Outwitting the Enemy

Andrew was recruited into the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) in 1939 for his linguistic talents and other qualities suitable for working in the Service.

By early July 1940, he had already been sent on four missions including the sabotaging of a train carrying tank engines inside Germany, assisting in the evacuation of BEF soldiers from Dunkirk on one of the ‘small ships’ and surviving a number of life-threatening incidents when bringing King Haakon and the Norwegian cabinet from northern Norway to exile in London.

In November 1940, he is persuaded to help at Camp 020 with the interrogation of German spies captured in England; a few weeks later, he completed his naval officer training in Scotland and southern England.

With the Atlantic convoys being attacked by U-boats operating out of the German-occupied ports of Lorient and St Nazaire with heavy losses, he is sent at the end of March 1941 to spy on the building of the submarine pens for a possible raid by the RAF later in the year. He narrowly avoids being captured by the Wehrmacht and returns to London with vital information.

He undergoes parachute training in May 1941 before being dropped in NE France where he is escorted by a French Resistance group to Koblenz. His mission is to deal with a member of the SIS that had become a senior officer in the German intelligence service (the Abwehr). By some good fortune, he manages to escape by Lysander back to England.

The story is a most compelling, absorbing and attractive read with strong classical elements. It has a clean plot for the time period covered which develops and unfolds through a captivating storyline; the relatable cast of characters will keep the reader enraptured up to the very last page.

Of Time and Tide

This is a story of how fate determines the life we lead, but with either kindness or cruelty.

Although deserts, forests and oceans separated Eddie Fraser, an Australian man, and Tina Morris, a Scottish girl, their lives were destined to entwine. Without the least knowledge of each other’s lives or even the wish to know, they were joined together in a marriage that, since Eddie’s work as a sailor on a merchant ship kept them apart for long periods of time, couldn’t possibly work. Or could it?

Against all odds posed by Tina’s poor health, she gave birth to three children, Maggie, Billy and Eve. And then the first world war, the great war devastated many lives, including Eddie and Tina’s. This is the retelling of how envy and greed for another’s life, love and wealth can dictate and corrupt a mind without conscience or pity.

James Coutts, a man of high standing in a community of mill workers, and his obnoxious daughter, Millicent, enter Tina’s life with devastating consequences. From that point onwards, this story becomes one of horror and treachery. The now grown-up Maggie enters into a battle of wits that only one can win.

Nashotah Peak

In this novel the author draws on his interest in the Jewish Faith and also his experience in the field of advertising.

He introduces the reader to Bennie Traumann whose Jewish parents had escaped from persecution in Nazi Germany to find refuge in Chicago where his family had established a business manufacturing optical goods.

The parents were both disturbed as a result of their traumatic experience leading his mother to experience a post natal depression and his father to ‘switch off’.

Bennie is brought up by a Jewish carer and eventually he enrols in a school of art and then as a graphic designer with an advertising agency.

The book continues, in Bennie’s own words, to describe his growth into maturity shaped by Jewish Faith.

Napoleon: Guillotine

King Louis is imprisoned. The Republican faction in Paris is growing stronger as the beat of the snare begins to ring in the ears of Europe. To quell the seething discontent of threats inside and outside of France, Napoleon is dragged into supporting a regime that has thrown away any pretence of Liberty in its quest to cover the globe. All the while Napoleon is forced to challenge his own traditions and overcome the pain of betrayal and exile from his home, to continually prove loyalty to a country that spurns him still. As the blade rasps down and the cruelty of those he serves becomes even more difficult to justify, Napoleon must strive to preserve his exiled family and navigate the unconscionable. As France struggles to survive the onslaught of foreign invasion, Napoleon must conquer an inner turmoil so raw and powerful that it drove him to the siege of Toulon and the beginning of greatness.

N'in D'la Owey Innklan: Mi'kmaq Sojourns in England

This is a historical novel, beginning in 1497 and taking us, in a series of vignettes, through five centuries of interconnections between the Mi'kmaq people of Atlantic Canada and London. Each character begins their story in different regions of the Mi'kmaq world of the North American Atlantic Coast; they end up in various regions of London, ranging from the 16th-century Austin Friars monastery to 20th-century Limehouse. The novel encompasses descriptive scenes of London in different eras, alternately addressing the eroticism of lovers, the wide-ranging lives of whalers and sailors, the horrors of nursing during World War I and the overwrought world of heroin users in late 1970s' East London, interspersed with occasional short pages of intellectual commentary. Ultimately, it is a labour of love for homelands lost.

Monsieur Law

LM Shakespeare is the writer of the acclaimed 17th-century historical novel Malice and of three modern financial thrillers. Monsieur Law thrillingly combines these two worlds.  

