The Dark Trilogy

A book that follows one man’s life might be an autobiography, but what is a book that traces the lives of two men?

The autobiography which makes up the longest book of the trilogy holds the two histories of one man displaced by several hundred years, histories which interweave and come together in the Welsh mountains in the present day. And a part of one of those lives is traced further in the play for voices which makes up the second volume. Book three brings our characters to a resolution of kinds.

Chris Armstrong has blended fact and fiction to create a complex story with many strands... a story of the sea, a story of passionate love, a story about a writer and poet, a story about his friend and editor, and a story about the past: a past that the writer only understands completely at the very end of his anabasis – his journey away from the sea.

The Dance of Darkness

Time had not died.

It was still flowing like her blood.

Her mind had become what it had endured and more; for now, with the dust, she saw butterflies floating in her room – here, there, everywhere.

Infused with lyricism and the romantic aura of pre-colonial India, The Dance of Darkness is a story about a bewildered town with only women, girls and hijras. Raised as dancers and lovers, the girls Surma, Parveen, and Dilchasp traverse through their usual routines until the presence of one man triggers all that the town has ever wished for – love and freedom. 

The Dagger and the Rosary

Sicily in 1693 is recovering from a devastating earthquake and struggling under the oppression of the Spanish Inquisition. Raids from Barbary pirates menace the coastline, while European Princes plot against each other. Meanwhile, the sixteen-year-old Bernardo has been brought up in an isolated Benedictine Abbey since being orphaned seven-years before. Now an unexpected journey will introduce him to this chaotic and often cruel world, where his faith will be tested.

Rescuing a young girl, Agata, from Barbary pirates will reveal his presence to an old family enemy, as well as introducing him to a secret brotherhood, and to the confusion of adolescent love. However, as love deepens, the petite Agata does not remain a victim for long, growing into a beautiful woman and determined avenger. Family secrets and desperate journeys threaten to tear them apart but will ultimately lead them both to find out what is most important in life.

The Curse Is Lifted

This third book in the series ties up all the loose ends. The Curse is Lifted is about George William, the son of George Southerly – the late Earl of Wetherley – and a laundry maid named Freda Prout. The young woman and her infant son were discovered by Dorothia Mountjoy in the workhouse, and she rescued them and sent them to Hampshire before her husband-to-be could discover they were still alive. She told Adam that the woman and child (his half-brother) were dead; it was a lie that cost Dorothia her life.

When George William reached the age of 21, he discovered that he had in trust a large amount of money. The bringers of the news would not disclose to George who his benefactor was, so he set about discovering the facts for himself. His mother, Freda, was worried that George would discover the evil blood that flowed in his veins and also feared that money might turn his head. She did not want her son to know her full history but could see that it was not going to be possible to hide his birth details from him forever. The hunt takes George William to Weston-Under-Wetherley and strangers who know his secret. Will he emulate his evil father or will he follow the lead of his gentle stepfather?

The Cedars of Beckenham

The Mystery of an Antique German Doll reunites members of a family torn apart during The Third Reich of Nazi Germany.

This family saga, starting in the leafy suburb of Beckenham on the borders of Kent and London, begins in 1930 in the comfortable world of four British upper-middle class families blind to the impending changes that are about to threaten not only their world, but everyone else’s world, too.

A doll belonging to the Abuthnott family becomes the catalyst that brings about two sides of the Rubenstein family, who were able to escape from Germany in the late 1930s finding refuge in the United States of America and in the British Mandate of Palestine.

Along the way, the horrors of the Blitz and the British struggle for survival are enacted out against the parallel Germanic horror of holocaust separation. The survivors in the United States, Great Britain and Israel adapt to a new world as it unfolds through the second half of the 20th century, until by the chance sale of a German Biedermeier doll at Sotheby’s in New York, their separate paths are brought together in 2017.

