This is not an April Fool.
The Treaty of Waitangi (1840) is in English and Māori. One speaks of sovereignty, the other of governance.
A small shift in wording but not in consequence.
That idea is at the heart of 'The Silence of the White Shadow.'
bit.ly/3PKQxiC
The human mind is not a tidy place.
I’ve been writing about William Blake, and how his ideas shaped the thinking of Owain Morgan in The Silence of the White Shadow.
It began, oddly enough, with an album cover. (Death Walks Behind You, Atomic Rooster - ages ago!)
www.johnerees.com/journal/will...
The past does not change. But its meaning never stands still.
A short piece on the imagined Dolwyddelan Codex, and the real history behind it.
#history #HistoricalFiction
bit.ly/4sL6Xq2
Descartes doubted everything to find truth.
Today, we struggle to know what’s even real.
Deepfakes. AI. “Post-truth.”
“I think, therefore I am” has never felt more uncertain.
I’ve just written about him:
bit.ly/4btpTDq
#philosophy #descartes #truth #ai
A crime is rarely the beginning of a story; it is the moment when pressures hidden beneath ordinary life finally break the surface, revealing the fault lines that were there all along.
'Fault Lines' - A Casebook of Owain Morgan Mystery
Coming Autumn 2026
#HistoricalFiction #Mystery #AmWriting
I’ve just written about Machiavelli — the original spin doctor who 5 centuries ago explained how power really works.
When modern politicians dismiss inconvenient facts as ‘fake news’, he’d nod and say, ‘Yes… narrative management. Chapter 3.’
bit.ly/4s2Qr48
#Philosophy #Politics #History #Ideas
Professor Owain Morgan
Every crime begins in the mind.
Before forensic psychology, one scholar in Victorian Wales was asking deeper questions about memory, motive & conscience.
His name is Owain Morgan — Professor of Moral and Mental Science at University College Morlan.
#OwainMorgan #HistoricalFiction #amwriting
Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus! (Happy St. David's Day)
Today feels like the right day to share him.
Professor Owain Morgan — born on St David’s Day — a Welsh mind shaped by discipline, loss, and the belief that strength lies in restraint.
North Wales, 1897.
#StDavidsDay #OwainMorgan #HistoricalFiction
If Aristotle was the man who made philosophy walk, Thomas Aquinas was the one who made it kneel, and then tried to make it stand up again without losing its dignity.
#philosophy #aquinas
bit.ly/4qVHgBn
Just starting to plan out Book Two in my 'Owain Morgan Casebook' novel and the fun part is to visualise the characters in the story because it feels like I know them. These two will feature prominently ... #OwainMorganCasebook
What has become normal in politics isn’t fascism — it’s democratic strain.
Not rupture, but gradual erosion of norms: legal independence, press credibility, institutional confidence.
When shock becomes shrug, the character of democracy subtly changes.
Thoughts?
bit.ly/3ZM7TO4
The world loses focus so quickly. Form arresting a nobody 'Royal' to the machinations of a senile President. We need to be reminded of this ...
www.johnerees.com/journal/gaza...
The Respectable Liar
Victorians believed honest people told the truth.
Henry Sidgwick (1838–1900) showed how sincere people deceive themselves.
Owain Morgan takes this as his starting point. Explored in The Silence of the White Shadow.
#thesilenceofthewhiteshadow #victorianFiction
As a lifelong supporter I'm sad to see the decline of rugby in Wales. Professionalism has destroyed the heart & soul of the game. Now it's about who has the deepest pockets and most capable managers and coaches to develop talent. It's all about results and unfortunately we are perennial losers :-(
I grew up believing the vote mattered.
Lately I’m less certain it carries equal weight.
Money, media and manufactured outrage are reshaping democratic culture — not by collapse, but by erosion.
#politics #democracy
New essay: bit.ly/3ZBLByf
Why does exposure no longer lead to consequence?
From Epstein to politics to tech billionaires, power now survives on ambiguity.
On the quiet collapse of ethical accountability.
I wrote about what that reveals...
#ethics #politics #power #accountability
bit.ly/4ccMfcT
Glass houses and stones come to mind …
Agreed - the shocking events amounted to state sponsored executions - nothing else and everyone involved should face the full force of the law
I didn’t plan to start writing the sequel to Unseen Souls.
But the characters wouldn’t leave me alone. We talked about them at home as if they were alive — and to us, they were.
Sometimes writing isn’t a choice so much as a responsibility.
#AmWriting #HistoricalFiction
bit.ly/49TeSZQ
By 1845 Dowlais was the largest ironworks in the world, employing over 7,000 people.
That reshaped South Wales and Britain—but behind the wealth lay poverty, disease, child labour, and exploitation.
These are the lives I make visible in my debut novel Unseen Souls.
www.johnerees.com/unseen-souls
Alexander Bain (1818–1903) a Victorian thinker who bridged philosophy & early psychology believed habit trains belief long before reason.
In The Silence of the White Shadow, Owain Morgan draws on Bain and listens where others argue.
#OwainMorgan #HistoricalFiction #Psychology #Philosophy
Could not agree more. Over here on BBC last evening it was reported that she offered it and a tone of amazement that he had actually accepted it.
When power starts accepting honour instead of earning it, something has already shifted.
Medals move. Praise accumulates. Gold fills the room.
At that point, we’re no longer talking about peace — but about how authority wants to be seen.
#politics #trump #ethics
www.johnerees.com/journal/when...
The Trump administration is out of control and America is teetering on the brink of ethical and legal collapse. It may already be too late ...
Plato’s cave isn’t ancient philosophy.
It’s a user manual for the modern world.
On shadows, truth, and why leaving the cave has never been harder:
#philosophy #truth #criticalthinking
bit.ly/3ZcJ9Om
Dowlais in the Industrial Revolution
Eliza Turner faces poverty, prejudice, and rigid class barriers in Victorian Dowlais and especially London.
She answers not with compliance, but with resilience — and radical art.
That is the heart of Unseen Souls.
#dowlais #industrialrevolution #unseensouls
Actions Speak Louder Than Words
Victorians believed truth came from what you said.
George Henry Lewes (1817–1878) argued actions mattered more.
Owain Morgan builds his method on that radical idea.
#ProfessorOwainMorgan #philosophy #victorian
Thats a mystifying question… How could there be?
A human life was lost.
Compassion was absent.
Certainty arrived immediately.
I’ve written about belief, power, and what happens when people become disposable.
bit.ly/3LlVSv6
Owain Morgan, Professor of Mental and Moral Science at the fictitious University College Morlan in North Wales.
Owain Morgan works at a moment when morality, psychology, and authority are quietly coming apart.
Sounds familiar?
The Silence of the White Shadow explores what happens when new ways of understanding the mind collide with institutions built on certainty.
#HistoricalFiction #OwainMorgan