Max Adams
Max Adams is a critically-acclaimed biographer, archaeologist, traveller and writing coach who lives in North-east England. His journeys through the landscapes of the past and the present, of human geography, music, art and culture are a continuing source of inspiration.
Everything connects, so on this site you will find articles on why archaeologists understand the banking collapse (Only time will tell), blogs of travelling adventures, bits and pieces on music and art as well as excerpts and updates from recent and forthcoming books and notes from selected courses. There are short stories, poems, some thoughts on trees and various ideas and inspirations.
See the Writing Coach page for information on skills and tutoring schemes for writers.
Use the Amazon link to see Adams’s author page and find out which books are available. Highlight tags on the left of the screen for links to individual pages.. and then go and buy the books through a real bookshop paying real tax on its corporate earnings.
STOP PRESS: World rights to Adams’s new book The King in the North, a biography of the Northumbrian warrior-king and saint Oswald Whiteblade, have been acquired by Head of Zeus. The hardback will be published in Summer 2013 to coincide with the return of the Lindisfarne Gospels to the North-east.
STOP PRESS 2: Hot on the heals of the Oswald biography, Head of Zeus have commissioned Max to write a book called The Wisdom of Trees, to be released for Christmas 2014. It will be an anecdotal romp through natural history, woodsmanship, landscape and things to do when you’re out and about among the trees.
Reviews:
…of The Prometheans
‘…succeeds brilliantly as a biography of a family and place. Writing of an age before rigid disciplinary boundaries, Adams illuminates the links between a generation of artistic and scientific visionaries’ James Grande, Independent on Sunday.
‘An intriguing look at the impact on Britain of the first industrial revolution… fascinating… wonderfully eclectic’ The Good Book Guide.
‘Max Adams has undertaken something new in The Prometheans; he has done it dazzlingly’ Miranda Seymour, Guardian Book of the Week.
… and of Collingwood…
In his hugely attractive portrait of a fellow Geordie, Max Adams not
only does justice to someone generally consigned to the shadows by
Nelson’s dazzling genius, but usefully places Trafalgar within a naval
strategy whose overriding purpose was to confine Napoleon and his allies to
dry land. In other words, the war could not be won at sea, but it might
well have been lost. Andro Linklater, The Spectator
It’s said that the past is a foreign country: that they do things differently there…
Adams believes that’s wrong: he thinks the past is our neighbour; we should get to know it better, find out what it’s been up to all this time.
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An interesting meeting with publishers last week; we couldn’t quite agree on either title or cover art for the Oswald project: something which always surprises readers is that authors tend not to have their own way with such things. The trick is to choose the battles to stand firm on; and I guess they know their business… right?
On the up side, we talked about two new projects which they would like me to tackle: one about trees and another on the Dark Ages. Meanwhile, Oswald – now The King in the North – is about to enter the editing process, where text is scrutinised, bibliographies are added, and designers get to play with images. It’s a time for patience (I possess none) and for considering publicity options and so on. It looks like we are launching to coincide with the return of the Lindisfarne Gospels to the North-East, in July 2013. I wait, and hope that there are not too many corrections – I hate mistakes in my own writing, so I always read the complete text out loud to hear what it sounds like. It’s boring, especially after 420 pages: but an absolute must..
Editing is in its last stages: an exhaustive process of the publisher making comments (in the hundreds), then passing the manuscript to the copy editor who, with absolutely forensic precision checks every footnote, spelling convention and entry in the bibliography. It’s a painful process, but better than an unedited, lazy publication. Then maps: the publisher would like something ‘Tolkienesque’; so look out for Middle Earth transcribed to Northern Britain in the beautifully designed end-papers. We swap many an email about which places to include; where the Roman roads go (or don’t go); where exactly a battle site might have been.
I wish it would all go away… but… I have a long Skype conversation with the publicist at Head of Zeus: where and how shall we launch; will I do signings (of course I will); which book festivals do we pitch for. So you see, half an author’s life is writing; the other half is being an author.
And watch out for a surprise; there may be more than one cover to choose from..
Now I’m impatient: but there are still galley proofs; the odd last query on the script and maps, genealogies etc. I look forward to seeing the cover in full dress.. and then the impatience until I get my hands on a copy, sometime in late July or early August. Exciting times.