Blog… (Feel free to contact me…)
Welcome, Avid Readers!
Grab a seat, have a coffee, let’s chat a while.
My name is Alan Berkshire, author, artist, outdoorsman, and Pagan, a child that never grew up, and never will. I was born in London, United Kingdom, in the year of who knows when. I had a great childhood though my beginnings were a little rocky, but I have no complaints. Since then my life has been a roller-coaster ride, with lots of up’s and down’s, something I know will just continue.
I have had five novels published, NOT self-published or Vanity published I hasten to add. The JUNGLE SERIES, ( four novels) is an exciting, on going saga of a group of everyday people trying to survive in an apocalyptic world inhabited by ever increasing venomous vines and savage ape-like creatures, Creeps.
The fifth novel is a Young Adult Horror novel, GAMES AND GOBLINS, poor Jonathan Foster having to battle against incredible odds when an evil miniature model army comes to life to wreak havoc in his home town led by a demonic Goblin bent on carnage, blood and destruction… Just like your everyday fairy tale!
7th FEBRUARY 2026
After the launch of the website last month I began getting a few inquiries about art, writing, about my travels. One particular inquiry was about my comment about my early life… “Though my beginnings were a little rocky…” They wondered how rocky…
Well, it was pretty rough, though in all honestly I didn’t really consider it a bad time for the simple reason I didn’t know any better, I mean what does a two-and-a-half-year-old child know?
Two and a half years old, that’s when I caught polio. It was supposed to kill me, it didn’t, (obviously). I should never have walked, (Wrong again) and then the doctors told me I would be disabled for the rest of my life, my lower legs, below the knees were wasted, my feet clubbed, a condition that could never be put to rights… Ten major surgeries later… (Over several years.)
Fit as a fiddle and aiming to live until I am 110!
I was in four different hospitals over a period of three years. I started out in St. Mary’s which was situated next to the modern St. Thomas’ Hospital by Westminster Bridge in Central London, U.K. (St. Mary’s is long gone, absorbed into St. Thomas’ Hospital) Then I was actually in St. Thomas’, followed by The Royal Waterloo Hospital at the bottom of Waterloo Road. (I believe that hospital has closed down also and been converted into student accommodation.) The final hospital was The Rowley Bristow, Pyrford, near Woking in Surrey, southeast England. (Sadly another closure.) Ironically the Rowley Bristow was where I had my first major surgery, (I was there for eleven months.) It was a beautiful hospital set in lovely surroundings. It’s a shame that it’s lost.
My other passion is painting, pop art, Pagan art, big cats, birds of prey, wherever the muse takes me. I prefer acrylic on canvas or heavy duty paper, though a lot of artists decry this medium as being too restrictive because the paint dries too quickly. I say, work faster!
I find oil paint too messy, too much aggravation with thinners and, conversely, the length of time it takes to dry. I know there is odourless thinners available these days, but when I tried oil paint it was the evil smelling turpentine. Not a nice experience, besides, because my art tends to be so detailed I found I couldn’t control the paint and quite often it all just ended up a muddied mess. I enjoy water colour painting, though I don’t do much these days, which is why I like acrylic so much, you get the best of both worlds!
CHECK OUT THE VIDEO TO THE RIGHT!
It’s from a recent exhibition I had.
“A WAY OF LIFE…”
This is a subject I refrain from discussing in general as there is a lot of confusion as to what Paganism actually is and I can no longer be bothered to argue about it. There are those that follow and get it, but there are many that are ignorant of the basic tenets of the Old Ways, applying their own misinformed beliefs.
I don’t mean to be patronising, but the illustration to the left says it all. To me, Paganism isn’t a belief or a religion, it certainly doesn’t follow the “left-hand path” or is in anyway sacrilegious or evil. It’s a nature-based belief system, a way of life. MY way of life.
(CLICK THE PIC)