The four Beckenham families adapt to their changing lifestyles witnessing a rich tapestry of 20th century history taking the reader all over the world with its beauty, passion and prejudices.

The Caledonians

Scottish history master Mr Petrie has the gift of eternal life. Working for a group of mystical superior beings, his time-travelling missions land him in all sorts of death-defying scrapes and encounters, sometimes with famous and ruthless people. To help him in his dangerous work, he's told to find a young apprentice. Duncan Dewar could be a candidate but has his own secrets too, and without realising it, their lives are indelibly linked.

The Boy from Kalimpong

This story is about a boy who grew up in Kalimpong at an approximate distance on a straight line as the crow flies 100 miles (162 kms) towards southeast of the highest mountain in the world, Mount Everest, amongst the Rong folks, Lepchas the autochthones, ‘Ronkup’, ‘Ronkum’, or ‘Rong’ people. Lepcha people designated as UN ancient tribe, native to the region; and their land ‘Mayel-Lyang’ once bordered further into Tibet, eastern Nepal, western Bhutan and as far south as Siliguri and Jalpaiguri in West Bengal and some parts of Duars than it does today.

Kalimpong part of Lepcha culture was the ridge where Mary and Nigel played happily with unabated joy until his sister, Mary Maung Taung Lai’s early, untimely death and Nigel Kenchinz Lai’s journey to America because of the impact of the 1960 Sino-Indian border war. Many Chinese Indians were stranded, declared stateless, homeless and their inability to get jobs in India caused them to move abroad. Nigel was fortunate to receive four scholarships, four from American universities and one from Canada.

Some parts of the story are true and some portions of this book have been developed that closely parallel the real events experienced by the author. The author and his sister were fascinated with the dragon ‘Thunder and Lightning’, where clouds burst into flashing lightning followed by a big thunder storm every monsoon season. Mr. Karamkurung was their common thread for connection.

Chris Ahoy was born in Kalimpong in 1939. He started at St. Joseph Convent, Kalimpong all girls’ school, co-educational school at Dr. Graham’s Homes, Victoria Boys’ School, Kurseong, St. Xavier’s College Calcutta (Kolkata), Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur and University of California, Berkeley, California (UCB), where he received the coveted Regent’s Fellowship Award to complete his masters’ degree in nine months. Chris is a US citizen, served as Assistant Director and Campus Architect at UCB, Statewide Director for Systemwide of Higher Education in Alaska, Assistant Vice President Business and Finance and Director of Facilities Planning and Management at University of Nebraska central offices and finally Associate Vice President for Facilities Planning and Management at Iowa State University. Before retiring in 2010, his organization received the coveted State of Iowa, Iowa Recognition Performance Excellence (IRPE) 2009 Gold Award (State Baldrige Award). After retirement he continues to mentor and provide consulting in ‘Creating World-Class Organization’.

The Blighted Road

The Blighted Road is a 17^th-century story of two women’s harrowing journeys through plague and a brutal witch-hunt. Orla, renowned healer and mid-wife in rural England, confronts stillbirths and a mysterious, deadly sickness afflicting her community. The local superstitious people suspect these sinister events are the actions of the Devil. Desperate for answers, Orla’s investigation into past plague outbreaks reveal a shocking correlation with the harvesting of blighted grain. Her revolutionary findings lead to accusations of witchcraft. Meanwhile, Abigail, a young Londoner faces the horror of life in the plague-ridden city. After losing her family to the Black Death, Abigail escapes the locked gates of London. She flees on the plague road to Salisbury, which is fraught with danger and despair.

The separate tales of these women weave in and out as they reach a time and place where they are united by grief, loss and an uncanny will to survive.

The Blackpool Landlady and Son

When 18-year-old Helen Ashton meets Joe McCarthy on the moors of Northumberland she instantly falls in love, certain that her humdrum life had taken a new turn. And for several years it did.

