A DISAPPOINTINGLY sparse audience was not enough to shake Tariq Goddard’s passion for his latest book The Picture of Contented New Wealth.
The 35-year-old author was at West Swindon Library where, in the low gravelly voice ideal for someone writing for the genre, he described his latest work as a metaphysical horror.
Undetered by a mere 10-strong audience – blamed on his conflicting spot with Maureen Lipman – he said: "There weren’t many people at the Free Trade Hall to see the Sex Pistols in 1976 but we all know how that turned out.
"Ten years ago I had a horrible nightmare in which the genesis of this story came to me.
“I put it into cold storage and I wrote other books instead but I knew it was something I wanted to return to.”
The writer of four novels, the latest being his only horror, found the creation of The Picture of Contented New Wealth a dauting experience sometimes forced to finish his days work early.
“Not out of laziness or because I had other things to do,” he said, “but just because I wanted to sleep at night.
“I will return to the genre at some point – but not for a few years until I have recovered from this one.”
Hayley Court
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