Hugh Ashton, From Baker Street to the Hill o'Beans
Hugh Ashton came from the UK to Japan in 1988 to work as a technical writer, and has remained in the country ever since. He still makes his living by putting words on paper (or to be more precise, words onto a computer screen), but in a slightly different field. He now writes commentaries and reports on business, specialising in the financial and technology fields, and conducts interviews with Japanese industry leaders, etc.
However, when he can find time, one of his main loves is writing fiction, which he has been doing since he was about eight years old. It has only been recently, though, that he has seen his fictional words in print. His alternate history novel, Beneath Gray Skies, set in a world where the American Civil War never took place, and the Confederates of the 1920s make an alliance with the German National Socialist party, was received to critical acclaim. At the Sharpe End, an account of life in Tokyo set against the backdrop of the 2008 Wall Street crash, and featuring gangsters, with British, American and North Korean agents, all in pursuit of a piece of technology that could change the financial world, has been described as one the most authentic accounts in contemporary fiction of expatriate life in Tokyo. Red Wheels Turning, set in the same alternate history universe as Beneath Gray Skies, followed in 2011.
As a long-time admirer of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famous detective, Sherlock Holmes, Hugh has often wanted to complete the canon of the stories by writing the stories which are tantalizingly mentioned in passing by Watson, but never published. His latest offering of three such stories brings Sherlock Holmes to life again, with one reviewer remarking that “my beloved Sherlock was portrayed with great skill”, and another that “Ashton nails the mannerisms of both Holmes and Watson to a tee as well as weaving a mystery that rivals that of, dare I say it? Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, himself”.
More Sherlock Holmes stories from the same source are definitely on the cards, as Hugh continues to recreate 221B Baker Street from the relatively exotic location of Kamakura, Japan, a little south of Tokyo.
Beneath Gray Skies (and blog on publishing and writing) – http://BeneathGraySki.es
At the Sharpe End – http://www.AtTheSharpeEnd.com
Red Wheels Turning – http://RedWheelsTurning.com
However, when he can find time, one of his main loves is writing fiction, which he has been doing since he was about eight years old. It has only been recently, though, that he has seen his fictional words in print. His alternate history novel, Beneath Gray Skies, set in a world where the American Civil War never took place, and the Confederates of the 1920s make an alliance with the German National Socialist party, was received to critical acclaim. At the Sharpe End, an account of life in Tokyo set against the backdrop of the 2008 Wall Street crash, and featuring gangsters, with British, American and North Korean agents, all in pursuit of a piece of technology that could change the financial world, has been described as one the most authentic accounts in contemporary fiction of expatriate life in Tokyo. Red Wheels Turning, set in the same alternate history universe as Beneath Gray Skies, followed in 2011.
As a long-time admirer of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famous detective, Sherlock Holmes, Hugh has often wanted to complete the canon of the stories by writing the stories which are tantalizingly mentioned in passing by Watson, but never published. His latest offering of three such stories brings Sherlock Holmes to life again, with one reviewer remarking that “my beloved Sherlock was portrayed with great skill”, and another that “Ashton nails the mannerisms of both Holmes and Watson to a tee as well as weaving a mystery that rivals that of, dare I say it? Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, himself”.
More Sherlock Holmes stories from the same source are definitely on the cards, as Hugh continues to recreate 221B Baker Street from the relatively exotic location of Kamakura, Japan, a little south of Tokyo.
Beneath Gray Skies (and blog on publishing and writing) – http://BeneathGraySki.es
At the Sharpe End – http://www.AtTheSharpeEnd.com
Red Wheels Turning – http://RedWheelsTurning.com
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