2+2MayB5

When a Member of Parliament is found murdered and hidden behind a statue in the entrance of Westminster, retired Detective Chief Inspector Friender is called upon by Scotland Yard to use his skills and expertise to solve the case. As Friender delves into the victim’s life and relationships, he follows a trail of clues that takes him on a journey along the River Thames and into the heart of the House of Commons. Along the way, he must use his divergent thinking and unique approach to private investigation to uncover the truth behind the MP’s shocking assassination. Could competition be the motive driving the murder, or is there something deeper at play?

A Different View

Poetry about feeling alone and different in a big normal world. Poetry about struggling with depression and mental health. Poems that tell stories that everyone can feel familiar with. A Different View is a poetry collection that is more relevant than ever in these days of people struggling with mental health issues and in a society that gets more and more open.

A Few Years In The Life of a Protest Poet

'I began writing poetry/ditties shortly after moving down to Cornwall back in 1977. It's amazing how inspirational the lapping of the tidal waves can be. Whilst working on a building, I began writing poems about all the different workers on the toilet walls. These were humorous and inoffensive, and although I'd written about the gaffer, he must have liked them, as he never sacked me. 

'The pandemic caused me to put my thoughts down on paper, ranging from what we've done to this planet and its wildlife, to how the Government has dealt with each situation, good or bad.' 

Lori Crasnich

A Fine Line

A story of the extraordinary lives of ordinary people.

Set between Victorian Liverpool and Dundee and the battlefields of the First World War, three families face the perils of life on the economic cliff-edge, where a single misstep can send lives plunging out of control.

Crossing a century of dramatic change, their journey begins in the aftermath of the slave trade, moving through the era of Empire expansion and Industrial Revolution to a time of religious strife and global conflict.

The world they navigate is one fraught with hazard in which exploitation, zealotry and violence lead to rape, prostitution, fraud, and murder.

At its heart, two indomitable women – lifelong friends – choose very different paths as they strive to hold their worlds together, and to survive.

A Mozart Kind of Morning

Jo Stanton has lived all of her adult life in France, scraping together a living as a gardener and musician at one of the most famous chateaux in the Loire valley and caring for her elderly grandmother, but a chance encounter with former concert pianist Henri Arnaud, and his son Thomas, brings an unexpected change to her life. Henri offers her a job restoring his neglected garden in England, where he lives with Thomas, a writer, and their housekeeper Barbara.

Keen to escape the unwanted attentions from one of her colleagues, she agrees. However, the move has more consequences than she anticipated and brings to the fore her troubled past, rekindling supressed nightmares from her childhood. Will she ever be free from the guilt of what she has done?  As she falls in love with the garden and the family she has come to know, it becomes increasingly hard to hide her secret. But there is one man who is determined to uncover her past and help her, no matter what.

A story of loss, healing, and, ultimately, true love.

A Walk in "Wild" Wales with George Borrow

In his Welsh classic, Borrow provides an account of his walk from Llangollen to Swansea in 1856, a walk which at the time would have been a pursuit of epic proportions. Borrow’s literary musings, historical anecdotes and experiences along the way, presented in the form of a journal, provide an insight to Welsh life as it was in the middle of the 19th Century.

In a world immersed in the industrial revolution, Borrow was undoubtedly struck by the magnitude and pace of change that was happening around him. But it would not have been evident to him that the world could be anything like it is today. A world without motor cars, no electricity, no telephones, no aeroplanes, no police force anything like we know it today and the wonders of a technological revolution that has turned the world on its head not even a figment of the imagination, that was the world of Borrow.

A Walk in “Wild” Wales with George Borrow compares Borrow’s Wales with Wales today and captures events that have impacted on towns that Borrow passed through and some of the characters they have produced who have helped shape a Welsh culture built on a unique language and a hardiness of spirit descendant from its farming and mining heritage.  

A Year of Words

The year is 2007 and my mind is full of poems and a need to write. These poems I wrote are a diary of emotions reflecting the day that they were written. They are an eclectic journey through my year. They reflect an emotional journey whose intent is to diarise in rhyme the moment they were written.

