Cambridge Brains

Under the surface of an outwardly successful, highly educated family lies quiet suffering and spiritual isolation.

Mark and Emma have an unarticulated problem within their marriage for which neither feels able to seek help. A business trip to India provides a healing process for Mark while an encounter with an old friend on Dartmoor does the same for Emma.

Self-effacing Uncle Jonathan, a retired vicar, can no longer endure to live with his wife. He fears the harshness of social judgement and is tormented with feelings of inadequacy. However, he knows he must act and cope with any resulting difficulties.  He tries hard to make a success of his new life but his estranged wife is determined to keep him in a state of wretchedness. Then a miracle occurs.

Mary, an attractive widow living in Cheltenham, has an unscrupulous son with designs on her wealth. Frightened by the prospect of being bullied into signing a document which would hand over her house but, at the same time, desperate for discretion and avoidance of shame, she turns to her new neighbours, Mark and Emma, for advice.

Bye-Bye, Inglaterra

In Bye Bye Inglaterra, Horace’s life is seemingly simple with only one daily decision to make - whether to walk or drive to work. However, this routine is about to be shattered when his bosses plot to get rid of him before selling the company for a hefty profit. Horace is completely blindsided when a sudden explosion rocks his world in the dead of night, leaving him and his wife Delia plunged into a sea of uncertainty and financial ruin. To many, Horace’s life would seem like a leisurely stroll through the park, but he had no idea what lay ahead as the gates of opportunity were about to slam shut on him. Follow Horace as he navigates the turbulent waters of unemployment and struggles to stay afloat in a world that has turned against him.

Bonfire Night

A bonfire blazes in Outback Australia. Two men sit all night in its glow, commemorating their dead friend. He blew his head off with a shotgun. Bonfires burn across Lewes, England, commemorating Guy Fawkes Night. As crowds of revellers lurch through the streets, a boy stands teetering on the ledge of a bridge, waiting for the train to pass below. Two different lives, two different places, one story to tell.

Beyond the Division

Pilsung and Soon are star-crossed lovers. He is from South Korea, and she is from the North. Their love is so forbidden that when Pilsung tells his boss, she is immediately worried about the police finding out.

Soon escapes from North Korea after the shutdown of the Gaeseong Industrial Complex and plans to fake her own death with the help of a police officer in South Korea. Pilsung is out of the loop and spends most of the story looking for his love, not realizing she is supposed to be dead.

Soon has been watching Pilsung’s every move, waiting for the right time to reveal herself, only to be heartbroken when she misunderstands a close bond between friends. She decides to leave him, but Pilsung flies to Yanbian to look for her and attempts to smuggle himself into North Korea.

Before The Pearly Gates

Miles Appleby is a complicated and tormented soul. A successful oral surgeon at an exclusive practice in Chicago, he has always been driven by the high expectations of his father. Increasingly, he feels isolated and slowly comes to the realization that he leads an empty life. Miles, however, carries a secret that involved a woman who Bill, his close friend, had been seeing shortly before he suddenly left his homeland for another life in London.

Ever plagued by relationships that fail, Miles meets an engaging woman, Juanita, who finally ignites something in his life giving him warmth and meaning. In a strange turn of events while attending Bill’s untimely funeral near London, he gains a different perspective as to why certain events unfolded, and the secret that Miles had been so careful to protect is slowly revealed by a person called Laura. As the story reaches its zenith, the stories of these four characters finally become pieced together.

Beaten at Birth

Precious, the oldest of ten suffered all of her life. Her biggest fear of landing in a care home had now become true. All of her belongings were thrown in the rubbish, along with all of her memories. A stroke that was not treated, due to misconduct, had left her with slight dementia. The system was prepared to pay £900 a week for a care home she didn’t want to be in. She would have been better off in prison, at least you get parole in prison. The care home had thrown away the key. Her siblings and son had tried in vain to get her out, but her oldest daughter and granddaughters were insistent that she stay there, so they could get on with their dubious business.

Baz, Ant and the Boys

The summer started with ‘Brown Sugar’ and it ended with The Who at The Oval cricket ground, where they turned live rock music into a mesmerizing, pulsating miracle. And bound up in this heady atmosphere of 1971 was the pure, unadulterated love of football and all its absurdities, where sex, snakebite and the slide tackle scythed their way through everything.

Shortfall College, a gaunt and brooding building, reminiscent of the Industrial Revolution cut a dark slice of shadow across the South London sky. It was here that an oddball, dotty selection of students set out in search of the Holy Grail – the South London Intercollegiate Cup – aided by spurious tactics and hindered by countless distractions.

From Marlene, the landlord’s wife, a goddess and vixen with a predilection for ice who couldn’t keep her hands off Baz, to Norman, a ringer, with a rather unhealthy lopsided grin who completely snapped when trying to remove an opponent’s ear with his teeth.

Driven ever onwards by The Bear, their captain and inspiration, and Baz, his defensive henchman, they try to rein in the Ant, who possesses the aerodynamics of a spear and a footballing philosophy whereby the ball isn’t absolutely necessary.

Alba Regained

Frustrated equally by misrule at Westminster and the Scottish government’s failure to progress the independence agenda, a reinvigorated Scottish National Liberation Army seizes power from Scotland’s ruling party, the SNP, after a campaign of attrition during the 2020s. This tale follows the adventures of two young revolutionaries as they pursue their patriotic goal whilst struggling to understand their own personal and philosophical commitment to the cause.

With the effects of climate change now moving into a series of extreme weather events, normal life is so disrupted that unnatural (some would say magical) events appear almost as everyday occurrences, until eventually the human turmoil and the weather disruption come together in a dramatic conclusion that puts into question the singularity of the human experience.

A Nod’s As Good As A Wink …

It’s the early, swinging 70s in London, and Ollie is riding the wave. There’s a day-job and rent to pay but that never gets in the way of the pubs and women.What does get in the way is the ever-present black dog of depression: a depression that clouds his daily life with feelings of guilt, more or less about everything. And if that wasn’t bad enough, add a stalker to the mix, no doubt the result of something else he’s guilty of, and Ollie knows he’s in real trouble.So he needs to get his head right, but it’s not until his shrink, Kline, hypnotises him that Ollie remembers dark events in his early years and he is able to confront his demons, inside and out.‘A Nod’s As Good As A Wink …’ is Ollie’s tale of discovery, full of pain and humour, as he goes from relationship to relationship looking for his place in the sun.

A Bridge in Time

Maddie Coles, disillusioned, 40-something housewife, wakes immobile and in darkness, unaware of the catastrophic illness she has suffered.

During this static time, Maddie recreates subconsciously her life from the very first day of birth in 1965. A life created from real memories and forgotten youthful hopes and dreams, which lead her to question and re-examine every aspect of her life so far.

When medical science reawakens her 25 years later in 2037, the world as she knew it is unrecognisable and alien to her. She must come to terms with the devastating losses and extraordinary surprises, and reacquaint with family and friends of an almost forgotten past. She must also learn to live in the real world again. As Maddie travels this deeply personal, sometimes funny, heartwarming and often painful journey she finds inner wisdom which gives her strength to overcome the difficulties of her new life and determination to value everything she has regained by returning to it.