The Butcherbird Tree by Steven Richard Harris

Currently based in Spain, my first foray into the world of writing came in the shape of “Covidiots – Stories of Idiotic Acts and Bizarre Behaviour”, co-written by myself and Natalia Gómez Álvarez as we tried to make sense of the way people were reacting to the early throes of the pandemic back in March and April 2020. A light-hearted look at human nature – but with a serious undertone that runs throughout this short compendium of true stories – which we felt we just had to share with the rest of the world.

Then along came my first novel, “The Butcherbird Tree”, released in August 2021. Set in 1994, it tells the story of Simon Webb, an eighteen year-old fighting an internal battle of guilt and self-harm and his conversations with his psychologist. Secret desires, self-effacing feelings, personal and professional doubts and gruesome nightmares all reveal themselves in the emotional meetings between client and therapist – until true meaning of Simon´s dreams becomes astonishingly clear.
The second novel, “We Are The Tide”, in this two-part series is due out in the summer of 2023.

A common theme runs throughout my books – that of social justice (or should I say, injustice). The two books in the “Butcherbird” series also bring to light those in society that have to live with what are often erroneously described as personality disorders – as will my third novel, which is a stand-alone story set against the backdrop of the Zapatista rebellion in Mexico in the mid nineteen-nineties. Autism, schizophrenia and dissociative personality disorder all features heavily while other conditions such as post-traumatic epilepsy and psychosis owing to substance abuse appear in one form or another.

I became a writer later in life (mid-forties) but have eventually followed a childhood dream, not to become rich and famous, but to shed light on issues and tell stories that I sincerely believe should be told.