Fleeting Images from a Bloodied Past

Ships against the sea! Was…STILL IS, a threat to all the vessels who sail upon her, and especially so, an ever-present threat to the crews who do their duty and put their lives in harm's way. Of violent storms, tempests… All the unpredictable hell of crosswinds, headwinds and tailwinds, roaring madly like some frenzied monster, changing direction, attempting to plunge the man-made object under the vengeful, towering and swamping thunderous waves, against which so many hardy ships have foundered, perished and been lost. The fact that the CSS Alabama came through such a storm and survived this maelstrom is testimony to the meticulous skills and concentrated painstaking patience and hard work of Laird's well-led and well-managed shipbuilding workforce and professional seamanship, that ensured the crew's safe passage and escape from this seaborne wretchedness. Warships, which survived incredible battle experience, and - at war's end - were reviewed for conversion, replacement or the breaker's yard was a consideration. Not all, however, because the fate of HMS Zealous continued in a new page of history, when she was transferred to the Israeli Navy. Later, in 1967, whilst out on patrol in the Eastern Mediterranean, she was suddenly attacked by Egyptian warships equipped with superior firepower. The new crew of this old warhorse knew that the fate of their emerging and vibrant new nation, fighting to retain her hard-fought existence, was dependent upon their spirited defence. Despite the fact that they were up against Soviet-supplied STYX surface-to-surface missiles, against which they had no defence, they steered into battle, undaunted. With battle pennants flying, they bravely challenged the enemy. Their fearlessness and courage shone in the face of certain destruction and ultimate sacrifice. The Cammell Laird scenario is riveting and strikingly dramatic…

Finger of Suspicion

This novel depicts events that happened to officers from Strathclyde Police covering the periods between 1990 and 2003. The names have been changed in most circumstances to protect those involved but the detail within the stories reflect events that happened and written by me in my own words as an interpretation of what I recall.

Being a police officer during this time was rewarding and I met many lovely people whilst I worked there and still remain friends with many of them.

Policing during that era was difficult and drugs were a major scourge in the deprived areas in the north of Glasgow and many families lost loved ones through overdose or other serious drug related illnesses. The criminal gangs operated in these areas ruled by fear with many drug dealers only doing it to repay a debt.

The stories provide an insight into a behind the scenes look at how investigations are managed and the characters involved in running them. It is a sad depiction of life at the front end of policing, dealing with death and misery. More alarmingly, it will discuss the lack of support provided by senior officers towards other lower level colleagues.

The author used every power of strength and determination to set the record straight with some of the events and was helped by a few other like-minded friends. It is a story of belief in one another and colleagues involved in these incidents all looked out for one another—which didn’t always happen but I am glad we did!

Fermented Spirits

Stevie Monroe and John Beverage have been friends since childhood. They are now settled in the Gorbals, a Glasgow slum. Stevie is elated when his French wife, Camile, becomes pregnant with their one and only son. John Beverage and his wife, Caroline, already have two sons. The last thing they need is yet another mouth to feed.

It’s 1902, the working classes are suffering from extreme poverty and exploitation. Men line the docks in droves on a daily basis looking for work. Even when you have a trade, as Stevie and John do, work is extremely dangerous. Drunkenness is a perennial cause of casual cruelty. Boot-legging is rife. John sets up a family distillery for some extra cash to survive, but turns more and more towards the drink himself, dishing out back-handers to his family.

Stevie, meanwhile, lives his life as a shipbuilding sheet metal worker – a friend, a husband, a father, and a man with a deviance that has to be kept secret at all costs. Deviant sexual practices are abhorred, resulting in life imprisonment, suicide and murder. For homosexual men, especially those from the working classes, Britain is in the dark ages. Navigating this world leads Stevie to a life wrought with worry, confusion, murder and love.

Expendable Soldiers 3 – Counterpunch

Lt John Knight returns to the New Guinea frontline. He now leads small teams of special forces soldiers, who operate behind the lines, in the fight against the Japanese. The war has turned for the Japanese with Allied forces slowly pushing them back. But they are hanging on and are not a spent force.

Nothing has changed. It is still a fight to the death.

But now the allies, including John’s team, know how to fight the Japanese in the jungles of the Pacific. The Allies are no longer the pushover that they were at the beginning of the war.

John and his team are always on their own, and a long way from help, when they take on the Japanese. John continues to rely on cunning battle tactics and ferocious gunfights to ensure his team is punching above their weight. But will this be enough to overcome superior Japanese forces?

