Richard Paul Skinner

Kate is at the heart of a group of friends in Bath, England and abroad during the last few decades. Their lives and loves result in picaresque episodes of love, passion, unexpected alliances, betrayal, trauma and death. Yet from the chaos emerge strange patterns and epiphanies

Short stories published in literary and poetry magazines.

Short Screenplays, including 'A Matter of Taste' on Vimeo and YouTube.

Ernest Hemingway escapes the enemies he made in 1920s Paris by returning to the US and settling in Key West, Florida. With his replacement wife and new baby, he is soon hit by depression in common with the economic times. He self-medicates with his now trusted friend, alcohol but then suffers nightmares of androgeny that expose his doubts about his sexuality. Thinking another best selling novel will restore his confidence, he spends a decade in failure. His megalomania adds to the destruction of his family along with his infidelities. He imagines he has a solution to the tragedy.

Nick, 30's, is a charismatic conman living in Bath. When he meets an extraordinarily talented painter, Poppy, 30s, there is an immediate attraction between them. She despairs when he shows her that her influential patron is using her. She destroys all her paintings. Nick encourages her to work again and sets up a con to destroy the wealthy patron. He is found out and badly injured but Poppy is devastated by the violence. Nick works another con to defeat the patron and win Poppy back but his expectations for their romance take another turn.

A young female painter turns amateur detective to discover her secret origin and uncover the malpractices of an IVF doctor.