Kevin Johnson Local Author

Kevin Johnson lives in Watchet, Somerset England and has written four novels.

 His first If Triangles Exist Why Not Henry? is the story of a young boy born in 2000 who has an imaginary friend who fought in the Great War.

The main character David is exceptionally clever but socially inept and his honesty and high intelligence leads him to be bullied. He discusses his adolescent difficulties with his friend who fought in the trenches. The story follows him from the age of five through to University.

His second novel, 'HELEN'S NORMAL', describes the experiences of a medical device salesman who visits cardiac surgeons which is something I did for more than twenty years. It was a great job visiting surgeons and demonstrating products in the operating room.The worst part of the job was the incessant travel and dealing with the insanity of corporate politics. I resigned from my sales career some twelve years ago and taught English to overseas students. I am now enjoying retirement in Somerset.

He researched and wrote his third novel 'NEVILLE PERKINS LOVE AND WAR 1913-1920'. Kevin wanted to write a story that put a different slant on the experiences of soldiers in the Great War. I enjoyed the comicdepiction of World War 1 in the Black Adder series but I thought it disrespectful to the men who fought the war. I imagined my grandfather, who served in the Kings Royal Rifles in India France and Belgium being told by his cocky grandson that the war was a waste of time and that he and his friends walked slowly towards the enemy machine guns - 'lions led by donkeys'. I thought he would not like to hear that his friends had died for nothing. I imagine he was proud of his battalion which was an elite unit in the British Army, the best trained army in the world at that time. I tried to give an accurate portrayal of life in the British army and on the home front between 1913 and 1920.

His latest novel is a sequel to the third and follows Barry Hodgkinson's adventures in Russia where he fights against the Bolsheviks and falls in love with a Russian Princess. All the action in the last two novels actually happened more or less as I describe it - the detail being taken from memoirs, histories and Battalion war diaries.