Antony N Britt – A Brief History
As a child, Antony spent hours writing and drawing comics (which his dad then threw away), keeping a diary (which his friends and family read even though they weren’t supposed to) and getting poor marks at school for handing in work not done as stipulated (because he could never do as he was told).
His love of writing was put on hold for fifteen years during a marriage that he now puts down to being a bad dream. There must have been some credence to the reality of that time though because the plus side of this partnership was the addition of four further Britts in the shape of his children. However, even though he adores them all, parenting took its toll on the writing while they were growing up. There was one short foray back into the world of literature in the shape of an appalling first four chapters of a ghost story called ’16 Harrington Street.’ This is probably still in existence somewhere on a floppy disc along with his old Amstrad CPC464, most likely up the loft with all the other crap he keeps.
In 2004, he took up writing once more after a life-changing event – this being a complete emotional breakdown. He wrote endless poems during a Prozac induced 2005, much of which time he thought appeared to be happening to somebody else.
In early 2006, Antony set up a blogging account on Myspace, posting views on life, more inane poetry and the occasional short story. The ‘Empty Souls’ blog soon became popular within the Myspace community and increased tenfold with his weekly column, ‘The Sunday Roast.’ The Roast ran every week for two years and then sporadically after 2010 when Myspace committed suicide by disregarding blogs and concentrating on music and trashy entertainment promotion. Users left in hordes, Antony N Britt (under the guise of Empty Souls) among them. The last Sunday Roast there, appeared 18 September 2011 but now that he’s back, alive and kicking in the online world, we can feast once more.
In 2011, Antony quit work to become the full-time carer for his heavily autistic son, combining the role with spending more time writing. In reality, the caring takes up most of his life but he has found time to win competitions in Writing Magazine. There are also stories published in Ways of Falling by Earlyworks Press, Moon’s Eye Magazine and numerous others since. The most recent was published in the highly acclaimed Alarmist Magazine. A number of non-fiction pieces have started to appear and he has one fully edited novel doing the rounds with publishers and a second in editing stage.
Antony is also known for writing to newspapers or websites and getting his views published. In the main, making a nuisance of himself with subversive acts of fighting a worthwhile cause, particularly in disability rights concerning autism as a result of the caring role he undertakes with his son.
He still doesn’t do as he’s told, but lives by the philosophy of rather being happy than correct.
Empty Souls has left his home, and found a place where he belongs.
