Series 4, Ep. 5: Role (playing) Call: with James Alistair Henry
On this episode of Geek4, I’m joined by author James Alistair Henry. James has spent his career writing some of British comedy's most beloved shows — Smack the Pony, Green Wing, Delivery Man, Bob the Builder. He's turned his hand to fiction with Pagans, a crime thriller set in an alternate Britain where the Norman Conquest and Christianity never took hold. Three warring tribes, a police procedural, and a whole invented history to hold it all together!
So naturally, we talked about his love of RPGs, like Dungeons & Dragons and Call of Cthulhu.
Because it turns out the instincts that make James so good at building a fractured alt-history Britain are the same instincts he's been sharpening at the gaming table for years — worldbuilding, improv, giving side characters a reason to matter. We get into his history with tabletop RPGs, his love of American sitcoms, and passing his love of RPGs on to his daughter.
The Cover of Henry’s novel, Pagans
You can order James’ novel, Pagans, from Blackwell’s UK, Amazon.com, or Amazon.ca
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I respectfully acknowledge that I live and work on the traditional territory of many nations including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples and is now home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples.