Nothing Left Behind

When faced with your own mortality, when death is imminent for you and all those around you, what would you do differently? What would you regret? How would you raise your child? How would you face your final hours? These are the questions Brennan, Joel and Eve are faced with, when thrown into a world of limited days. Plagued by a nightmare, Joel cannot decipher, he is desperate to do what is right by his daughter. Brennan believes he has nothing to show for his life and, now when it is too late, he is overcome by bitterness and self-loathing. And Eve’s agoraphobia and anxiety is wearing thin as another part of her is desperate for life.

The reader is plunged into our characters inner worlds, as fate drags them together in the final days, submerged with both despair and hope, devastation and love. And what of your worldview; your beliefs, philosophy and politics, where would it lead you when you come to stand face-to-face with death itself?

No Standing Room Only

Mykonos and Athena – A Furry Tale

Harry Parkman is a high-flying management consultant with an apartment in Chelsea and a beautiful girlfriend who wants to marry him. His life trajectory seems fixed until he finds two desperately sick kittens whilst holidaying in the Greek Islands. Having spent a lifetime avoiding cats because of a childhood allergy, he cannot leave them for dead. Harry saves the kittens and in so doing, embarks on a journey that saves himself.

A heart-warming adventure for anyone who has loved a pet more than people.

My Name is Savannah

This is Savannah’s story, as told by Savannah. A puppy born on an Island in Greece was abandoned by her mother at a very young age. A family heard her crying and rescued her. Once again, through circumstances, abandoned. Life was not easy but Savannah became friends with a little dog named Bethany. They became inseparable and had many adventures together, some happy, some heartbreaking. Their adventures came to an abrupt end when they both fell sick. They were found by the ladies from the dog shelter. Not a particularly happy time, but at least Savannah and Bethany could cuddle up together. Hope was on its way as Savannah was destined to be adopted by a family in England. Would she be with Bethany? Would she survive the hazardous journey, by van, ferry and boat? Would she be happy with her new family?

Mr Meeks and the Family Bubble

Mr Meeks is a “little” OCD, and very set in his ways, everything he does has a set routine, any deviating from the routine caused great anxiety, much to his annoyance.

Mr Meeks spent most of his adult life taking care of his elderly parents; when they died, he was left on his own, and that was just the way he liked it. 

 …Until he met a young damsel in distress one evening, after he had consumed a few alcoholic beverages. Little did he know, but his whole life was about to be turned on its head. 

He found himself in very strange waters, hardly able to recognise himself.

Suddenly, he was living in a full house and enjoying the noise, having fun, and enjoying the laughter, being confrontational on someone else’s behalf, and enjoying the responsibility, loving others, and loving the feeling.

This is a story one of emotional rollercoasters, huge surprises, shock revelations, some sadness, childhood sweethearts and, above all, love.

Modern & Medieval

A medieval monarch finds himself unexpectedly in the twenty-first century with so much to learn to adapt in a new world. Finding new friends and having new experiences he settles in this new place but soon tragedy forces plans to change. The former monarch finds his way in the present day and struggles along the way but eventually begins to plot his way back to his rightful place. Alliances are formed and broken as a country is divided and the main goal of government is to find a way to bring the nation together. Help arrives in the form of the former monarch whose reign ended more than five centuries earlier but his influence is not well received across the whole country. The former monarch works with the current prime minister to put plans into action but their relationship is far from straightforward and at times threatens to divide the country even further.

Milk Tea Can't

As soon as you discover Fraser walking backward and barefoot on the Meadows, Edinburgh Castle splashed by Hogmanay fireworks, you will be hooked.

You will be further compelled when you find out Edinburgh is a character in the novel, her worried eye on Fraser that ominous night.

Allow yourself to be both warmed and appalled with the characters you will meet, all in some way dealing with core human concerns that resonate with us all. 

Taking place in such a charming location, this is a book that celebrates the spirit of the city and its people whilst exposing the underbelly that can destroy all of us.

“Wow. This is heavy-hitting stuff.  There is gold in here.” Dane Picken, Screen Writer & Filmmaker, Australia.

This is a book that will generate important conversations.

Mercenaries

Mercenaries plunges into the no-holds-barred dark world of Airbnb machinations.

Carla, a comedian, and Louise, an actress, are bribed by an elderly landlady, Alice, to travel to a rival Airbnb establishment on the coast and exact revenge.

A mélange of gruesome memories emerges as events unfold.

With illustrations by the author.

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.

Makeda’s Ring – Part 1

For Markus the choice was stark:

- Leave Austria, the homeland he both loved and hated.

- Flee from Lizzy, never more than a pale substitute for Laura, the love of his life, shattered to pieces by a bomb.

- Flee a country still overshadowed by the aftermath of Nazism.

- Make for Ethiopia, that land of all mysteries, magical and captivating, sombre and dangerous, luminous and healing. There, as he sets out to fulfil Laura’s dream of finding her uncle’s grave, Markus is forced to face his deepest fears and experience the highs and lows of every emotion, through the fascinating power of a single object.

A ring.

A simple ring, on the finger of an Ethiopian princess, which will lead him on his quest, bring him the answers.

And the words which already haunt his memories. Makeda, Makeda’s Ring.

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.

Lyrical

Lyrical is a contemporary fiction novel set in the mid to late nineteen eighties.  The setting focuses primarily around the County of Angus on the north east coast of Scotland. Lyrical depicts the ever-revolving changes within the lives of its characters.  As you build their personas, the author tantalises, frustrates and teases the reader as she shapes the characters traits, dislikes and passions within your mind

The author uses two of the main characters, Louise Dixon and Charlie Grey to demonstrate the choices, growth and development (inclusive of maturity) they encounter as they make the transition from young adults to adults. Louise Dixon has grown up in a single parent family with her dad, Daniel. The book relays the struggles, demands and emotional challenges that a single parent family encounters over the years: the mid-1980s social norms inclusive of a nuclear family, two parents with two children to differ from these created predjucies, individuals being judgemental against father. Thankfully, this was beginning to change when marriage rates went down as couples decided to live together and divorce rates went up in the late 1980s.