History in 100 Chapters

Covering the period from when Earth began to the end of the Great War and designed for the general reader, this book aims to give a chronological account of life on Earth. It relates all parts of the world to each other for those whose acquaintance with history has been limited to short periods about different places and cultures.

Each of the chapters has been designed to be self-contained so that browsing by episodes of time or place will be informative and interesting. Scientific discoveries, cultural advances and religious milestones illuminate how the human race has developed through the ages.

The present state of the world, and our society (scientific, political and religious), is more easily understood when we understand how it came about; in this way, it is easier to comprehend present personal and national identity and morality.

For those whose knowledge of history is largely confined to short detailed periods such as those of the Romans or the Tudors, perhaps studied at school, then this account sets out to fill the gaps both in time and in geography and show how they relate to one another, and what was happening across the world in the same era.

Hetty

This is the story of a young woman’s dilemma in World War II. How can she and those she loves survive the problems they face?

Our story opens as Hetty prepares for Will’s return from a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp. She has learnt that Will has been tortured and disfigured in the camp and it was only the thought of her and his daughter, Mary, conceived on their wedding night, which kept him alive.

However, two years earlier, Hetty thought that her hasty marriage to Will had ended when she got the telegram “Missing, presumed dead!” Now he was coming home. How can she tell him about her new baby, Dorothy?

Staying with Will’s parents in Somerset, a young asthmatic teacher, David, is kind to Hetty and her young child, Mary, and they fall in love. But then there is the problem of what happened when they went blackberrying.

How on earth can these damaged people find a new way to live?

What will the outcome be?

Gunner's Island

Gunner’s Island is a post-war novel that will engage dog lovers, military veterans, history enthusiasts, and undoubtedly anyone who is all three. Set in the small town on a tiny Canadian maritime island, the story unfolds with the return of World War II pilot Linus, following a plane crash that left him irrevocably altered. Linus is grappling with PTSD and acclimation back into civilian life, when he is mysteriously befriended by Gunner, a full grown and affable Newfoundland dog.

With a wide array of detailed characters and scenes that jump between flashbacks and present life, Gunner’s Island is both a drama and comedy. It is earnest yet jocular, weighty yet wholesome, and meant to set sail the reader into the story as effortlessly as its northern ocean waves.

Grasp the Nettle

Set in a remote district of Western Australia in the 1920s, an era which outlawed suicide, an unidentified body has been found and police are treating the death as suspicious. The story presents a chance for strangers (the reader) to peruse the very private diaries of the protagonists. Intriguingly, this is like peeping through the coin slot of a piggy bank to count the wealth inside. Elsie has married Tom in an arrangement brokered by her brother. Tom’s job is delivering the Royal Mail, and it takes him away from home for weeks at a time. Vivacious, imaginative young Elsie must entertain herself in their isolated, unsophisticated bush hut. Married women were not allowed to be financially independent. Grasp the Nettle is not a fairytale ‘lived happily ever after’ romance, but a lode of accurate historical data balanced by details of underlined moral standards of life before the advent of reliable contraceptives, and acknowledgement of gender diversity. In those harsh times, things that are commonplace for us today were yet to be invented: like mobile phones, internet communications, and GPS. There were not even engineered roads through country districts in this vast nation, Australia. Grasp the Nettle poses the question: how did people cope with life’s challenges?

Grandma Ethel’s Braid

Grandma Ethel’s Braid is an epic and engaging story of culture, family, love, romance, and adventure. In Part 1, the story follows three generations of a Jewish family as they journey from oppressive Russia in the early 20^th century to freedom in America. Once in America, Ethel and her family carve out a new life. Ethel marries and has a daughter. In Part 2, Ethel, her daughter, and her granddaughter face more modern challenges well into the 21^st century. A story you won’t forget!

Good for Frightening Horses!

Having survived the Battle of Leipzig, the newly created Rocket Brigade has been split with Fin and Thomo briefly returning to England before heading back to the Duke of Wellington where they are to report on this new weapon. The new troop have to pass a series of tests and conditions before being allowed to take part in the invasion of France. Assisting partisans; discovering a wrecked ship: being isolated on the wrong side of a river with the garrison of Bayonne approaching: providing the only ordnance halfway up the hillside overlooking Toulouse, Fin and Thomo have to find a way out of the blunders created by those in command, leading them, as always, into plenty of adventures where they meet old and make new friends along the way…

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!

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.

Endless Mission

This is a fictional plot, set in scenes, of a vivid World War I espionage drama.

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.

Conspiracy of Ravens

On a Leicestershire battlefield in 1485, the course of British history changed. One man, a minor Welsh noble, was instrumental in effecting this change, enabling the establishment of the new Tudor dynasty. This little-known historical figure was Rhys ap Thomas, who claimed descent from Urien Rheged, one of the knights of King Arthur. Born in Carmarthenshire in West Wales, he had spent his early years in Burgundy with his father, in exile, as had two other men, Henry Tudor and Richard III. The three young boys were to meet many years later on the battlefield, where the lives of all three would change forever.

This is the story, set in the turbulent period of the Wars of Roses, of Rhys ap Thomas, whose claim to fame would be ‘the man who killed Richard III’.