Jupiter

The story of Isaac Marcu Moritz and the great affliction of his childhood caused by a lightning bolt launched by Jupiter, god of the sky, the father of gods and men, and the patron of Rome. 

The bolt kills his aged mentor whose knowledge of history and languages is transferred to the traumatised mind of the boy. He is plagued throughout his life by visions and torment of Rome’s ancient rulers and gods.

Growing up on the family farm his skill in the capture of flies by hand learned by watching his grandmother’s action while at the packing table leads to success in rural land sales and a posting in a university entomology research program of hand-fly-capture. He establishes Snap-Zap-Solutions with the aim of eradicating the pestilence to improve the human condition.

Will he ever understand himself enough to empathise or forever live in abeyance wondering who or what is really driving his life?

Kertamen

A front-line game of cat and mouse between cops as tough and cunning as the conspirators – a murderous, satanic cabal intent on influencing the 2014 Scottish referendum. Kertamen is a fast-paced thriller involving recurrent darkness, some moral dilemma and portal-stepping into Jerusalem in 30 AD, seen primarily through the eyes of Detective Inspector Chuck Kean of the Drug Squad. Kean is running a deniable investigation into a masonic cabal among the Edinburgh establishment, who are allegedly linked to child abuse. His team soon experience various unanticipated twists including the discovery that the background on the faction is an intricate one with links to Rosslyn Chapel and a migrant Templar, Adam de Gordon.

The clandestine investigation quickly becomes entangled within the foundation roots of a much bigger political conspiracy encased within the 2014 Scottish Referendum. Martone resurrects the political climate, passions and concerns of the voters, whilst cannily revealing a conspiracy, akin to that of Dallas in 1963, lurking within the shadows. Connections to the oil and the arms industries, whose peripheral strategies are somehow aligned with the cabal, develop while Kean discovers that he is involved in an age-old supernatural struggle between seraphs and fallen angels. One angel – Dai, mentors Kean in what develops into his own moral quest, after revealing to him that the referendum, along with other events around the globe, are all the chess games of the divine.

King's Spur

Occasionally Emily could see the glint of the river, some thousands of feet below before the clouds closed in again and she was forced to stop, breathing heavily, the shotgun still clutched to her swollen stomach. 

She tried not to look down, putting her faith in the good Lord.

But the good Lord had better keep out of her way until she had finished what she had to do that night!

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.

Laura's Year

In January 1976, it is an excited, but nervous family of four who board a Jumbo jet, to leave England to begin a new life in a small town, on the Persian Gulf in Iran.

Adrian, an ex-Royal Naval Officer, thought this new job in Iran would be a chance to earn big money, and although neither parent had wanted to disrupt their children’s education, they thought it was worth the risk, giving them both valuable life experiences, and a chance to see ‘something of the world.’

Once settled in their new home, with the children happily enrolled in an excellent international school, they immediately made friends with like-minded ex-pats, and got involved in an active and well-established social scene, with parties and functions most weekends, and daily trips to their ‘club’ in town, which housed a bar, and swimming pool.

Caroline and Alex, having made friends at school, as well as with some local children, who lived in mud huts, in the desert at the end of their road, also seemed happy with their lot, but Laura becomes pregnant, which threatens to disrupt their idyllic lives, and events that followed, appear to have changed Laura’s, once devoted and loving husband’s feelings towards her.

But, had Laura changed? And that was why her previously, caring husband didn’t fancy her anymore.

How was she to get their relationship back on track, when there were so many exciting distractions and choices which held his attention, which didn’t include her?

Letters to Doberitz

This unique and compelling story has laid dormant for a 100 years. Inspired by real events and based on my own family during the First World War, Letters to Doberitz is set between a German prison-of-war camp, the battlefields of France and family back in Bristol, as father and son endure very different wars. These were real people. They are my ancestors and family who left an extraordinary tale to be told. A lie is made in the name of love, with letters written compounding the deceit for years, all to protect the man that they loved. This is their truly unique story.

Little Gibraltar Street

Escape into the gripping tale of Saffi, a young, privileged, and restless girl yearning for a life of adventure. In the backdrop of 1929, on a fateful Christmas morning, she coerces her friend and family employee, Lottie, into embarking on an impulsive journey from Melbourne to Perth. Little do they know, the uncharted path that lies before them spans over two thousand miles of rugged dirt roads.

Ill-equipped for the arduous journey, Saffi and Lottie’s fate takes an unexpected turn when they encounter Raana, a resourceful and destitute Afghan girl whose indispensable guidance propels them beyond Adelaide. Their group reaches its full complement when they chance upon Sam, a wounded young man scarred by a harsh upbringing and distorted views on relationships.

Venturing into the unforgiving wilderness west of Port Augusta, they confront a land ravaged by drought and the looming shadow of the Great Depression. In the face of scorching heat, swirling dust storms, shifting sands, poverty, and the ugly face of racial intolerance, their disparities become glaringly apparent.

