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– His first book was called Hotter than Potter in the UK. Graham "G.P." Taylor penned his bestseller Shadowmancer, but as he talks about the book’s inception, Graham reveals an underlying personal reason why he wrote it.
Graham’s book is set at the Raven Hall Hotel and the surrounding coastal community of Scarbourough, England.
“It was ideal to actually have Raven Hall as the vicarage, because it’s overlooking the incredible bay,” says Graham. “The action all takes place, because it was really a smuggler’s hideout.”
Shadowmancer came about, strangely enough, after Graham watched The 700 Club. Terry Meeuwsen was talking about the book series and how it involved witchcraft.
“[It got] me thinking,” says Graham. “I’d been involved in the occult when I was a child. I got into witchcraft and ended up getting involved with a coven through reading a book. If that can happen to me, then it can happen to many children.”
Graham remembers being a young child playing by the river with his sisters.
“I was six years old. I couldn’t swim. My sister was on the bank. She told me, ‘Don’t go near the water.’ I went away, fished, fell into the water and drowned.
“Through the water, I could see the sun. I could see the weed, and the water was crystal clear. I could see myself going deeper and deeper. Then all of a sudden I’m looking at a boy. I’m thinking, There are two of us in here. There are two of us drowning. I realized I was looking at myself, and I started to come away from my body. I felt at ease.
“The next thing I remember was being jumped on by my sister on my chest, spewing water out of my mouth, and her hand going in my mouth to clear stuff out of my throat. She revived me. She dived in, pulled me out, and resuscitated me.”
From that moment on that six-year-old boy realized that there was a life after death.
“I had to find out what was going on,” says Graham. “Instead of following down a Christian path, my path led me into séances and into mediums. I was in my local library looking for books, and a guy came up to me [who] was a witch. That was it.
“I became quickly involved in witchcraft and went to the local spiritualist church. I wanted to talk with the dead. I did some horrendous, horrendous spiritual things.”
Over time as he got deeper into the occult, Graham was also exposed to Christianity through street evangelists from a local church.
“I remember listening to this story about Jesus and about how He could change my life,” recalls Graham. “I felt so convicted, I got up and ran. Got into a bus shelter, got on my knees and said, ‘Jesus, if You’re out there, You’ve got to do something with my life.’ And I remember crying.
“Throughout all my time as a teenager, no matter what I got involved with spiritually, I always knew that there was this Jesus. Sometimes I’d like to take some drugs and be convicted. Don’t think Jesus would like that. I thought, Well, what am I saying that for? I’m not a Christian. I don’t care… But I do.”
Graham moved to London and worked as a promoter in the punk rock music scene. He took part in all of its excesses, but he still couldn’t stop thinking about Jesus.
“I was stoned out of my head one night,” Graham says. “I woke up the next morning. I looked in the mirror, and my face was gray. It was lined. I called out, ‘Oh God, there’s got to be more to life than this.’ Not really saying a prayer, but something inside me, that voice that I now know to be God’s voice speaking into my life said, ‘Go home.’
“I was so lost in sin, and I knew that this was God’s Word speaking to me. I left London that day. Packed my bags, got on the bus, went home.
“I went to work as a volunteer in a day center. Subsequently they liked the way I worked, and they offered me a full-time job as a trainee social worker. What I didn’t realize was the place was full of Christians.”
Conversations with his fellow employees finally convinced Graham that what he needed was a personal relationship Jesus Christ.
“I just held up my hands and said, ‘Lord Jesus, come into my life right now. I want You as my Savior. Forgive my sins.’
“One thing I did once I became a Christian was make sure I was carrying nothing from my previous life.”
How did he do that? He got delivered.
“I got prayed for,” Graham recalls. “Although I was saved, I wasn’t set free in many areas. I wanted to be free. I got some holy hands laid on my head, and I made sure that everything I’d been involved in the past was sorted out. Cleaned house -- cleaned house good.”
Graham has no fear in writing about the dangers of the occult, because he’s found the answer that will deliver anyone from its bondage.
“So when they’re set free, they’re free indeed. That’s what Jesus says. My old life died. Graham Taylor, the drug-taking, junky, occult witch died when I was 21 years old,” says Graham. “Graham Taylor, member of God’s family, was born on that day and a new life started.”
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