Heyshott-based Chris Moore – writing as Chris Matravers – is in print with RINK which, as he explains, is an abbreviation for re-incarnation.

It has been published by Elsewhen Press, an independent publisher that specialises in ‘speculative’ fiction – ie novels and short stories that are not set entirely in the real world. It is available in paperback (£10) and ebook (£2.99).

Chris, aged 69, said: “At its heart, RINK is a thriller but it’s set in a version of today’s world in which thousands of people who have lived many lives before are living amongst us –

people who have died and then become conscious again sometimes decades later in a different body. I’ve tried to imagine what impact those people with their accumulated skills, experiences, wealth and other resources might have on our world.

“The main protagonist Jay is a Rink who has lived so many lives that he has seen and done everything. He’s searching for a way to stop the endless cycle of life and death. That’s how he is when he shifts into a new life in London, 2026 and is faced by overwhelming technological, political and societal changes since his last cycle.

“Renegade Rinks are running amok as war and crime lords. Jay begins to experience a previously unfelt need to stop them and so the story develops from there as Jay comes to terms with the world he’s rejoined.

“The possibility of re-incarnation and transference between bodies has intrigued people since our earliest history. The concepts occur in religions, mythologies and folklore across the world. It’s a theme of many films, TV series and novels eg Highlander and Quantum Leap, Touch and The First Fifteen lives of Harry August by Claire North, The Revisionists by Thomas Mullen. If I can appeal to fans of any of those then I’ll be delighted.

“The starting point for RINK was an idea that just came into my head when I was sat in my office, trying to relax after a particularly contentious business call. For some reason the opening scene in RINK – a man walking down a street who is suddenly aware that another consciousness has entered his mind – came to me almost fully formed. It took 14 years for the rest of the novel to catch up and I enjoyed pretty much every moment of writing it as new ideas, refinements and characters emerged..

“The book is aimed at people who, like me, enjoy thrillers, but I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of re-incarnation and I’m also a fan of sci-fi and other speculative fiction so I came up with the idea of a thriller with a twist.

“The plot also gave me an opportunity to explore some other ideas. I’m frustrated, as so many of us are, by mankind’s seeming inability to learn from the past and to keep repeating the same mistakes. In RINK I’m able to consider some of the reasons for that though sadly I’m unable to offer any solutions. Maybe my imagination will come up with something as I work on the sequels. I’m hoping it will be part of a series and that the sequel RINK: Reset might emerge later this year.

“I’ve always written – as a hobby and an escape from day to day stresses. I retired in my mid-fifties with an ambition to write a novel. I soon discovered it was harder than I thought. I had to unlearn the techniques and styles I’d used writing scientific papers (my career began in biological research) and writing business proposals (when I moved into IT sales and business development).

“The feedback from an experiment with self-publishing and many, many rejection letters from submissions to agents and publishers taught me that I still had much to learn. But slowly I did and RINK is the result.”