The Ties That Bind

How the hell do you persuade your elderly, sick mother that she can’t stay in her own home? She’s confused and belligerent, talking about Hitler and ironing boards! All she really wants is to be left alone to die in her own bed, in peace and without any fuss. But her daughters have other ideas.

Sisters Diana and Vanessa face a rollercoaster of emotions as they battle the practicalities of looking after their mother Edwina as her life draws to a close. As she becomes increasingly frail, Edwina becomes more determined to wear them down by her refusal to accept their help. And now their eldest sibling, a convicted criminal, is back on the scene and that can only spell trouble.

Through laughter, tears and lots of wine, Vanessa and Diana navigate the challenges of dealing with all the emotional and practical paraphernalia of a dying parent. Two middle aged women who appreciate that dark humour is sometimes what you need to get you through the day and that family ties run deep in good times and bad.

The Spaces Between

Catherine has come to feel that we have hardly begun to understand the forces in us and around us, and our connections with them and with each other.

Underlying daily life, other forces exist. Intersecting work-life dramas, vibrant language, sea swimming, and the dunes and gardens of the sea, all held together by a tenuous thread, other means of communication and other presences take their place, alongside which relationships flourish or fail.

The Sky Is Bluer

Kathy Barron is a nurse in the war-torn African country of Rhodesia. In 1974 while on honeymoon in South Africa, a stranger triggers her long-suppressed memory.

‘I know you’ll think I’m crazy, Rick, but that’s the man I saw kill my brother.’

But the police consider Kathy an unreliable witness.

‘You were six-years-old, the light was poor and you’ve only come forward fifteen years later…leave the detective work to the police and go back to Rhodesia, Mrs Barron.’

Three years on, the Rhodesian Bush War has intensified. Kathy and her family leave the country they love and emigrate to South Africa. She revisits the scene of her brother’s murder – then starts her own search for his killer.

The Shadow of the Cross

When Sally Schofield and her husband, Tristan, buy the house that Sally has always dreamt about, Sally thinks they have found the perfect place to live out the rest of their lives.

Unbeknownst to her, the sleepy Dorset Village of Upper Chilling has been a battleground between good and evil for the last 800 years, and destiny now sees Sally as part of the final conflict.

Finding herself increasingly aware of supernatural forces at work both in the village and in her life, Sally must unlock the secrets of the Upper Chilling’s past to save her future dreams. In a battle that she could never win by herself, could Sally’s only hope lie with the mysterious ‘Lady in Blue’?

The Runaways

Andrew Munroe gets declared bankrupt after his building business in Leeds West Yorkshire suddenly collapses. Andy is diagnosed as suffering from clinical depression. He abandons his wife and daughter hoping to kick-start his life finding work down in London. He feels that he has let his family down badly and assures himself that they would be far better off without him. After hitching a lift that takes him down to the South East Coast, Andy meets up with a kind and caring pair of star-struck elderly lovers, one of whom owns a boarding house in Basildon.

Two other main characters in the book enter the story intermittently. The first is a girl named Gita from Birmingham, who is running away from an arranged marriage. As her story unfolds she too will eventually end up living down on the South East Coast.

The other is Sam, a loveable rogue born and bred in the East End of London. After serving an eight-year prison sentence in one of Her Majesty’s Correctional Facilities for manslaughter, he too shuns his place of birth and makes his way towards the South East Coast.

All three will eventually meet up but not in the circumstances that you may expect or predict.

The Rule of Optimism

In the Autumn of 1991, a group of young social work students meet at university in Cardiff, each filled with positivity and ambition. With a backdrop of widespread sexual abuse in Cleveland, Rochdale and Orkney, public perception of social workers is deeply cynical and the profession is already defined by negative media reporting. But this does not dampen their spirits.

Tara is a headstrong pragmatist, a single mother raised in the South Wales Valleys and of Irish lineage. Proud and fiercely independent, she approaches life without fear, bolstered by a secure and loving relationship with her family. Alison is a beautiful but fragile young woman, a gifted musician who is haunted by her parents’ toxic and destructive relationship. As a means of escape, Alison moves to live with her beloved Aunt Clem in rural West Wales and finds an unexpected purpose to her life. Neither Tara nor Alison have ever enjoyed an enduring female friendship before. But when their paths cross, a special bond is formed. Over the course of twenty-five years, the lives of Tara and Alison become cruelly enmeshed by events beyond their control. Despite their devotion to one another, nothing can prevent the terrible unravelling that is about to take place.

The Quest for Integrity

As Purshottam diligently works to improve performance and raise morale at the Bank of the Nation’s Amlawar branch, his attempts are hindered by a conspiracy of trade union officials, politicians, and even some of the bank’s senior officers whose ambitions are threatened.

Among those who align against the reformer is Neki Lal, whose rise from a life of poverty to become a union leader and vicious attack on Purshottam vividly illustrates how success all-too-often comes to be valued above ethics and morality in Indian society.

