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Dante Fog
While other boys celebrated their raging hormones by scragging each other from one end of the sports field to the other, Angus Fog was the solitary figure that watched. While other boys played rugby in winter, tagged and bombed each other at the town pool in summer, he sat and did nothing because in his twelfth year, Angus lost his passion. He subconsciously suppressed the why and when the event took place but the repercussions would significantly impact his life.
Angus works for ten years as a theatre designer and builder in Wellington, New Zealand, before his mother, frustrated with his lack of artistic success, buys him a ticket to London. There he creates an alter-ego from the clique bohemian art world. He changes his appearance and name and becomes the successful artist, Dante Fog.
Dante’s initial subject matter is the beauty in other people’s childhoods. Later, he searches for beauty in the adult world but fails to find it, until he falls in love with Bronagh.
When Dante wakes on the floor of his studio hungover and fearing he may, in a jealous rage, have killed Bronagh or her suspected ‘new lover’ or both of them, the magnitude of that unknown childhood event resurfaces. Dante must return to New Zealand as Angus to uncover what he suppressed all those years ago.
£10.99 -
Danistan
A terrorist regime, The Following, has gained de facto control of Denmark by gradually imposing its religious radicalism on all the population. Eventually it becomes a questionable legal government: one that aims to rigorously enforce its harsh new powers with savagery if necessary.
Billy Farrow and his pregnant wife Jenny attend a compulsory Assembly where a woman is to be executed. Jenny can not control a spasm, and accidentally causes her face to be exposed. A Revolutionary Guard sees this, and moves to arrest her for revealing it in a public place. She escapes, but is pursued by the state relentlessly. She requires assistance from husband Billy, devoted friends, the Underground, and an unlikely religious cleric and his wife. But help inevitably leads to ever more serious breaches of the laws of the new state. Her troubles become insurmountable.
When, in time, the regime catches up with Jenny, now mother to a baby daughter, she faces a cruel and unusual death penalty; one in which husband Billy has played an unwitting and unwilling hand. She is to be publicly shamed.
The European Union and elite British forces intervene and an unexpected family connection comes to Jenny’s aid, but there are dire consequences. Can Jenny be saved? Can Denmark be saved?
£9.99 -
Crab Apples
The Last Lady De’Ath is determined to keep her estates and villages as they have been for centuries. Her lion and tiger are not going anywhere either. She eventually theoretically sells out to a company that tells her they want to buy up historic sites, but all is not what it seems on the surface, neither in the villages nor in the company.
Battle lines are drawn at the Village Fete and war is waged in the High Court. The village and Lady De’Ath emerge triumphant as victory is based on hidden skills and by not judging books by their covers.
£6.99 -
Cherry Pickers
18-year-old Bobby Kemp got to the ‘60s in time alright, no further than Leeds, and remembered all of it. What a year: school out and passed the 11+. So, being a white-collar worker for the council is his future. A steady job then, set for life. A steady girl, engagement, marriage, kids, house, car, pension. But steady on, is that all? He hasn’t done anything, yet.
His feeble rites of passage – steady as she goes, poop-poop, bleat – are dissed by a passing back-packing Californian, Ben Gaunt, who’s seeking his family roots near York. To Bobby’s ill-content at getting nowhere, slowly he offers, ‘It’s your life, man. Just go...’ And he does: he drops everything and goes on the road into the ‘60s.
Along this passage there are side alleys, little ginnels and dead ends, each with characters and their stories to walk with for a while, until he just goes...
£16.99 -
Charlie and Charlene
This amazing book has been on its way for a number of years – I was urged on by my wife Wendy. “You should write that book,” she would say, “the world needs a laugh and a small child a giggle.”
This book is for all ages and it gives us all a laugh. A mixture of fact and fiction, human, wildlife and everyday happenings.
Suddenly, we have a major change in the world, and with time on our hands, we can tidy the garden shed and have a makeover.
Having a very intelligent 6-year-old great-granddaughter, this amazing book was inspired by me thinking that I should write to Lexi May to get her reaction.
£5.99 -
Bruny Island Girl
In the year 1879, William and Jane Burns from Durham, England, migrated to Newcastle, Australia, in the hope of finding a better life for themselves and their two children, Joseph, aged three, and Elizabeth, aged one. Stormy seas, interspersed with weeks of boredom, made their three-month-long voyage on the sailing ship, William Stonehouse, anything but pleasant. William, like his father, was a coal miner and found work easily in a Newcastle colliery. During this time, he befriended a German immigrant, Wilhelm Zschachner, and learned that a new coal discovery had been made in the state of Tasmania. The thought of moving to Tasmania was challenging to the Burns family now that they had two additional children. Nevertheless, they repacked their furniture and treasures brought out with them from England and moved to remote Bruny Island, off Tasmania's southeast coast. Here, they were true pioneers. Between working the new coal mine, William and his still-increasing family cleared a parcel of land on Coal Point and built themselves a cosy home from axe-split palings. Sadly, William died young after a rock fall at the mine, forcing Jane to become a midwife in order to keep the family together until they reached adulthood and married. Joyce - the 'Bruny Island Girl' - was born in 1899 to Louisa, one of Jane's daughters, and this book tells the story of her remarkable life on the island before marrying Cecil Cutcliffe. Max Cutcliffe is one of their sons and the author of this book.
