musical inspirations to his favourite books as a child... follow the links below for more (and to see some awesome book blogs!):

30th September:

http://www.readaraptor.co.uk/2013/09/the-waking-world-blog-tour-films-that.html

1st October:

http://bookzone4boys.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/my-life-that-books-built-by-tom.html

2nd October:

http://thebookaddictedgirl.blogspot.co.uk/

3rd October:

http://inkandpaperhearts.wordpress.com/

4th October:

http://www.bookangelbooktopia.com/

Book Cover of The Waking World