Another engaging character is Ramesh Trivedi. An ambitious bank officer who owes his allegiance to Lal, Trivedi is tempted into collaboration with powerful Public Party leader Gulshan Kumar. But when his conscience brings a change of heart, the results are shocking.

A riveting tale of power, corruption, and the need for social change, The Quest for Integrity is about the confrontation between confusion and clarity, shining a light on the culture of corruption and illuminating a path toward healing this terrible scourge on the human soul. 

The Poets Society

He jumped from his improvised bed and looked up. The sky parted in two as if it was endeavouring to mirror his life. Neither the sky nor his life was ever a compact piece of peace since he had known about his being. Miaow…miaow…miaow…miaow. Was he awake, or dreaming?

In the heart of the resplendent Balkans, a land forged by relentless wars yet always welcoming those in need, a destitute wanderer finds solace. But this is not a tale that unfolds in ordinary fashion, for the human experience is a tapestry of contrasts. Within the pages of this extraordinary journey, a tapestry interwoven with melancholic humour and bittersweet poignancy, lie the unheard voices of characters yearning to be heard.

As if borne upon the wings of a time-travelling vessel, traversing lands and ages, the enigmatic Atom Butterfly stumbles upon an unassuming soul named Sevda, whose presence unexpectedly illuminates his existence. And so, their story commences – a tale of reminiscence, where childhood revisited unveils the battles fought during times of scarcity, when satisfaction eluded their grasp, and yet resilience prevailed.

The PepperAsh Clinch

A line of revellers, wending their drunken conga from the opening night party at The Fighting Cock, is brought to a sudden halt when their barbecue explodes. Nora Stickleback struggles to manage the pub, control her alcoholic husband, and keep her son away from temptation. Following a promise to look after her friends’ teenage children while they go off on a holiday that ends in tragedy, she suddenly finds herself with two extra youngsters to care for. Henry Stickleback nurses two passions, one for young Rosalie and the other for browsing car boot sales for any item cockerel-related. George dedicates the time he should be grieving to looking after his elder sister and carving out a future career for himself, steadfastly thinking of nothing except the matter in front of him at that time. Meanwhile, Rev’d Quinny is haunted by a childhood memory and a habit he started in order to break an obsession.

The Orcadian File

Stephen “Monty” Montgomery is a lonely city-based defence lawyer; who, despite being skilled in legal debate, is nowhere near to being offered a partnership by his firm when he is faced with compelling evidence of an age-old supernatural struggle between celestial entities and their arcane human disciples, forcing him to rapidly adjust his theological beliefs.

Monty soon finds himself called upon to represent ex-police officer Christopher Forsyth. Forsyth had been involved in investigating an alleged paedophile ring among the Edinburgh establishment which resulted in his commanding officer being gunned down in the street. Monty’s new client has since been railroaded out of the police and finds himself in their custody on a trumped-up murder charge.

Finding themselves opposed by a faceless conspiracy that is politically ambitious and prepared to destroy anything that gets in its way, the defence team will need every gram of their ability to get Forsyth off the hook. What Monty hasn’t reckoned upon, however, is being brought face to face with an immortal enemy – one more diabolical, cunning, and dangerous than any human conspirator.

Martone revives his haunting Kertamen tale with this vividly compelling and politically astute thriller, which is littered with moral complexity and legal intrigue. Told with ceaseless imagination through a rapid and intense narrative, The Orcadian File effortlessly meanders between ancient and contemporary judicial mischief.

The Narrow Gate

“War messes with us; makes us do things we wouldn’t normally contemplate.”

As war encroaches on the idyllic young life of Ali Conroy in the lush and undulating countryside of Northern England, she and her childhood love are swept to opposite ends of the earth – to the unrelenting and bloody battlefields of World War Two and the barren and windblown plains of North East Montana.

Based on a true story from the years surrounding one of our most defining and cataclysmic conflicts, The Narrow Gate tugs at the threads that tie us to our home and our first love.

The Mother of My Children

In the early 1990s, within the fictional town of Mahogany, India, a tale of love, family, and personal transformation unfolds. Adam’s adoration for his wife, Mary, knows no bounds, leading him to embark on a remarkable endeavor—a book dedicated to her. But this is no ordinary love story; it delves into Mary’s evolution from cherished wife to the irreplaceable mother of their children. What could have influenced this humble woman from a small town to elicit such profound devotion?

The Mother of My Children weaves a captivating narrative set against the backdrop of tragedy, survival, and the unyielding spirit of an ordinary woman who refused to abandon those she held dear. Adam’s heartfelt words paint a vivid portrait of a woman who, faced with unimaginable challenges, became a beacon of hope for her family. This evocative tale celebrates the power of love and resilience, inviting readers to contemplate the transformative influence of an unassuming woman who defied societal norms and discovered strength through unwavering devotion.