Rally ’Round the Flag

“A timely reminder of how the past colours the future”

Mary Cleeves

Rally ’Round the Flag is a thrilling historical novel set during the American Civil war.

The story begins in the mid-19th century in a large, Lancashire cotton mill,

which never stops production for 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Here a family with rich and privileged men controls the lives of the desperately poor men, women and children who are forced to work for them...or be turned out onto the street with no income nor roof over their heads.

In 1861 events move to the USA, where the first real battle of the Civil War started.

The history of the (first) Battle of Bull Run is told realistically until, close to its end, it takes on an alternative life as a result of just one military action, which historically changes the remaining years of war. Senior General in the Confederate Army Robert E. Lee at that moment speaks of how he now sees war in this new version of victory: “Once you get 'em on the run don’t stop. Never give up the pursuit.”

This fascinating account of the war, doomed to kill a quarter of the entire population
of the USA, leads the reader through many of the major locations and actions of the war. The grim reality of the five years from 1861 describes both the true historical characters, as well as the three imagined young Englishmen whose lives now lie in the USA. Here they are destined to see, and even to experience at first-hand, the appalling bloodshed, death and destruction of a war so often fought at very close quarters. Here a brother could find his father or his son aiming a rifle at him across a battlefield; a general could be responsible for the death even of his grandson.

The story roars faster and faster through the hell of shot and shell.

Cannons, and shells from these cannons, and also from mortars, were designed to slice through great swathes of human flesh, while at close quarters Bowie knives appeared to rip out the throats of an enemy fighting for his own life within an arm’s reach.

The bodies of the enemy lay scattered across innumerable battlefields

and became food for the crows. An observer of a huge battle recorded in his diary that he had seen: “Entire regiments disappeared in a few minutes. Legs, arms, knapsacks and rifles thrust high into the air and then scattered on the bloody grass.”

The reader may ask: “Can history be changed by the alteration of one small event?”

But is there more than a little similarity in the 19th century between slavery in the USA and the penury, desperate hardship and death from disease walking the streets of Oldham, as well as the lack of any security existing for all those working in the mills, factories and mines of Great Britain?

One part of the same American country wants to destroy the neighbour it has lived with peacefully for more than one hundred and fifty years.

An extraordinary read awaits you...if you rally ’round the flag, but which flag do you choose?

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 Spirit of Badenoch

This book covers the environmental, historical and cultural changes to the land and inhabitants of a little valley in the Highlands of Scotland, Badenoch, stretching from pre-history to the cessation of World War 1. Bounded by the Monadhliath and Grampian ranges, with River Spey flowing through to the sea, the topography, environment and climate dictated the number of people the valley could support. Control over land and resources was fundamental in maintaining social relationships and the folk from Badenoch did it well. Australia and New Zealand provided an opportunity and a lifestyle that they could only dream of in far-off Badenoch. Land was the key. Some returned to Badenoch, having made their fortune, whilst others settled into their new homes; this book tells their stories and the story of the land they left behind.

The Unknown Warriors

The Unknown Warriors is based on a true story set in the beauty and tragedy of Europe in the years just before the Second World War. Abrienda de Soza, inheritor of a fortune stolen from the coffers of Imperial Russia during the last days of the Russian Civil War, fights to keep her country out of the hands of both Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia and preserve a culture threatened by both through any means possible. Nika Molnar, an agent working for Hungarian Intelligence’s Special Unit, seeks to exact vengeance on the man who murdered her father when she was a child. Impeccably researched, The Unknown Warriors captures the feel and nuance of a world soon to be destroyed forever—a uniquely told and deeply compelling story of war, intrigue and betrayal, but also of love and sacrifice played out against the backdrop of a world heading inexorably towards war.

The title is taken from a speech by Winston Churchill. “This is a War of Unknown Warriors, but let all strive without failing in faith or duty…”

Metamorphoses

“Returning to a rejuvenated South Australian infantry battalion, after having been severely injured at Gallipoli, newly promoted Sergeant Major William Berenger finds himself in the sleepy village of Albert on the Somme on the eve of a massive Australian assault at Pozières. Having married Juliana, whom Berenger had first met 15 years earlier as a Boer prisoner in the South African war, Berenger is called again to the colours, despite the impending birth of their first child.

A young British soldier, Private Reginald Atkins from the Ox and Bucks finds himself trapped in a shell hole in front of the Australian trenches. He is soon joined by an injured Australian, Private Lachlan Watts trying to make his way back to his battalion. Subsequently, both Watts and Atkins are tried for cowardice: the Australian soldier being found Not Guilty, whilst the British soldier is unjustly executed.

Whilst on a night reconnaissance mission in No Man’s Land, Berenger encounters a German soldier from the Bavarian 16th Reserve Infantry Regiment, whom he severely injures but does not kill. Removing this soldier’s identity tags, he discovers upon slithering back to Australian lines, the soldier’s identity as hitherto anonymous aspiring artist, Adolf Hitler.

Berenger discovers that the Germans have been attempting to tunnel under Albert in an attempt to blow-up the Australian lines. Pozières must be taken before the Germans thwart the Allies’ imminent assault.”

Puffin Jack

Puffin Jack is a United Nations peacekeeper in Cambodia in 1993. In a country ravaged by civil war and recovering from the horrific consequences of genocide and displacement at the hands of the Khmer Rouge, Puffin Jack finds an opportunity to prove to the world that he is a hero.