France, following the death of Louis XIV, was bankrupt, but into the court of the Regent there arrived a Scot called John Law, whose courage combined with a brilliant financial intellect briefly fired the whole country with a wild excitement which very nearly succeeded. This is history in the genre of Munich and Wolf Hall. 

Marelle

The nature of war is that there is no normal; emotions are always running on the surface; fear, hope, sadness and love can all manifest themselves in an instant.

In this setting, four central characters embark upon a daring and extremely dangerous journey through war torn France in 1944. Two French orphaned children have no idea how they will reach what they believe to be their only surviving family. Meanwhile, two Allied prisoners of war escape their captivity, but behind enemy lines they are uncertain about their survival and their ability to get back behind Allied lines.

They each carry a burden of their own personal heart-breaking tragedy as fate brings them together. The sadness and despair from the loss felt by each of them must be overcome if they are to survive. Survival, however, is not guaranteed as each step they take on the journey is fraught with danger.

They soon realise that love and friendship are the most important ingredients to help them reach their personal objectives. Despite the perils they face they demonstrate courage and determination and never lose hope, because as each day passes and with each crisis they face, the bond between the two vulnerable children and the soldiers grows stronger.

Malory's Grail

The final book in The Malory Trilogy relates how Sir Thomas Malory’s dying wish to see his great work Le Morte D’Arthur safely placed in Winchester Priory is finally fulfilled by his fictional friends. Interwoven with the unfolding story of the manuscript is the historical struggle for the English throne. The dynastic upheavals of the time are inseparable from the journey of Malory’s precious manuscript from prison to print. The action moves between London and Brittany where Henry Richmond is planning his triumphant attack on the usurper, Richard III. Far away in ‘The Other Place’ Sir Tom hears the good news.

La Palabra De Dios

La Palabra De Dios is the story of a Spanish priest sent on an errand in 1665, from Spain to Mexico to retrieve the religious artifact, La Cruz de Chiapas, to have it interred with its beneficiary, Bishop Bartolomé de las Casas, in Madrid, Spain. Along his journey he uncovers a plot to overthrow Charles II, the King of Spain, as well as being visited by Blessed Mother Mary, and given a special task by Jesus Christ to build a church in present-day Florida. Working with newfound friends, the priest helps temporarily thwart some of the actors in the plot to overthrow the king in the Caribbean while completing his assigned task and growing deeper in faith.

Kingscourt

Kingscourt had been their home since the 16^th century, a rambling country estate with immaculate gardens and rolling Devonshire hills. But one weekend leads to a misunderstanding which changes everyone’s lives.

Julian was a golden boy used to having his own way and whatever he wanted. He was in the throes of a passionate love affair, and that the lady was married did not trouble him at all, until his father’s discovery forced him to make a choice.

Billy was his carefree younger brother used to taking the blame for all his bad behaviour. Joining the Army had been his one ambition and leaving home matured him, but an untimely death and a decade of drifting ended with the Great War.

Simon was a career soldier who suddenly found the Army did not want a man with a broken knee. An unlikely friendship led him to a life he could never have imagined.

Grace loved her home and wanted everything to stay the same, but she knew marriage would mean leaving it forever. An unexpected death and a new arrival turned her life upside down, and the home she loved so much tested her in ways she could never have imagined.

War tested them all as casualty lists lengthened and staff shortages changed their leisured way of life. And one member of the family threatened to bring shame on them all with one wild escapade after another.

Jack Wolf

You will be brothers, you will see death and destruction, you will be expected to run into fire when every other living thing runs away, you will work long shifts, days, nights, Saturdays, Sundays, high days and holidays, Christmas days and your birthdays. You will be injured and burned, and don’t kid yourself it won’t happen to you, it will. And consider this: On average two firemen are killed each year in service. You are expected to do this job for thirty years. Nobody wants to pay you decent wages, they will tell you that you sit around all day, play snooker and squirt water for a living. You will be like Cinderella… you will live, eat and sleep behind the red engine house doors and when called to serve, when the fire bell rings you will answer their call, their fear and their alarm. You will risk your life for a stranger, someone you never knew or will ever know and when the alarm has passed, when you are exhausted and done, you will return to the fire station, close those red engine house doors behind you and lick your wounds.

We are their insurance; they never want us, until they want us, then briefly, briefly, we are heroes.

Ivanhoe Mill

Ivanhoe Mill is from a long ago period, it has characters of mixed interest, each section of the book has love, tragedy, plots of cruelty and devious problems that affect many of the community.

The Manor House, Cawston Hall, is the hub that controls the everyday life of the surrounding villages. The lord of the Manor is devious and cruel in his manipulation which is his quest to satisfy his selfishness.

There is a wide range of domestic and social activity that I hope gives you a great deal of interest to compliment the characters in the book. The writing and some of the flavour of the slang, I hope fits my interpretation that brings to life my portrayal of the people in the book.