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The Menagerie
This book is a collection of eight separate stand-alone short stories. These stories will take you on a journey of suspense, adventure, mystery and horror.
There is something for everyone, whether you like gritty detective stories, mythological adventures or enticing horror, all that and more in this Menagerie.
£16.99 -
The Lost Man and Other Tales
When our two children were small, we lived on a small farm near Exeter. The farmyard was immediately outside the house which meant I could spend a little time with our two sons at their teatime and go indoors again when they were bathed and put to bed. My wife would read to them, and then I would. As they got older, I would tell them stories too, often involving input from them too. Hence, the idea of creating stories as well as just reading other people’s writing.
A few years later, I felt the need for the extra income, so I did a one-year teacher training course at St. Luke’s College and took a part-time job at our local secondary school, teaching slow readers. A colleague there, a teacher of English, heard of my occasional scribblings and asked for some short stories for her to use in class. This worked surprisingly well.
For a number of reasons, we sold the farm in 1978 and moved to a house with a three-acre paddock near Kingsbridge. I became a full-time teacher with multiple handicapped teenagers. Not much time for writing. Also, in later years, when we were gardening beside the River Dart a few miles downriver from Totnes, there was no time for writing.
However, when we sold our smallholding and retired to Totnes in 2000, I took up writing again and got down to it more seriously. This book is the result of my scribbles over the last 20 years.
£16.99 -
The Last Glass
A man arrives in Dallas the day before the assassination of President Kennedy and is involved in events that would change history – what are his intentions on 22 November 1963 and afterwards…?
A policeman receives news that an old friend has died and begins to reminisce with his wife, both will be shocked at the result…
A young boy’s idyllic world is shattered by events in war-torn Greece…
A 16-year-old sneaks out to see his hero, the legendary guitarist Jimmy Parker, in concert and changes his life forever…
Stories that stretch from the beaches of Dunkirk to an Edwardian orphanage, stories of real people and historical events that would change the world. This collection of short stories unites the author’s passion for history, writing and playing with the possibilities of ‘what if’.
Carefully researched and with an eye for detail, some will surprise, some will shock – and all will entertain.
£10.99 -
The Aged Infant and Other Stories
In this volume, Margery Hargest Jones – whose previous books for Austin Macauley have covered some of the most iconic folk tales of the British Isles, from the Mabinogion and King Arthur to Robin Hood – now tells, or re-tells, some of her favourite stories. Three of these are given in full, while the other four are compressed into intriguing and resonant summary form.
The title story, ‘The Aged Infant’, is set in the author’s native Wales and concerns a devoted mother’s troubles with a changeling child. The next, ‘The Miraculous Watermelon’, reads like one of the piquantly comic tales from The Arabian Nights. The final tale in this section, ‘Caravan Joe’, details how the eponymous character deals with the mischievous inhabitants of Squirrel Wood.
The four subsequent summaries range from a simple anecdote about Larry the Lamb and other much-loved characters of ‘ToyTown’ to a mini-epic in which the Nordic hero Sigmund battles with a she-wolf.
£10.99 -
Some of the Consequences
Here’s a selection of stories and poetry; some I’ve written during – or about – times of working and travelling in diverse locations.
They reflect contrasting moods and passions; the quirks and inconsistencies that shape our lives and which will ever take us unaware.
We are all, perhaps, somewhere in these pages.
Or will be…
£11.99 -
Pet Rapport
Pets as part of the family, their inclusion in everyday life and their mishaps or adventures are reflected in these stories. Each story is accompanied by an illustration that is personally drawn by the author from a photo received from the owner and reflects their unique character and personality. Some true and real-life examples include: A cat which was inadvertently included in a parcel (but survived), a dog that was stolen from outside a shop but was restored to her owner and a rescue dog who found a wonderful home. These are all true, but there are also four fictitious and humorous examples ‘hidden’ amongst the others, which the author invites readers to discover. Adults will find these stories heartwarming and children will like the ‘happy endings’ and trying to spot which stories are ‘made up.’ A book with stories that appeal to the heart and illustrations that appeal to the eye, whatever your age and whether or not you have pets of your own.
