Why was the greed of the eighties so bad for the country? Why couldn’t other people see that downsizing, predatory takeovers were dead end principles, unsustainable? And so emerged his first novel, - Once Upon a Thatcher Time; a financial thriller.
But his first love was Historical fiction - he is an avid reader of it. The concept of a Georgian trilogy was conceived. Three stories, each standing on their own, but each set in Georgian London; a decadent time and a decadent place. And more questions to answer.
How could the most famous man in England in 1800 be totally unknown today? Why was the brutal sport of bar-knuckle pugilism regarded as noble by our Georgian forebears? What a story there was to be told? And so lunch times and evenings began to be devoted to telling that story; and the Novel – No Quarter Asked No Quarter Given was Born (later short listed for the BritWriters Award). A Georgian romp of a story: of characters that are not all they seem, or rousing achievement and acclaim: a story of an unlikely friendship that is destroyed by betrayal.
If the past is another country (according to Leslie P Hartley) then the Georgian period exemplifies this. Research threw up other questions. Why were these people so different from us? Why did over 200 offences carry the death penalty? Why was a hanging a public holiday? Why did people take their children to see these executions? A callous time and yet a coarse word at the wrong time was considered unpardonable. And then the novel, A Canopy of Stars emerged. The story of a young man, David Neander in the dock on trial for his life. His crime? The theft of half a sheep’s carcass worth a mere 40 shillings. But can he prove his innocence or must he hang. He needs help - will he get it? A Georgian courtroom drama, The Old bailey, an unlikely romance and the story of two lives that are changed forever.
The third novel in the trilogy is still at the concept stage. See also a contemporary novel, The Games People Play, a romance, and a children’s story, The King of Blognogpotin.
Stephen Taylor was born in Yorkshire, although brought up in Manchester - his mother travelled back to Yorkshire so that his birth there would give him residential status to play cricket for Yorkshire - nobody ever believes that, but he promises that it’s true. Unfortunately it was a feat that was never achieved, the White Rose County unappreciative of his cricketing skills.
He now works in Nottingham and lives in the Vale of Belvoir, a widower with a daughter at University.