Oft the poems are whimsical, sometimes philosophical, and other times musing. The poems were written without edits, the poems in this compendium are of the moment, no revisions were ever considered. These poems are my conversation with you, they are your insight into a very mercurial mind, full of emotion.

I have written poems all my life, and now at 74 some of them have found a page and an audience, please enjoy.

Ahmed is The Angel of Egypt

Two very different worlds collide when Stella meets Ahmed through the internet. Ahmed is a Muslim from Cairo, Egypt and has been through much turmoil in his beloved homeland. Stella has lived a sheltered life in England and has recently split from her long-term boyfriend. Over time, despite the many cultural differences, love blossoms between the two and Stella decides to take the plunge and meet up with this dark, handsome stranger. How will Stella fare in this unfamiliar land?

Annihilation of a Planet III

An arc of light across the sky and shots fired from a U.S. Navy Blue Angel F/A-18 supersonic hornet fail to collide; the light vanishes from the sky, and the light energy of the android Lawrence streaks to the earth and into the labs of C&L Automation, straight to the alien disc brought previously from Mars.

Dr. Paul Linsdale, unaware of Lawrence’s return, celebrates the birth of his son, Lawrence Love Linsdale, and goes to congress to request approval and funding for a project that will quell the dangerous supervolcano in Yellowstone National Park.

Congress gives the go-ahead, and for nine years the project proceeds. A ring of 1,000 manmade geysers operate to help Old Faithful bring an end to the supervolcano.

Dr. Linsdale’s son, visiting C&L and exploring on his own, happens upon the alien disk. There he is enlisted by his namesake, Lawrence, to help him flee the planet he has saved twice. Now he seeks only to live in peace, far beyond the Milky Way, with Lilah, the elder care robot who loves him.

Is a nine-year-old boy up to the task? Can Lawrence finally succeed in his quest for true love? More important for Earth, can the Yellowstone be saved?

Antonion Borges leads us from the historical roots of mankind to the far reaches of an unknown time and space. Interspersed with the quests of Linsdale and Lawrence, TV news broadcasts offer a glimpse into life in 2262.

Another World, Another Dimension

Who are you really and where did you come from, besides the obvious biological details? Do you believe in a higher power from a higher dimension, or do you never really seriously question your existence? Well, this story is a journey of self-discovery, entering into a spiritual world unknown, a world unseen, a world in another dimension. This story is about a young girl who had to learn that everything isn’t always as it seems and that some things may remain hidden for your protection and in other times need to be revealed, in order to save you. 

“The world we see and experience with our natural senses is not the reality that really exists. This short novel gives us a peek into the life of a supernatural child, the world of mental illness and the battle that rages between light and darkness. As a prophet of God, with many supernatural experiences and the gift of spiritual sight, I could relate to all that was said in this piece, yet I am not sure if it was my experience of this sort of reality that had me on the edge of my seat or the story that I was reading. Come and join Jessica, a young girl that will open up this brave new world to you the reader.”

– Matthew Robert Payne

Author and Prophet

Astral Empire

In the 1^st century AD, Rome is a superpower with a vast empire, countless military victories and numerous enemies. But it is about to face its greatest threat yet: an invading species from another galaxy, known as the Hagrans.

This race of beings has been observing Earth for decades and is more advanced than any adversary Rome has ever encountered. With their eyes set on eventually claiming Earth as their prize, they invade Rome and enslave its citizens, using them to transform the city into a Hagran capital, with the intent of decimating all the humans on Earth once they have fulfilled their purpose.

But the Hagrans underestimated the resolve and ingenuity of their prey. Now the fate of Rome and of the world, lies with an unlikely hero: an ordinary blacksmith, named Gannicus.

Blending science-fiction, historical fact and inventive creativity, Astral Empire is a thrilling, action-packed saga that will take you on a wild journey to brave new worlds.

Bag of Dolls

I hope those of you reading this book who require it will find courage through the strange and sometimes exciting world of Julia Darby, she will lead you to unexpected avenues.