Richard Fountaine (1965, PGCE) publishes Tisala

Exeter alumnus Richard Fountaine (1965, PGCE) has published a novel, Tisala, under the pen name Richard Seward Newton.

Tisala tells the story of the eponymous blue whale, who is determined to save the last of his kind from being hunted to extinction. In an attempt to do this, he sets out on an expedition to understand why humans hunt. On the coast of the Scottish isles, he meets David, a young research biologist. David attempts to explain the misery and destruction of industrial whaling to Tisala, but, eventually, its Tisala who teaches David, offering new perspectives on philosophy, religion, ethics and the great issues facing humanity.

Author Philip Hoare described Tisala as “an extraordinary feat of fantasy and philosophy, fascinatingly bound up in the all-too real and vexed shared history between human and whale” while film-maker Professor Chris Palmer said Tisala is “an amazingly fresh and fascinating novel … full of wisdom, romance, and philosophy”.

You can read more about Tisala and purchase a copy here.