Puffin Jack is an Australian soldier, a peacekeeper on posting to Cambodia as part of the United Nations Transit Authority Cambodia. An idealistic dreamer living on the fringes of society, he embraces the barbed nickname given to him by his peers. He finds himself deployed to a remote one-man retransmission station deep in the rainforest of the Cardamom Mountains as part of the UN communications network.

Here he services and monitors a bank of VHF radios with the only other camp inhabitant for the company, a 17-year-old Khmer boy named Horrie by the previous UN resident. A lonely posting, Puffin Jack begins to entertain fantasies of a secret mission he believes has been tacitly authorised by his superiors to rid the region of Khmer Rouge influence.

In defiance of the United Nations Charter and contrary to any orders issued, Puffin Jack, with the hapless Horrie in tow, commences his quixotic and clandestine forays into the rainforest in search of the Khmer Rouge.

Francis Fletcher and the Knights of the Golden Gift

It is 1763, and the Seven Year’s War with France has just ended.

Captain Francis Fletcher and his loyal crew are wanted for piracy, and marooned on a mysterious unchartered island. Before being captured by the British navy, Fletcher unknowingly discovers something hidden on the island, which turns out to be secret biblical gold.

Fletcher is ordered to retrieve the gold in order to earn his pardon, but he must sail alongside his old friend-turned-foe, Captain Percy Talbot, who stole away from him his childhood sweetheart, Isabella Norris. Together they must sail through treacherous pirate infested waters while at the same time evading a secret society of assassins who are sworn to protect the secret of the gold’s whereabouts.

Not for the Telling

A minor road accident led to a chance meeting of two new undergraduates, whose origins, study paths, and potential employment proved to be so contrasting. War was out of the question at the time, but when it arrived it enabled both women to devote their interests to a common objective. One found her metier in the air. Though discouraged by the exclusion of women from flying in the air force, nevertheless she seized a golden opportunity to fly in the service of her country. Her wartime record was distinguished and record breaking. Meanwhile, the other was recruited into an anti-espionage service designed to curb the activities of those citizens who were bent on crippling the national effort, if and when war actually came. The ensuing wartime enabled both women to excel in their respective duties, one in the physical sense, the other surreptitiously. On leaving university their ways had taken them apart, through unexpected adventures, trials, tribulations and various love matches, but a second sheer chance in their lives brought them together again, after losing each other and forgetting their former friendship.

Treachery at Bosworth Field 1485

Richard III by the grace of God, King of England, Lord of Ireland.England has gone through years of civil wars, strife and unrest during the period of the so-called 'Wars of the Roses'. House against house, family against family, cousin against cousin. The wheel of fortune turning this way and that.On the death of Richard's dear brother Edward IV, Richard becomes Lord Protector of England as Duke of Gloucester, but events overtake him. On finding that both Edward V and Richard of York are declared illegitimate, he has no option but to take the throne of England.Richard III proves to be a good and fair king and is much loved by any that come into contact with him. However, old wounds run deep and very soon, stories are put about attempting to discredit him. Rebellions happen and all the treachery takes place once more, culminating in the invasion of Henry Tudor and the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485.Treachery at Bosworth Field 1485 belies a wealth of historical knowledge and enthusiasm for this turbulent period and frequently misunderstood king.

Nazar's Journey

Nazar, a boy on the cusp of his 14th birthday, has always enjoyed a peaceful and idyllic life on a simple farm in the Nineveh Plains of Iraq. His days were filled with helping his father with chores, attending the small village school in Karemlesh, and playing soccer with his friends whenever he had a spare moment. However, his quiet world is abruptly shattered when radical militants conquer the city of Mosul and unleash a tsunami of terror across the entire Nineveh Plains region. Faced with the horrifying sight of his own people frantically fleeing the tranquil village he grew up in, desperately seeking safety, Nazar is forced to make challenging decisions that will forever alter the course of his life. Within mere hours, he must leave his boyhood behind and embark on a journey that will forge him into a young man of extraordinary selflessness and courage.Featuring nine expressionist masterpieces by internationally acclaimed Iraqi-American artist Qais Al-Sindy.

Missing in Action Presumed Dead WW1

Chris Clark, a soldier from Sheffield, is fighting on the Western Front. Siggi Haas, a soldier from Berlin, is also fighting on the Western Front. They were just ordinary young men before the war started and now, their lives have been cast to Fate. Chris worked in a steelworks and was happy with his lot. Siggi was an assistant history teacher and looking forward to becoming a good teacher. They were uprooted from their normal environment and thrust into a world of war, as so many others were. They knew nothing of war and assumed it to be something gallant and adventurous. They even assumed they might enact some heroic deed.

There were so many heroes in the Great War and so many battles that I have not mentioned because this is a story based mainly, but not entirely, on the Western Front. It concentrates on the events surrounding Chris and Siggi, being the British Army and the German Army.

The words of the soldiers, sailors, airmen and leaders have been taken from letters, diaries, memoirs or documents — real people experiencing real events. However, Chris Clark, his family and friends are fictional, as are Siggi Haas, his family and friends. Some of the men in this book died in the Great War, some lived and some endured something in between living and death.

Princetown and the Conscientious Objectors of WW1

Over 16,000 men refused to fight in WW1 and became known as Conscientious Objectors.

Their initial incarceration in prison was deemed unsuitable for many and they were then sent to work centres to be engaged on work of national importance.

One such work centre was in the village of Princetown, Devon, home of the notorious Dartmoor Prison.

This book explores its change of purpose to that of work centre and the daily life, type of work and health of those COs held there. It also looks at the impact of their arrival on the local community and the attitudes of the village residents towards them.