Mr Tumnal

Everyone has an idea of their ideal family. Not everyone’s become real

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T E Shepherd Official Author Photo - Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike BY+SA
About me

Derbyshire born. Suffolk bred. Lives in the shires.

T E Shepherd is an author/illustrator. He writes magic realism set in our, or closely-related, worlds. His debut novel, The End Of All Worlds, was released in 2012. His second novel, and the first in the Imaginary Friends trilogy, Mr Tumnal, was published in 2014. The second in the series, The Imaginary Wife, was published in 2018, and he's currently working on the final instalment, Forgotten Friends. He is also a landscape artist, and is currently working on a project with Erica Smith aka. the Bookshop Blogger to illustrate his way round the country to produce The Booklover's Guide to Bookshops. You can find out about upcoming releases by following on Twitter, liking on Facebook, or by joining the mailing list.

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  The Imaginary Wife

The Imaginary Wife

How would you feel if you discovered you were the imaginary creation of your best friend?

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journal

Home Alone

I am home alone. I saw Emma (very briefly) between work and going out for she has gone to try on wedding dresses with her Mum and sister. It’s the first time since Em moved with me almost two months…

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Autumn Magic

I’ve been bussing it from the Park&Ride this week. Walking down Little Clarendon Street, with the first of the fallen leaves blowing in the gutter and the light of the day still washed out by early morning, autumn works its…

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journal

Exchanged!

I’ve just had the call. My solicitor has informed me that we have now exchanged contracts. We are all set to complete on Friday 26 September. I am so relieved, not because I thought it wouldn’t happen, but because until…

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journal

The September Meme: To Be Read

Philip Pullman has listed his favourite books. It’s a bit of fun really, but it does bring to mind the basis for a meme. So… 1) Look at the list and bold those you have read. 2) Italicize those you…

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A Honeymoon In Namibia?

Today we had a bit of a walk in the woods and a visit to Bicester Avenue where we had a look in the new Hobbycraft (very nice! will be spending more time in there…) and bought new weed for…

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Round Round (Wychwood Forest)

I’ve never been to Charlebury but I’ve heard that it’s a very nice place. Today, a little later than planned Em and I headed out determined to find a local alternative to Burnham Beeches to walk and lose ourselves in….

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Time to Friend the Theatre

Last week I wrote about the threat to Creation Theatre Company. I don’t know why it took me so long but I have now paid up and become a friend, I may yet contribute more. It seems so that they…

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50 Years To The Day

Fifty years ago today, Ralph Vaughan Williams died. Vaughan Williams is one of Em’s and mine favourite composers. For Emma, its Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, and for me it’s his Norfolk Rhapsody and Folk Song Suite. Following…

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In The Shadow of the White Horse

The end-of-summer bank holiday brings us another fine, sunny, warm day. Spurred on by something we saw last night on Britain From Above we decide to head down to Wantage and the Oxfordshire-Wiltshire border to visit the White Horse at…

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Surreal Shopping

With our move a month away (and one week of that taken out for our Snowdonia holiday) Em and I decided that we really ought to get a move on with doing some preliminary research for house-type purchases. To this…

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Save the Imagination (Your Theatre Needs You)

Creation’s future under threat By Chris Walker A SECOND summer of awful weather means the curtain could come down permanently on Oxfordshire’s largest theatre production company. The Creation Theatre Company, which specialises in outdoor shows, said this week that it…

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In memory of Grandpa

Oh. My. God. I wasn’t expecting that. I’ve just got home and opened my post, and from a plain white envelope out drops a cheque – for £14,283! The letter is from my uncle. He has finished finalising my Grandpa’s…

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Into the past

With the coming of the new series of BBC1’s Who Do You Think You Are?, Emma has been looking again into her family tree. Whilst she has been delving into Genes Reunited and the UK Census Online, finding all manner…

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Much Ado About Something Or Other

Because Creation Theatre are such an imaginative and great company to go and watch, and because we are not going to get to move for a month or more now, Emma and I decided to go and spend some more…

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Bright Hopes: Animal Farm

After Saturday’s aborted trip to see Animal Farm on Saturday, I’ve been feeling somewhat at a loss for not having seen all of it. So, as Emma and I had this afternoon off work anyway to go and sign contracts…

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Damnation!

The cursed Smith’s of Jay Close, who I am sure are under the misguided idea that they have more power than they actually do because they are buying two houses in the chain have thrown a spanner in the works….

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Birthday Boating

Following yesterday’s bleak, winter-like cold and rain, today was altogether brighter and sunnier in feel. Em and I headed down to the Lower Heyford boatyard to meet up with the Bicester Vets crewe for a birthday boating outing down the…

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Bleak Future: Animal Farm

There comes a point in every summer when you weather watch. Last time I did this was for my outdoor concert. Today was for outdoor theatre. The day leading up to the evening was dismal; grey and wet, like all…

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