Image Credits:-
Many thanks to John Puzey and Richard Hardie of Authors Reach Limited for supplying book and author shots. Other images created in Book Brush using their images or Pixabay photos. Screenshots were taken by me, Allison Symes, as was the picture of John Puzey at the Hiltingbury Book Fair in 2023.
It is a great pleasure to welcome John Puzey to Chandler’s Ford Today, as a local author and a member of The Chameleon Theatre Company.
John has recently been published by Authors Reach Limited (which local author and publisher, Richard Hardie, is behind) with his book, Captive Audience. John has recently held an author talk at Chandler’s Ford Library and launched his book on Facebook.
For more on what John writes, check out his website
About the Author
John Puzey was the Chief Executive of the Welsh housing charity Shelter Cymru. A frequent writer, broadcaster and public speaker on housing and homelessness, he helped shape a range of key policies, practices, and legislation in Wales. His first book, Two Lives, was published in 2020 followed by A Ripple of Darkness in 2023 and in 2025 Captive Audience.
Blurb for Captive Audience
Behind the wire and the watchtowers, three prisoners of war begin their journey to fame.
An adventure of escapism and escape, set against the background of war-torn Italy and the lure of post war stardom.
‘I find the whole thing…embarrassing.’ Bob looked at the others. ‘Look, my mum never took me to the theatre or shows. She thought it corrupted the spirit.’ George and Tommy glanced at each other with bemusement. ‘Yes, I know, I know,’ Bob rolled his eyes. My mum had a deeply peculiar religious faith. Anyway, the upshot is that I can’t get out my head that there is something, well, unwholesome about entertainment. I know it’s daft but…’ it was Bob’s turn to take a frustrated kick at a stone, ‘but well, once, a local Morris dancing troupe visited my school to celebrate May Day……The Morris men skipped around behind us hitting kids on the head with an inflated pig’s bladder…….Anyway he got to me and started raining pig bladder blows to my head. They didn’t hurt but as each one came down, I had an increasing feeling of embarrassment. Not just for me, but him and for the dancers and the performers and all the children who were laughing and clapping. I just wanted to curl up and crawl under the wooden forms and hide.’
‘It was Ron Piper’s job to give feedback from the Christmas show audiences at the first entertainments executive meeting of the New Year. I had extensive discussions with groups of the men following the shows. I asked them to focus on the good bits and the shit bits. I think it’s a good way to get their views. You know getting people to discuss stuff together. I think I might try and sell the idea when I get back to civvy street.’
‘What are you going to call these….groups of people that focus?’ asked Bob.
‘I thought ‘Thinking Tanks’, as most I spoke to were in the Tank Corps.’
And now for question time. Welcome to Chandler’s Ford Today, John.
1. After a demanding career at Shelter Cymru what led you into writing and acting? What do you find are the joys and challenges of both?
Just before I left school my teacher asked what I wanted to do. I said I wanted to be a writer. I’d enjoyed scribbling stories for myself and my mum, and I admit I liked the idea of describing myself as a writer. He told me not to be silly and a few days later got me a job as a plumber’s mate.
After a few misadventures in my early life which included singing and playing a guitar in groups as well as a short period as a Top Rank bingo caller, (both convincing me I enjoyed being on stage in front of an audience), I managed to get onto an acting course, got a couple of jobs, but nothing more came of it.
More misadventures followed and, later than most, I decided it might be helpful to get a degree. About the same time, I became an active housing and homelessness campaigner. After forty years as a professional lobbyist and campaigner I stepped down as CEO of Shelter Cymru. So, you see, I have returned to my original loves of writing and acting (and some singing) rather than newly discovering them late in life.
What I enjoy about both is creating something that wasn’t there before. This is particularly so in writing. But also, when acting you always bring something new to a part which, though it may be well known, will always be different from other interpretations. I love to entertain. I want people to enjoy what I’m doing whether acting or writing. I’m always desperate for feedback as I have a significant imposter syndrome issue in both areas! I want to know how I can improve, but also crave reassurance.
Allison: Many writers, including me, will identify with Imposter Syndrome, John. I think most creatives get it sometimes.
2. Do you find creating characters – and the empathy which goes with it – feeds into your acting? Or is it a question of the writing is one thing and the acting another, and is there no crossover?
That’s a very interesting question. Rather than framing my relationship with fictional characters in terms of empathy, in writing and acting, I prefer to use the word motivation. In writing, developing a back story to my main characters is essential. I need to be able to explain to myself and then the reader, what motivates them to say, do and think the things they do. In acting, if it is a reasonably significant part then again, I need to think why is the character doing what they do. Even if it means making up a back story for them. So yes, there is, for me, an overlap in that sense between writing and acting.
3. What led you to write Captive Audience, how long did it take, and how did you find Authors Reach?
The three books I have had published all started from a personal interest and motivation and all have some family connection. In the case of Captive Audience, it was my father’s experience of being a prisoner of war for three and a half years and the letters he wrote to my mother during that time that have always fascinated and moved me.
