From Alcoholic to Prize-Winning Author

Posted on June 16, 2005

Being an alcoholic nearly killed him. But Lloyd Jones' story has a happy ending. His novel Mr. Vogel was won the #4,000 Society of Authors McKitterick Prize. The book has also been shortlisted for the Bollinger Wodehouse Everyman Prize for comic fiction.

Wales Online reports that one of the methods Jones used to recover from alcoholism is walking. He walked and walked and walked.

In 2000, Jones nearly died from alcoholism. On recovering, he spent time living rough before deciding to quit drinking for good.
"I disappeared, thinking no one would notice," he says. "Unbeknown to me, the police and coastguard were searching for my body."
Jones had decided to recuperate by walking around Wales - at first venturing just a few miles at a time but eventually taking much longer jaunts. He has now walked more than 1,000 miles.
His winning novel begins with the discovery in the attic of a second-hand bookshop an account of a lame man's mysterious quest for the so-called Vogel Papers.

We do love a good comeback story. You can find out more about Jones' novel Mr. Vogel on Amazon.com.

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