Writing success for travelling author

Meet new Chalk Circle member, David Stephens, writer, traveller and academic, with three novels under his belt and another on the way.

David, who joined Chalk Circle in Summer 2025, introduced himself as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts – and a former ‘Ten Pound Pom’ whose journey has been anything but ordinary. And he wasn’t joking!

A former university professor in international education, his work has taken him to some of the world’s most exciting places – Afghanistan, Laos, Kenya, Sierra Leone, and most recently, Peru, where he lived for six years before returning home to East Sussex.

David’s experiences abroad have had a profound impact on his creative writing – bringing writing success to this travelling author. In 2022, he published Under Andean Skies: Living and Writing in Peru, a collection of travel writing and fiction reflecting his time in South America. His most recent novel, The Disappeared (2023), also set in Peru, is a political thriller, exploring the legacy of the Shining Path through the story of a father searching for his son.

David and his twin brother at Machu Picchu

David is also the author of Purely Academic (2017), his debut novel, a satirical take on university life – no doubt influenced by his academic career at the universities of Sussex, Exeter and Brighton. His current novel, The Cottage at the Edge of the Saltmarsh, set along the hauntingly beautiful North Norfolk coast, will be published in 2026 by Foreshore Publishing, and he is currently working on a further novel, Weekend in Autumn.

David is no stranger to writing groups. While living in Peru, he ran the Lima Writing Group.

He is also no stranger to the short story form. Since joining Chalk Circle, he has jumped in with both feet. Two of his intriguing and atmospheric stories are due to appear in our forthcoming short story anthology, Strata 3 – Shifting Tides. Available from local bookshops and from our online store (after 20 Nov). Or if you can’t wait that long, reserve your copy now with a pre-order.

David admits to ‘a passion for ideas, a love of distant places, and a restless curiosity about the world’, and this is palpable in his writing. See for yourself with a sneak preview of ‘Along the Pipe to the Sea’, a short story published in 2023, which also forms the prologue to his forthcoming novel, The Cottage at the Edge of the Saltmarsh.

For more information about David visit his website.

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