He was particularly enthusiastic about the camp entertainment. He wrote about how professional it was and how convincing the men were as women. He singled out a POW called George Allen who he said was a wonderful director, dancer, and actor. So, with my own love of theatre and with the raw material of my dad’s letters plus of course other research, there was the book! In my fictional account, as a sort of homage to the man who helped keep my dad’s and the others’ morale up, my main character is called George Allen.
Because I am an ill-disciplined writer, and one that tends to write with minimum planning, which then require a lot of rewrites, and because I start a new book before I finish the current one, my books take a long time to complete. Captive Audience was around two and half years. I am determined to speed up! Although the current book I am writing is now entering its second year!
In 2023, I was promoting my second book, Ripple of Darkness, and got a stand at the Hiltingbury Book Fair that year. There I met the magnificent Richard Hardie, promoting his excellent books for young people. We chatted and he told me about the Authors Reach publishing company, of which he was a founder and director. He encouraged me to submit a manuscript, which I did, and I was delighted, on the basis of that, to be accepted as a member of the group.
Richard and Authors Reach, have been tremendously supportive and helpful in the publication and promotion of Captive Audience. It feels like a family you can go to for advice, help when you are in fix and a literary shoulder to cry on.
4. Three Writing Tips
I would not be presumptuous enough to offer writing tips to others after such a short and chaotic writing career! But one of my favourite authors, George Orwell, had some good ones, I think. I particularly value:-
1. Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
3. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday equivalent.
There are more but if I can cheat and add his final tip, which was that it would be better to break any of the rules he had set out rather than write anything awful.
5. Editing – Love It or Hate It?
I write too many words. I need to edit, but, like all writers, I am so close to what I’m writing I can miss the plot holes or character inconsistencies, and I can make assumptions motives or actions are clear when they are not. So, I need an editor, another human being (not AI) who can beta read and propose improvements.
For Captive Audience I was able to secure the services of Francesca Tyer (now Francesca Baines), who is also a member of Authors Reach. She did a superb job as my development editor and helped me enormously in improving my writing skills. So I am very happy about editing when it is done by someone as skillful as Francesca. But doing it myself? Hmmmm…
6. Do you find a writing routine helpful? Are you a planner or not when writing? Which matters most – character or plot?
A writing routine would be incredibly helpful I think, it’s just I don’t have one. Or I should say I try to have one, but it quickly breaks down in the face of real life. It is said to be a writer you must be selfish about your writing time, but if you have family, friends and other things going on and it’s not an activity that pays your mortgage, it’s hard to put the time aside consistently and selfishly, however much I love writing.
I’m a combination, a ‘pantsing’. That is writing by the seat of my pants and not sure what’s coming next, and a short-term planner when things go wrong with the pantsing approach! After all, as someone once said, why would I bother to write a story if I know how it’s going to end?
I am, like you, a character first writer. I need to enjoy my characters, whether they are good or bad and, for me, it is their motivations and actions that create and drive the plot.
7. Books and Authors that have Influenced Me and Plans for Further Books
When I was young I was an avid reader of H.G. Wells and P.G. Wodehouse and they still influence me. Later, it was George Orwell and later still Robert Harris and Bernard Cornwall.
I have also been hugely influenced by non-fiction books, in particular those dealing with historical movements, events and people. E.P. Thompson and Christopher Hill for example and the crop of excellent modern historians that are re-writing our understanding of modern history from a people’s perspective, such as Ian Kershaw, James Holland, and Anthony Beevor. I find good historical non-fiction provides valuable material for historical fiction.
I am currently coming to the end of writing another book. Again, historical fiction, but unlike my previous books not inspired by a personal or family character or incident. It is based in Vienna in 1913 when I have three people, two of whom become the most infamous men of the 20th century, meet with consequences that re-shape history in unexpected ways. My working title, just to keep you intrigued, is Firing Blanks at the Emperor.
8. Research
I enjoy researching. When your genre is historical fiction it is essential, as far as possible, you get the context, and detail of the period in which your fiction is set, as authentic as possible. I do disappear down research ‘rabbit holes’ but I don’t mind, it’s fun and it is all stored for possible future use. It just adds more time to my already marathon writing approach. All I can say is this – I research and write for the love of it and the sense of wellbeing I get from it – not to meet deadlines.
Conclusion
Many thanks, John, for a fascinating interview and all the best of luck as you continue to promote Captive Audience. For more on where to buy Captive Audience, and John’s social media links, please see below.
Buy Links and Social Media – John Puzey
Website
Facebook
Instagram
Amazon UK
YouTube @johnpuzey1167
Also available from any good bookshop or direct from Authors Reach!
Related Posts:-
Author Event – John Puzey at Chandler’s Ford Library – Captive Audience – 16th August 2025
Read interviews with Chandler’s Ford writer Allison Symes: Part 1 and Part 2.
Read blog posts by Allison Symes published on Chandler’s Ford Today.
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