On the eve of the First World War, Helen learns that she is pregnant with Joe’s child, but before she can tell him, he enlists in the army and is despatched to war. She never heard from Joe again, and believed him dead.

When their son, Ben, was born, Helen, in mounting desperation, agreed to marry a retired police inspector with whom she had two children.

In time, her husband of convenience leaves Helen for another woman, and she finds herself on her own in the coastal resort of Blackpool with three young children with only a penurious future to look forward to. But fate intervenes, and with growing confidence Helen turns their home into a holiday hotel and begins welcoming guests. From one she learns that her beloved Joe had not died, but had been discharged into a sanatorium where he languished, a shadow of his former self, depressed, uncertain, confused … and lost, lacking the courage to reconnect with Helen.

By the time of Helen’s death, Joe is living a reclusive life, and his son, Ben, married with children of his own, takes over the Blackpool hotel. It is Ben’s wife, childhood friend Mary, who tracks down Ben’s father, finally persuading Ben to meet him … on the day Joe dies.

The Awesome Lives of Tommy Twicer: Part One

The Awesome Lives of Tommy Twicer is my account of a secret that my bampy said must never be told except in time of dire emergency. Now is the time. I grew up in South East Wales in Penmaen near Oakdale in the Sirhowy Valley. Oakdale is a model village and it holds the most incredible secret that was wiped from the memory of all but a selected few. I am the latest of those few but now the secret must be revealed to maintain the integrity of a secret magical outpost named Abercwmzoo deep in the heart of the Sirhowy Valley from further development by Caerphilly County Borough Council. The story revolves around the amazing exploits of a very special young man who was born in Tuchola, Poland, on the stroke of midnight on December 31st, 1900. He was born Tomas Tomaschevski, a farm boy who had a dream. In 1914, World War One broke out and he left the family farm to make his fortune in Moscow but fate took him to St Petersburg and involvement in the Russian Revolution. He fled to Wales in fear of his and his sweetheart’s lives with the help of some heroic characters and makes his home in Oakdale where he assumes the name of Thomas. This is the first part of his awesome life in Poland and Russia up to his arrival in Wales. Please enjoy it and help save Abercwmzoo and preserve the beauty of the Sirhowy Valley.

The Apricot Tree

The flames crept up the curtains like a swarm of tongues. They curled and stretched into the rafters, and like a marauding army, the flames swept across the roof.

Outside the Van Vuuren sisters watched this cruel act of war. The roof collapsed along with the Van Vuuren heritage and the Van Vuuren dreams.

In 1899 the mighty British Empire declared war on two small Boer Republics in South Africa. The war was expected to last a matter of months, but it took almost three years for the Empire to claim its victory. It changed lives, challenged loyalties and divided families. 28,000 women and children were to die in the British concentration camps.

Tears on the Euphrates

In a harrowing story of lost innocence and shattered identities, two young lives are swept up in a storm of calamity and betrayal. An Iraqi child, ripped from the warm embrace of his family, finds himself in the clutches of strangers in a foreign country. While the boy’s desperate family searches tirelessly for their beloved son, the kidnappers weave a web of lies to erase his past, forging a cruel destiny that will test the bonds of fraternity and love.Against a backdrop of global unrest, the stolen child and his unexpected natural brother try to forge their own paths, tied by a deep friendship, in a world torn apart by violence and deceit. From the uncontrollable violence in Afghanistan to the turbulent waters of the Euphrates, the destiny breaks the sky with a story of love between two who would never imagine loving each other. Among the rubble, death and destruction, the deepest, most real and sincere love story is born. A love rooted in the soul and deep in the heart. Love that glorifies life and means death; the threads of family, love and loyalty will be stretched to the breaking point.Tears on the Euphrates delves into the profound impact of family and identity amid the harsh realities of a world at war, intertwining the fates of two boys with the turbulent geopolitics that define the divide between East and West. Through their eyes, we explore the moving and unyielding search for truth, belonging, and redemption in a world yearning for hope.