Despite the hardships, Saffi cherishes every moment of their odyssey, as the splendor and solitude of the bush, shared trials, and a fight for survival forge an unbreakable bond among the travelers. As they navigate the untamed terrain, the beauty of their journey lies not just in the breathtaking landscapes, but in the transformation of their own spirits.

Little Heart Beats

Imagine when you first fell in love. What did it feel like?

Little Heart Beats captures a love journey stemming from when you first met your soulmate, how you reacted, how you knew you were in love, what it felt like, and what it means to not only give out love but also to be loved back.

It is subdivided into four sections that will leave you believing in love again.

Liverpool Kids of WWII - Part 1

The Liverpool Blitz is over…

The seven-year-old boy who was evacuated in The Green Gates Story, comes home after many months away, and is faced with changes to his life: house moves, new districts, new faces…

No sweets, because Mum’s used the coupons for sugar.
What are bananas?
What’s ice-cream?
White bread?

Upon his return to his home city and with his evacuation experience behind him, he views his life ahead as a series of hurdles, but the War is ongoing…

Toys? – Pretend games and a good healthy imagination.
Free-time? – Fun of collecting waste paper, scrap metal, bones and rags, in support of the war effort.

His first trip into town, shopping with Mum, and the surprising sight of big blackened shells, once shops, now dark spaces between buildings, which had suffered direct hits, torn apart innards and burnt deposits.  
Blast waves obliterating shop windows and doors of adjacent buildings, displaying:
Heaps of broken bricks
Shattered concrete supports
Splintered wood floors hanging drunkenly, with massive heaps of dust and debris deposited on the piled remains, awaiting attention and clearance.

How to cope with the unnecessary death of a classmate, killed at play, after accidentally falling through the blitzed roof of an unsafe bomb-damaged house?

When the supply and demands of shortages cause the theft of a family bicycle.

Kids discovering the incomprehensible: German POWs sitting smoking, chatting and laughing, employed in collecting and stacking usable bricks from a bomb site, watched by a grey-haired bespectacled British soldier sat in his parked army lorry when he was not reading a dog-eared copy of Lilliput magazine.  
Same kids, frowning and mindful of captured British soldiers packed into overcrowded huts inside barbed-wire enclosures, overlooked by machine-gun towers, in the Fatherland!

Love on the Vine

Set between the old Cotswolds market town of Stow on the Wold and the Dordogne region of France our heroine finds herself in a life-shattering situation having caught out her cheating husband.

Approaching her 50th birthday and with two children, one away at university and the other out on a gap year in the far east, Lottie will struggle by with the help of a few friends as she ponders where she will go from here.

Heartache and low self-esteem abounds her every waking minute; will she ever recover, can an escape to her elder sister’s holiday villa in France come to her rescue? Join us on a journey that will give the reader an idea of how true friendship works and enjoy an insight into the wonders of the Dordogne countryside that is a must for wine lovers and general tourists alike.

Will a chance meeting with a charming handsome French vineyard owner refuel her passion for life or will a chance discovery ruin it, the journey is sometimes painful but some amusing moments can intercede. Making the right life choices and decisions at the right time will decide how Lottie’s life turns out.

Mabel Murphy

It’s 1920s London and the world is in a deep economic depression. Times are very hard and the city is rife with unemployment, poverty and disease. One family in East London
have managed to keep themselves afloat, housed and fed, despite having one parent with a long-term mental health condition, but that is all about to change as their teenage daughter is catapulted into a series of life events which are traumatic, heartbreaking and shocking but which make her become a much stronger and more resilient human being than she ever dreamed possible.
This is a harrowing story of innocence, shame, hostility and vicious cruelty from the very people who should be caring for those in need, but it is tempered with love, hope and the potential to change one’s situation given the right opportunities.
Although fictional, this was a true story for many women of that time and is based on several older women whom the author met and supported whilst an NHS nurse in the large hospital system.

Making Old Bones

Gramwell Glade is Making Old Bones.

A care home, purpose built around a Georgian folly castle façade in Essex, Gramwell Glade is making a fortune for business developer Akin Akindele who, armed with an MBA foresaw that high end care homes were going to return significant returns on his investment.

It’s Making Old Bones of Pauline Graves’ career since moving from hospitality to head up the staff at Gramwell Glade and putting her misplaced hopes in a liaison with Akindele.

It’s Making Old Bones of the dedicated carers who support its sundowners while supporting their own families on the small fiscal returns their efforts bring on the ‘living wage’.

It’s laying old bones to rest. For many of the residents their time at Gramwell Glade is their first experience of surrender when it comes to real life responsibilities. That onus now falls to their ‘children’ who now have their parents’ Powers of Attorney and who are handing over the funds that would otherwise satisfy a mortgage sufficiently large enough to buy their own castle.

If we know someone who works in the care sector or spends their twilight years in a home, if we visit family or friends who have moved on into residential care, make no bones about it, something like the Gramwell Glade experience could come to us all.