ASCIENCE fiction writer has revealed the stunning ideas behind his first novel, the tribulations of writing, and walking through the tunnels of the giant CERN particle accelerator. The mind of Great Wymondley author David Jackson is a whirlwind of ideas

ASCIENCE fiction writer has revealed the stunning ideas behind his first novel, the tribulations of writing, and walking through the tunnels of the giant CERN particle accelerator.

The mind of Great Wymondley author David Jackson is a whirlwind of ideas bouncing around and spinning off in all directions.

In his first book, Bugz: Contact Book Zero, published this summer, he has created a world of larger than life characters and delved into the sub-atomic universe which scientist at the new Large Hadron Collider near Geneva hope to unravel.

The 51-year-old said: "The book is based on the premise of what if something on a sub-atomic level has a consciousness. It seems fantastic, but just as HG Wells said we would have the atomic bomb, there is no reason why there cannot already be a subconscious at a very small level.

"We naturally, as human beings, look up to the stars, we feel the sun, and it influences agriculture and everything. We have a natural propensity to look up and wonder what there is - looking for things that influence from above. But the Bugz are not from there, they are already here, part of us.

"As we look further into space we are also getting in contact with the things that are already here on a sub-atomic level. And in the book, the Bugz have been waiting to make contact with us."

Explaining the research behind the book, the father of two said: "I wanted to write it so someone who isn't a scientist would understand it, so that it's accessible to most people.

"My favourite books are the adventure stories, Treasure Island things like that, where characters are larger than life. As a writer I'm not interested in describing the everyday, I want to entertain and excite.

"I went to Cambridge University, learnt a lot about the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the importance of Stephen Hawking and went into the tunnels of CERN's particle accelerator.

Explaining the atmosphere at the world's centre of pioneering physics, David said: "It's incredibly intense, people working 16-hour days. And there is incredible co-operation there. There are so few places where there's such collaboration between nations instead of all working on their own."

But he also had concerns about this scientific investigation: "You are right on the edge of what humans can do in this area and you are going to have something happen. When you've got that much fire- power in the ground, something cataclysmic could happen. It's a consequence of trying this kind of research."

Describing the process of getting a book written and published, the entrepreneur turned writer, who runs a building firm and arts company, had a word of warning for any would-be writers: "They say everyone has a book in them, but you have to have a certain amount of masochistic mentality to do it, because it's going to cost you. I must have spent in excess of £40,000 of my own money and that's not including time and all the help I've had. It's about telling people about it and chucking money at it."

There is also an environmental message to the book, as David explained: "Maybe this story is right for these times. It's set in 2042 and is about where we are going to be. Maybe it's enough to make people think about the changes that are already impacting on our planet. There is a tendency to just follow the trend.

"We don't seem to learn a lot from the past. We tend to bowl into things. I want the stories to provoke a different perspective.