Why am I passionate about this?

I was born a polymath in Cheam, Surrey, England. Even as a child I had a passionate interest in music, architecture, film, poetry, drama, and storytelling. I lived very much in the world of my imagination and was able to apply it to a wide variety of projects. I have worked in Film, TV, Theatre, and have written scripts, plays, novels, songs, a musical, and an opera, all different in feeling. I have therefore had a special interest in innovative artistic work, and story-telling which pushes the boundaries of the imagination.


I wrote

Blood on Satan's Claw: or, The Devil's Skin

By Robert Wynne-Simmons, Richard Wells (illustrator),

Book cover of Blood on Satan's Claw: or, The Devil's Skin

What is my book about?

Blood on Satan’s Claw (Originally The Devil’s Skin) is widely regarded as part of the ‘unholy trinity’ of cult…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of The Master and Margarita

Robert Wynne-Simmons Why did I love this book?

People who read The Master and Margarita will tell you that it is one of the greatest books they have ever read, but few can tell you why. It defies description.  It is truly unique. 

It opens on a blistering hot day in Moscow, a paradox in itself. The devil, seemingly out of Goethe’s Faust, is on a visit to the town. He and his strange entourage would be laughable, if they were not so lethal. Only the madness of Stalin’s paranoid Communism could have created such a story.

Bulgakov has an uncanny way of investing even the most unlikely scenes with intense realism. You never doubt him.  At times hilarious, at times terrifying, the book shows us what a fragile hold we have on reality.

By Mikhail Bulgakov, Richard Pevear (translator), Larissa Volokhonsky (translator)

Why should I read it?

17 authors picked The Master and Margarita as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'Bulgakov is one of the greatest Russian writers, perhaps the greatest' Independent

Written in secret during the darkest days of Stalin's reign, The Master and Margarita became an overnight literary phenomenon when it was finally published it, signalling artistic freedom for Russians everywhere. Bulgakov's carnivalesque satire of Soviet life describes how the Devil, trailing fire and chaos in his wake, weaves himself out of the shadows and into Moscow one Spring afternoon. Brimming with magic and incident, it is full of imaginary, historical, terrifying and wonderful characters, from witches, poets and Biblical tyrants to the beautiful, courageous Margarita, who will…


Book cover of Tess of the D'Urbervilles

Robert Wynne-Simmons Why did I love this book?

What a wonderful book, which has a murderess as its heroine, and makes a mockery of the English Class System! It is still banned in a number of American schools. 

When I was a small child I was shown Tess’s grave. It was a huge empty stone sarcophagus. Where was she? In the novel she was put there by the man I regard as the true villain of the book, “Angel” Clare. She never forgets that coffin, and as she is travelling to her death, she encounters even older stones, when she spends the night at Stonehenge. 

The book is infused with the dark presence of the ancient English countryside. Hardy may be a realist, but the “dreaming dark, dumb thing that turns the handle of this idle show” is never far away.

By Thomas Hardy, Simon Gatrell (editor), Juliet Grindle (editor)

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked Tess of the D'Urbervilles as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'She looked absolutely pure. Nature, in her fantastic trickery, had set such a seal of maidenhood upon Tess's countenance that he gazed at her with a stupefied air: "Tess- say it is not true! No, it is not true!"'

Young Tess Durbeyfield attempts to restore her family's fortunes by claiming their connection with the aristocratic d'Urbervilles. But Alec d'Urberville is a rich wastrel who seduces her and makes her life miserable. When Tess meets Angel Clare, she is offered true love and happiness, but her past catches up with her and she faces an agonizing moral choice.

Hardy's indictment of…


Book cover of St. Erkenwald (Bishop of London 675-693) An Alliterative Poem

Robert Wynne-Simmons Why did I love this book?

Saint Erkenwald is arguably the earliest ghost story in the English Language. 

It is an alliterative poem by Ralph Strode, author of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the finest poet of the English middle ages. The effect which it has on its audiences is mesmerising. 

They follow Bishop Erkenwald down to a bronze-age tomb in the foundations of Saint Paul’s Cathedral, with a living corpse inside. A lover of paradox, Strode saw time as simultaneously a continuum and a series of moments (atoms). Only in the moment can change occur, and a man who has been imprisoned for a thousand years be released. 

When I read the only surviving copy of the poem, I was so moved that I had to catch my own tear before it fell and smudged the ink. 

