Cathy Dodd interviews Laurence Shelley - South Devon Book Festival 2025

With past lives as a copywriter, ceramics teacher and conservatory salesman, his new incarnation is as a student on an MA course in Fine Arts at the Arts University Plymouth.

His third book, and first novel - Visions of Wilderness: An Outcast’s Odyssey – began when his wife dreamt that he walked from South to North Devon. When he did so, remarkable encounters on Dartmoor convinced him there was a story to be told: of someone in search of a new life after the previous one fell apart. His research took unpredictable turns, such as  wild camping, squatting and surreal experiences at Goosey Fair, Tavistock.