May 2025

The following is an extract from Alexander’s stand-alone novel, The Winds from Further West, which will hit bookshelves in the US at the end of July.

The Winds from Further West

A month or so after their first date – dinner at a seafood restaurant in Leith – Chrissie announced that she had been looking at a flat on the south side of the city. “It has views,” she said. “And acres of space. We could each have two rooms.”

He was surprised. “Are you asking me to live with you?”

She blushed. “I suppose I was. I have a habit of thinking out loud. Perhaps I was just thinking of what a good idea it would be.”

He smiled at her. “Why not? We all have to live somewhere.”

His response helped her to overcome her embarrassment.

“That’s a very romantic way of putting it.”

He was quick to apologise. “I’m sorry. Of course I’d like to live with you – who wouldn’t?”

“Oh, I suspect a lot of people wouldn’t. I’m a bit untidy.”

He said that he wouldn’t mind. He was untidy too.

“And I take hours in the shower,” she continued. “Hours.”

“I very rarely shower.” He laughed.

She looked at him with mock reproach. “And you a doctor too . . . with all you know about germs. Perhaps I should reconsider my invitation.”

“Please don’t.”

“All right. Let’s move in together. As long as you shower regularly.”

He gave her his hand to shake. Then he kissed her.

She said, “We’re going to be so happy. I can feel it.”

“So can I.”

He thought: I’m saying that without thinking. He was not completely sure that he would be happy living with her, but, at the same time, he had no reason to think that he would be unhappy. That did not mean that he was indifferent to her: what he felt was fondness – and it was a growing fondness at that. It could mature into a deeper love, but until it did that, it was what one might call a satisfactory relationship. That was the lot of so many people who were in relationships that might not be passionate or exhilarating, but that were satisfactory enough . . . Satisfactory: such faint praise, such a second prize . . . And yet, for most people, that is all that came their way in this life. They lived in hope of being swept off their feet, but that did not happen, and they accepted it. It was not so bad being a bit in love, or in love to an extent.

Life, for most people, was something that just happened to them. They were not the authors of the script – it was simply there, and they read out the part allotted to them. And in the background, like the clockwork that kept the whole thing going, was simple chance. It occurred to Neil then that had he not walked into that Turkish barbershop he would not be here: he would not have met Chrissie and they would not be planning to live together. They might even end up getting married – because that was what people who lived together often did. Although neither had said anything about that yet.

If they did, of course, then his choice of life partner would have been determined by the sheer chance of needing a haircut at that particular time. He reminded himself that that was probably the same for just about everything that happened to us. We imagined that our lives were shaped by choices we made: it was not like that at all, or only to a limited extent.

Our lives were the creations of chance, of hazard, of events that in many cases took place long before our conception. We were old business, warmed up for a new present and an uncertain future. But that understanding, although unsettling to some, should not necessarily detract from any pleasure that we might take in life, and at that moment, Neil knew that he was content. He had an interesting and secure job; he was in a stable relationship with a woman whom most people would regard as something of a catch; and he had somewhere to live. If he had to sit down and write out a list of things he needed but did not have, he would have been hard-pressed to come up with anything. The Turkish barbershop in Glasgow had done him proud.
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The Winds from Further West is available to pre-order now. Published 29th July 2025.