This is the third and final book in the highly popular Expendable Soldiers series.

Expendable Soldiers

John Knight and his colleagues, who are part-time Australian Army soldiers, have escaped the Japanese once. Now they must continue to chance their arm as they setup a coast watcher network. The Coastwatchers will report on the Japanese from the islands of New Guinea. It's more than the Coastwatchers and the army who are under threat from the Japanese. There are many civilians in the New Guinea region who will soon be within the clutches of the advancing Japanese army. No one could have imagined the speed and efficiency of the Japanese army or their capacity to inflict cruelty on the innocent. They are not playing by the gentleman's rules of war. John knows there is no sense regretting his decision to join the part-time army. No one knew that the Japanese would attack New Guinea in 1942. It was just bad luck that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The Australian Army is not prepared for the Japanese and considers John and his colleagues expendable, as they undertake their important mission. The group is using a stolen Japanese gunboat to deceive the Japanese but now they must fight their enemy on land and sea. The Coastwatchers on the islands around New Guinea are depending on John's group for their lives. John's group of part-time soldiers know they must quickly become better soldiers and have the luck of the Irish, if they are to survive the war.

Excalibur's Gold

A couple's search through the historical wonders of the Welsh countryside for clues to the greatest discovery of all times: King Arthur himself.

Join them as their search takes them from the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct near Llangollen to the Devil's Bridge via the shore line St. Govan's Chapel in Pembrokeshire, all because of a clue found in an old oil painting of the Britannia Bridge on Anglesey.

Erpingham

In an age when kings were ordained by God and the powerful waded through Europe up to their knees in blood, a wide-eyed 13-year-old boy first went to war. Over time he learned to look death in the face and, with grimace, draw his sword.

He was afraid of neither man nor God.

Surviving the Black Death, disastrous battles and campaigns in foreign lands and the machinations of kings, bishops and nobles, Sir Thomas Erpingham fought across a continent, defended the interests of England and became the unsung hero of Agincourt.

Endless Mission II

This is the second book to the plot Endless Mission, set in scenes, of a vivid World War I espionage drama.

Elizabeth's Search

A British nurse on holiday in Germany just prior to the second World War meets a German officer. Their relationship develops and they intend to get married. Unfortunately, the second World War intervenes.

Both are determined to find each other after the war. The girl, Elizabeth, searches for him with the help of a group of American army personnel.

The German officer, Carl, evades capture by the British army in Italy. The British army wants to interrogate him about his services in the German army, both before the war and during the war.

Carl is helped in this evasion by the men in his unit and eventually reaches Germany, his home.

He goes looking for Elizabeth, whom he knows is with the British army medical services.

The interrogation group in the British army assume he will make for his home, so they search for him in that part of Germany. During the course of their search, their man accidently discovers a group of war criminals trying to escape from Germany and is held prisoner.

Carl, at the request of the occupation authorities, helps to bring the group to justice.

Devils are Dancing

Devils are Dancing is a coming-of-age story about heroism, a dysfunctional family, determination and enduring love. It is the story about the importance of mateship in adverse times as a boy becomes a man. Paul is a young man in search of his identity and the love he has lost. From the battlefields of the Iberian Peninsula in 1811 to the battle of Waterloo in 1815, Paul struggles to navigate the impact of war. However, a chance meeting with a fellow officer changes his life and helps him to grow and flourish despite his past struggles.

Daughter of Asher

“They tried siege ladders last night, but we were warned and shot naphtha flares into the city. The archers kneel behind the upper rampart and, as the Lady Im’Annas, our Seer, walks past, they rise up and shoot over her head. The Parthians are too superstitious to even try to shoot at her…” 

            The prophetess, Serah, daughter of Asher, arrives at the temple in AD 70, so does the Roman general, Pompey, but unlike him, she does not leave.

Damn Your Eyes...STOP!

A well-dressed young man makes his way into the Bald Faced Stag Inn, Putney Vale, London and books lodging for a few nights. With a wide smile and gracious pleasantries, he takes his key from the unsuspecting innkeeper. Little does the innkeeper know, this young man is about to embark on a journey that is, to say the least, defiant, unpleasant and often shocking. It soon becomes apparent that he’s not all that he appears to be.

Damn your eyes...Stop! Tells the story of Lewis Jeremiah Avershaw, a notorious highwayman who terrorised travellers in the late 18^th century. His short life was one of terror and violence that led to the inevitable conclusion...the gallows.