£14.99 -
Life According to Brian
Life According to Brian chronicles 44 stories of mishap and misadventure of a scale unparalleled in modern man. Disguised in comedy to protect the seriously guilty, the story follows Brian’s escapades traversing the world and captures not only the lunacy of life but the luck involved in avoiding one’s own death.
The guidebook for the mentally impaired includes: poaching, drugs, imprisonment, kidnapping, poisonings, alien hunters, crocodile suicide and much, much more…
The sorry episodes are being played out via a game of chess. God and Charles Darwin, seeking to save mankind, are plotting Brian’s untimely demise. The winner of each play gets to choose the method of death. Constantly interrupted by visiting deities, kings, queens and E.T., the two main players are frustrated in their attempts to have some peace and play the game, with a nice cup of tea and some Mr Kipling cake.
Send the kids away, euthanise the cat, find a comfy chair, pour a pint of the finest whisky…have a reliable psychiatrist on speed dial.
Come inside and enjoy the ride…
£17.99 -
Late Life Musings
These stories capture a diverse variety of characteristics and personalities in different situations, and convey pleasure, pain and accurate observation.
£11.99 -
Last Keeper's Lighthouse Stories
The very nature of lighthouses captures the imagination. Being marooned on different lighthouses throughout my career has produced many memorable incidents and humorous stories. Diverse locations like Lundy, Alderney, Wolf, Sark, all have something unique to offer. Rock tower lighthouses, land lights or island lighthouses, each one is different. Cooped up on a tower and being pounded by heavy seas is not only exhilarating, but frightening as well. Fog signals can play a huge part in a good duty period and the relief for going ashore is always welcomed. The characters are what makes this book such a good read. It gets your chuckle chops in overdrive, especially at some of the antics on the lights. A month’s duty is filled with incidents and the constant change in weather conditions has an effect on everything that you do. These stories will show how hardship goes hand in glove with humour whilst aboard.
£12.99 -
Ghostly Visions
A journey through the strange visions and visitations of characters: historical, contemporary and futuristic. The brief tales are written for easy reading and reach from ancient times to the imagined worlds of the future. Rather than horror stories, these experiences are unfolded as the strange and intriguing encounters of people who are visited by an unexpected presence, or who travel through unfamiliar landscapes both physical and mental. Many tales are set within historical worlds that may be remote but have some familiar features and some significance for our own times. The imagination of those engaged in these experiences are often stretched as they discover truths about themselves and their surroundings. Young people come of age as they witness unfamiliar occurrences and world-weary personalities find fresh meanings in the scenarios that they move through. Many of the stories explore the relevance of ancient myths to the truths that the characters find on their voyages of self-discovery.
£12.99 -
Dead Plague
Warning: do not read this book if you are of a sensitive disposition!
Within this book lies a collection of short stories each different from the other but all connect with aspects of horror, suspense and survival, set within a post-apocalyptic world, where the dead have risen from an unknown viral outbreak, that abidingly seek the flesh of the remaining survivors.
The remaining humans attempt to find some semblance of a life on a reformed earth created by the dead. Each story depicts how the dead have reshaped the lives of the survivors and illustrates how they struggle to conform to the change while trying to hold onto some sanity and attempt to continue with life while pondering how long that life will be.
£10.99 -
Confessions
Maybe you were hit on the blind side of life, experiencing real discoveries, living off the sixes of a dice, trauma-gripped powering through, but holding on to something that just was not true.
Now there’s a dark light in you, it will walk the path of the master devil in situ, dark energy will pass through, with hell throwing spanner's in kind, simply to be rid of you.
Drafting a reality of your life with words, allergic to average, continuing to overthink the verbs, by practice of patience marking the tomorrows with your innovated verse.
How to battle a problem that has no rule? When did public entities become so cruel? This thought has spun so many views, but these days even Britain's finest don't have a clue, indecisive it remains, your patience must simply be insane.
Life is certainly not a problem to be solved, a toxic reality experienced will never go untold. Many vain attempts will be made to make you unfold, breaking into your reality, squeezed against the goodness of your halo soul.
Confessions by Zubair Mulla ponders over all this and more.
£10.99
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