£17.99 -
Billy
Billy was very lucky to have been found and saved by the bin men. After being with the dog warden for quite some time and seeing all his friends get adopted he became very sad. Will Billy ever get adopted by the loving home he has dreamed of for so long now?
£7.99 -
Australia We Didn’t See
A reception is being held at the prime minister’s official residence, The Lodge, to celebrate democratic multiculturalism in Australia, when a young guests suddenly attacks the prime minister.
Walking through the parkland to a jeweller to buy his wife a birthday present, the prime minister meets several seniors enjoying the sunshine. He also meets a man from Iraq who has no job but has been offered one by a terrorist group.
The prime minister also meets a young man who has a brother living in Bradford, England, connected to a formidable terrorist group responsible for terrorist acts all over Europe.
Trying to get his motorcade through a large crowd of protesters, the prime minister walks out to plead for access to his next appointment. A lunatic shoots for fun and hits him in the shoulder.
The story involves ASIO, terrorist recruitment, spy agencies and international connections.
Will the terrorists prevail? Will the prime minister survive?
Will China cause trouble next to an American Naval Base and RAAF Base?
All this, and much more, is revealed in this gripping political thriller.
£12.99 -
Another Time
Set in three continents, over an eighty-year span, this is a story of loss, guilt, shame, deception, love and the ultimate struggle for survival.
Unable to accept his lot in life, in the midst of the desolate and desperate backdrop of Siberia, Stefan Jablonski plunges into a destructive spiral of betrayal and deceit. The silver pocket watch, given to him during his immigrant days in America, and always worn close to his heart, gives him comfort; but what secret link does it have with the past and why will it play such a prolific role in the life of his daughter, Magdallena, and that of future generations?
How will the past, present and future interlink and how will time set the fate of generations?
£9.99 -
Alexandra
Alexandra is a story set in a near future that is all-too-possible. Humans are changing the environment and ecology of the planet without thought to the consequences for the planet or human civilisation. Many civilisations have collapsed in the face of environmental change, and our current technology dependent society is also vulnerable despite the hubris of science and technology. The novel follows two young women who learn to cope in a world that changes completely in their lifetimes.
£9.99 -
Alan’s Lesswilling Chronicles: the monologues of an unhappy man
Alan is trying hard to make sense of his world since his wife left him for Chuck in Morewilling and the local Co-op closed down.
21st century technology is eating into his wallet and his soul, and the price of a night out doesn’t leave change from a tenner anymore. But he is sure about three things:
No one in Lesswilling needs a bidet or a hot tub.
There’s no place for preserved lemons on British supermarket shelves.
His mother was right about hindsight – it is a “wonderful thing to meet your own arse coming back.”
£6.99 -
Abbie Brown: On the Cusp
Abbie Brown kicks off her 34th year with an unexpected splash of fame: her Santorini vacation snap, featuring her in a vibrant yellow bikini atop a donkey, is plastered on billboards across London. (For clarity, the bikini is on Abbie, not the donkey!) Riding this wave of newfound celebrity, she lands a spot on Sir Giles Bromley’s BBC gardening show. Life seems perfect, until the universe serves her a slice of humble pie.
Navigating the chaos of single life (weighing in at 73kgs, if you must know), Abbie finds herself in the midst of an office medical drama, dealing with her nightmare flatmate Janice, and questioning if Rebecca truly is the refined acquaintance she seems. As for romance? Between George’s overbearing mother, Oliver’s youth, a married butcher, a BBC exec with a cringe-worthy habit, and the not-so-perfect ‘Peter Perfect,’ Abbie’s love life is a rollercoaster. Yet, she remains hopeful that her knight in shining armor is out there in the vast English countryside.
In the midst of it all, she gains a furry companion: Woofer, a lovable terrier with a quirky ear. Plus, there’s a promising spark with a dashing farmer from the Yorkshire Dales. The two are smitten. (We’re talking about Abbie and the farmer, not the dog, of course!)
But with Abbie’s track record, what could possibly go awry? Dive into a tale of unexpected fame, comedic misadventures, and the quest for true love.
£7.99