By Israel Gollancz, Saint Erkenwald,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked St. Erkenwald (Bishop of London 675-693) An Alliterative Poem as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This book has been considered by academicians and scholars of great significance and value to literature. This forms a part of the knowledge base for future generations. So that the book is never forgotten we have represented this book in a print format as the same form as it was originally first published. Hence any marks or annotations seen are left intentionally to preserve its true nature.


Book cover of The Third Policeman

Robert Wynne-Simmons Why did I love this book?

This gem of a book is a dark comedy of extraordinary originality. It explores the moment of a murder and stretches it to the length of a short novel. 

Unlike his hero James Joyce, who sometimes took himself a little too seriously, Briain O'Nolan (Flann O'Brien) remains with his tongue firmly in his cheek. As I lived and worked in Dublin I have a special association with this novel.

If you have ever travelled along the magical Vico Road, south of Dublin, you will have passed the house of De Selby, the fictional annotator of the book, whose scientific theories turn all the laws of nature on their head. In this book nothing is quite what it seems, and the underlying theme darker than the comedy suggests. 

It is a book very much for the connoisseur of the unexpected.

By Flann O'Brien,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked The Third Policeman as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A masterpiece of black humour from the renown comic and acclaimed author of 'At Swim-Two-Birds' - Flann O'Brien.

A thriller, a hilarious comic satire about an archetypal village police force, a surrealistic vision of eternity, the story of a tender, brief, unrequited love affair between a man and his bicycle, and a chilling fable of unending guilt, 'The Third Policeman' is comparable only to 'Alice in Wonderland' as an allegory of the absurd.

Distinguished by endless comic invention and its delicate balancing of logic and fantasy, 'The Third Policeman' is unique in the English language.


Book cover of The Fantastic Tales of Fitz-James O'Brien

Robert Wynne-Simmons Why did I love this book?

Another example of Irish ingenuity, FitzJames O’Brien had a wider breadth of imagination even than his mentor Edgar Allen Poe, and a pin-sharp focus in his writing. 

His stories are better known in the U.S.A., but I came upon them by accident, and was amazed. Stories such as the Wondersmith, the Lost Room, and the Diamond Lens were inspirational to other writers and filmmakers, but what is so wonderful is the variety in his storytelling. Each work is different. 

He emigrated from Cork to America, where he got caught up in the Civil War and died all too soon at 35. It was a great loss. The picture he paints of the dark side of nineteenth century New York is not easily forgotten, and the tales he creates there are both inspiring and disturbing.

Explore my book 😀

Blood on Satan's Claw: or, The Devil's Skin

By Robert Wynne-Simmons, Richard Wells (illustrator),

Book cover of Blood on Satan's Claw: or, The Devil's Skin

What is my book about?

Blood on Satan’s Claw (Originally The Devil’s Skin) is widely regarded as part of the ‘unholy trinity’ of cult classics which gave birth to the film genre that would become known as folk horror. Along with The Wicker Man and Witchfinder General, it found new ways to terrify audiences using elements of superstition and folklore.  

Now, fifty years after its release, readers can experience the unearthing of this terror in the film’s first novelisation, written by its original author. It is a compelling and frightening retelling of the fate of unfortunate villagers sacrificed by their own children as devil worship infiltrates their rural existence. 

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Tasha and the Biologist

By Amy Q. Barker,

Book cover of Tasha and the Biologist

Amy Q. Barker Author Of Bailey and the CEO: A Corporate Love Story

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Avid reader Nature lover Park ranger wanna be Best Nana ever

Amy's 3 favorite reads in 2024

What is my book about?

Tasha and the Biologist is the second book in the "A Better Man" series. It's a contemporary romance about second chances, two lonely birders, and the healing power of love.

Tasha Moore is a visiting nurse with a family secret. She just went through a bad breakup. Caleb Drexel is a bird biologist trying to start a new life in a small town. He just got out of an unhappy marriage.

What happens when hope and romance bloom between these two nature lovers?

Tasha and the Biologist

By Amy Q. Barker,

What is this book about?

Tasha
He was handsome, confident, nice, smart—a good guy.
How did he end up here in the middle of Indiana?
And how did he know so much about whooping cranes?
I’d never met someone as passionate about birds as I was.
Was it too soon for me to be thinking about love again?
Caleb
She was sweet, kind, caring—a nurse and a birder.
I really liked her. Maybe more than liked.
And I’d only spent two hours—three, tops—with her.
Yet, I’d promised myself I wouldn’t get involved with anyone for at least a year after my divorce.


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Interested in poverty, satire, and Dublin?

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