When Reason Dreams

We live in a rational age in which science and modern technology have removed doubt and ignorance. We no longer fear the dark, we no longer need to use superstitious symbols to protect our houses and families. We know what is happening in the world and are in contact with friends and family who might live miles away. Ours is a rational world… or is it?

These short ghost stories are not set in remote Scottish castles or haunted Victorian houses. They are about the modern world, places where you would not expect to encounter the supernatural. Just because we can see the world on television, speak with people across the oceans and know exactly what causes natural phenomena, the happenings that so terrified our ancestors, does not mean that ghosts have disappeared. Scientific progress has not buried the supernatural.

Children play with long dead ghostly friends, a cruise ship is haunted, a Stuart tragedy reveals its secret in a horrifying way, a married man revisits his past in Florence where he meets his death lured by the ghost of a former lover, a doctor fails to save his wife’s death in a car accident and is haunted to destruction by her spirit, a man is obsessed by a dream, an art dealer steals a painting from an old lady but her ghost returns to pursue him, a man buys a First World War memorial plaque and wished he had never seen it.

Reason and logic still dream.

When Sparks Fly

After the birth of her daughter and with her loving husband, Alistair, by her side, life is complete for Molly. However, following the death of her father and her mother deserting her for Spain and a husband taking more interest in his business, Molly discovers that life is not the idyllic fairy-tale she imagined. Family life puts her veterinary practice in jeopardy. Molly turns to Hugh – the locum – for support.

Sandra, Molly’s mother, arrives from Spain with the much younger Enrico in tow making demands. Molly finds herself in an impossible position and after a blazing row with Alistair, she moves out returning to the farm, her childhood home. Bertie lives at the farm and his partner Lucy is suspicious of Molly’s intentions.

Molly confides in her best friend Lucy realising that suffering alone she has neglected the needs of others around her, including Alistair. Finding herself becomes a crusade, discovering that this may just be the best thing that ever happened to her.

When the Knives Rattle in the Drawer

Ryan Tanner is an average family man battling alcohol and the demons from his childhood, while struggling as a husband and a father. Drowning in a life that often makes no sense, he turns to an insightful, no-nonsense psychologist as a last resort to try and save his volatile, but altogether beautiful marriage with his beloved wife Tess. Surrounded by Ryan’s drinking, memories of their traumatic childhoods and the gut-wrenching lows of married life, When the Knives Rattle in the Drawer is a cathartic recount about understanding the damage that life can cause and searching for the strength to be the best partner and parent possible.

Set in two different worlds, the story evolves between the couple’s small-town family life and wild, alcohol fuelled nights in the inner suburbs of Sydney. After meeting at 17 years old, they have been married for 23 years and play a simple game: 20 questions, ask anything you want. They explore every aspect of trust, love, fidelity and desire before they go to the club. A club where they enter a world of primal sexual energy, a world where wild things happen.

When the Last Note Sounds

These are the recollections of the life and work of a great singer. They explore the true accounts of great happenings following the Second World War when a Renaissance of British music took place, giving birth to several great composers, producers and conductors and a school of singers that led the way to rival the Europeans. Richard Lewis was among the main architects of that Renaissance. His wife Elizabeth was with him for many years, and her reminiscences showcase what a singer’s life is like, its dramas, its humour, and what happens When the Last Note Sounds.

When You Are Curious

How curious do you think you are? This book will help you to explore and expand your curiosity potential. Just like Alice in Wonderland, you will become ‘curiouser and curiouser…’ Are you ready? Let’s discover a brand new, curious YOU...

When You Wish Upon a Stone

Just when the day seemed like it was going to be boring like all the rest, young Chloe finds herself off on an adventure in space with the help of a magic stone. New friends are made and a new planet discovered… A gang of unruly aliens threaten Chloe's adventure of a lifetime and it turns into a race against time to get back to Earth. She has her new friends to help, but will she make it back in time……

When ‘Will’ is More Than ‘Won’t’ - Your Journey Begins

I’ve always been a dreamer, wanting more from life than it was giving me, whilst still making the best of what it did.

I never thought in my darkest moments, or wildest dreams, that one day I would, with my partner of ten years David, find myself in a Land Rover we called Lizzybus driving around the world.

If I had imagined this, it would have been nothing like the reality of it, of blistering hot desserts, snow-covered mountains, civil wars, and uprisings, with our life depending on each other and Lizzybus.

From the very first moment I stepped foot on African soil, I wrote about the reality of living two feet from your other half 24 hours a day. The intimacy, hygiene, isolation, and loneliness, so far removed from my life to this point. But slowly, without even realizing it, it became part of me, and me it, seeing only the wonder, the joy, and the privilege.

Where Did Grandad Go?

Losing someone you love is hard, particularly when you’re just four years old.

When Jenny realises it’s been some time between visits with her favourite Grandad, she begins to worry. In this heartfelt tale, Jenny takes a trip down memory lane as she navigates loss and the confusion of losing a loved one.

Designed to help families connect, and to support young children learning about, and coming to terms with the emotions that rise when someone dies.

Where One Ends, The Other Begins

Derrick and Florence Thompson operate The White Horse motel in a sleepy town in 18th century Essex, providing food and sleep for visitors who are willing to pay the right price. One day, a stranger by the name of Oliver Dawkins arrives. And to make matters worse, he knows their secret. Soon, murders start occurring around town, and the more the bodies pile up, the more the two sides begin to clash, with the lives of their neighbours on the line.

Inspired by the likes of H.G. Wells’ The Invisible Man and other assortments of classic horror literature such as The War of the Worlds and Dracula, Where One Ends, the Other Begins is filled with pitch-black comedy and murderous thrills to delight the reader with an entertaining and gory romp through a game of cat and mouse that slowly escalates to a public brawl that turns the unassuming town into a chaotic bloodbath.

Where the Soul Flies

In his book, Where the Soul Flies, Malcolm Southwood describes what to expect when we leave this world to move into the next one. He uses his own experience of out-of-body states to explain a process we will all come to know at some future date. In a matter-of-fact way, he guides the reader through the various situations the traveller will most probably be guided. He goes on to explain the purpose of rebirth, family associations, the number of earthly visits we are likely to endure and the process of re-entry back into the lessons of earthly life.

Where the Soul Flies is an essential read for everyone interested in the experience which follows life and who wants to understand something of the process of eternal awareness.

Where There’s Brass, There’s Muck

In the glorious May of 1998, the governors of the Tanswold School Trust are looking forward to a new era in which they are about to build a new dining hall for their independent school. However, the unbridled optimism soon turns to despondency as they realise that the bursar has been doing DIY stock-broking with a very large bequest which has provided security for the school.

For the band of elderly socialites that form the governing body this is not just a disaster, but a scandal that attracts the attention of the fraud squad of the Middle Riding of Yorkshire Constabulary who open up a financial can of worms. And it’s not just financial; the appalling standard of hygiene in the school dining hall leads to a serious outbreak of food-poisoning with heart-breaking consequences.

The headmaster is placed under the spotlight and his management becomes more and more capricious as the spotlight is shone on him. The remaining part of the summer term becomes more and more of a comedy of errors as he loses his grip. As for speech day…

Where's Me Teeth

From the mystery of the missing teeth to the urine sample for a goldfish. From the hapless gardener who mows through a power cable, to the debate over fresh or frozen ice to be used in a drink. Why can’t you send an octopus through the post, yet you can take your parrot for a walk?

The frustration caused by the jobsworths of this world and automatic/robotic telephone answering machines.

A humorous and tongue-in-cheek observation of daily life and society. You could not make this up. Life is really stranger and funnier than fiction.