Thanks for stopping by. My name is Chris Towndrow and I’m a fiction writer and a performed playwright.

Paperbacks and e-books are available on Amazon via this link.

My latest work is something of a new departure. “Tow Away Zone” is the novelisation of a Coen Brothers-style romantic-comedy-fairytale film script which I never got round to writing about fifteen years ago. Its a very accessible read that appeals to a wide audience…or at least that’s how it’s intended.

“I really enjoyed it and can highly recommend it.”

My usual genre is sci-fi novels. “Imperfect Isolation” was published in 2018. Its near-future settings include such diverse locations as New York, rural Sweden, a French chateau, and a deserted mining base on an asteroid. The 2019 sequel takes the main characters into a new adventure. “Reprisals” focuses on the consequences of the first book, with many people out for revenge. It’s more “speculative fiction / thriller” than sci-fi.

The previous work, “Sacred Ground“, dating from 2004, is a space opera set in the far future after an intergalactic war. I was inspired by the style of Iain M Banks and the result was certainly a huge step up from my previous efforts.

Scripts For The Stage

After my first am-dram Pantomime script was performed in 2004, a major breakthrough in my writing for the stage happened in 2013. “Cinders“, a panto in full risque adult-only form premiered it’s 10-night professional run in Guildford in December, easily selling out all performances.

To follow this, in December 2014 I worked again with the Guildford Fringe Theatre Company on “D!CK” and sold out 17 performances to a total audience of over 1000.

Summer 2015 saw my first foray into stage drama, with “The Setup” taking part in the Guildford Fringe Festival.

December 2015 brought two adult pantos to the stage, simultaneously on stage in Guildford (“Aladdin Rub My Lamp“) and Woking (“D!CK”). Again we sold very well, over 30 nights to a total audience of over 1700. I also enjoyed another performance of “D!CK” by an amateur group for a charity event in February 2017.

Winter 2017 saw “Jack and his Giant Stalk” premiering in Guildford, and selling out a month-long run to great reviews and some 2000+ audience members.

In 2018 another new script hit the stage, Guildford Fringe’s Adult Panto – “Peter Pan & The Loose Boys“, and again the run sold out.

In 2019 came a new version of Cinderella – my pantomime “Ella” was debuted by an amateur teenage troupe in Spring 2019. In December 2019 it’s being performed in Lancashire. There’s a professional version available too.

Currently in first draft is a bawdy Greek romp entitled “Troy Story“. It’s all the historical characters you know and love, in a so-familiar tale, all ripped mercilessly apart and dragged kicking and screaming into a melee of questionable jokes.

Next will be a new one-act dramatic play – more of which anon.

After that may well be my first foray into melodrama – a wry retelling of Romeo & Juliet, set in the 1980s.

Pantomime scripts are available to license.

Fiction Books in the works

I’m currently in the early stages of the third spec-fiction novel featuring my heroine Enna, “Trip Hazard“, and hoping to get a first draft done in early 2020.

Plans for spring/summer 2020 include a crack at period Western “Signs of Life“, which will be the novelisation of a screenplay I penned in about 2004.

Also in the queue is a follow-up to ‘Tow Away Zone”, as I love the characters and voice too much not to give them another adventure.

Following that (probably) will be a fourth spec-fiction book in the series, as ideas are, annoyingly, starting to form already.

Elsewhere

By day I am a corporate video producer and marketer at London Corporate Media. I help promote my clients businesses and generate more sales for them. This is a domain characterised by technical knowledge, marketing, filmmaking techniques, storytelling and creativity.