AN Aberystwyth actor, playwright and photographer has turned his hand to something new with the release of his first novel.

The Dust of Exodus is Alex John Gilbey’s second book, the first being his photobook, Stills From The World’s Largest Film Set.

Alex’s visual journey through New York, which was self-published in 2016, has now been joined by his first novel, The Dust Of Exodus, which is available to buy now from Amazon in either print or electronic formats.

The work of science fiction is set in a far future which is littered with many of the same problems humanity faces today.

Cultural differences, the philosophy of materialism and the tension between religions are just some of the problems that trouble the book’s protagonist.

This man, the ever cynical Mike Lemeth, is employed by an undermanned agency with a brief to keep the peace, and is destined to narrate a story of bloodshed and misfortune.

The idea for the book came from, of all things, the musical Fiddler On The Roof, as Alex, 29, explained.

“I was sitting in the back of a rehearsal for Fiddler on the Roof back in 2014. I didn’t take any of the plot from it, it was the feeling of unthinking bureaucracy vs humanity – the quote from Fiddler that sums it up is ‘after a lifetime, a piece of paper and get ye out?’.

“I thought about how that’s just as true now as it was back then, and by extension it’ll be the same in the future – people don’t change, humanity is as vicious a species as it ever was.”

See this week’s south editions for the full feature, in shops and online now