A Fine Line

A story of the extraordinary lives of ordinary people.

Set between Victorian Liverpool and Dundee and the battlefields of the First World War, three families face the perils of life on the economic cliff-edge, where a single misstep can send lives plunging out of control.

Crossing a century of dramatic change, their journey begins in the aftermath of the slave trade, moving through the era of Empire expansion and Industrial Revolution to a time of religious strife and global conflict.

The world they navigate is one fraught with hazard in which exploitation, zealotry and violence lead to rape, prostitution, fraud, and murder.

At its heart, two indomitable women – lifelong friends – choose very different paths as they strive to hold their worlds together, and to survive.

A Way to Go

An intense romance developed out of an illicit and highly sensual affair of more than 10 years which survived many hurdles.

Freed from the ties of work and family by retirement and bereavement, the couple embark on a trip of a lifetime around the coasts of Europe, with its idyllic beaches, historic cities, fascinating art galleries and ancient sites.

This is a gripping and highly readable novel full of wit, fun and escapist pleasures, but with disturbing happenings which raise serious issues of love, estrangement and loss.

Almost Down to Earth

In this fable for our times, feisty M’bali Hoyle has returned to the town of her youthful disgrace. 

Will tiny, isolated Quimbleton take her to its heart this time?
Two glamorous visitors drop into her world just as she meets ex-rock star Hayes.
Only M’bali sees the dark threat behind their glitzy facades.

How can she convince Hayes and the starstruck locals, a cast of rural eccentrics, that her intuition is right?

Can she draw them all more or less together when danger strikes?

With a dry wit, the narrator observes the foibles of human nature as the reader is launched into a twisting, turning adventure with the future of life on Earth at its core.

An Agony of Flame and the Fury and the Mire

A two-part climax to The Last Vigil, An Agony of Flame and The Fury and the Mire, concludes the story of the fall of Constantinople. Here is an intense evocation, both of the gruelling eight-week siege itself and of the chaotic as well as terrifying aftermath.

In part three, Niccolo and Demetrius serve on the great Roman land walls, enduring bombardment and nocturnal hand-to-hand combat. Nestor-Iskander reappears, a deserter now from the Turkish camp. Niccolo is badly wounded, recovering in Theodora’s house in the suburb of Studion. Then comes the night of the final Ottoman assault when, after a valiant defence, treachery leads to massacre (including the death of Demetrius) and Niccolo finds himself among a scatter of survivors. 

Part four centres on Niccolo’s frantic attempts to find a way through a city, now being systematically sacked. Moreover, he must think of others. Demetrius might be dead but Nestor-Iskander has survived and demands refuge. Then there is Theodora locked up with the faithful in Hagia Sophia. Can Niccolo reach her before the marauding enemy? So, he travels deeper and deeper into his adopted city’s heart of darkness. Nestor finds protectors, loses, then regains them. Theodora is found then lost forever. Mehmet appears once more; Cinnamon never reappears. Finally, after the city has been overwhelmed and pacified, Niccolo sets sail westward across the Mediterranean, not home to Venice but to an Atlantic shore where a new age of exploration is about to dawn.  

An Ideal Daughter

Annie Grant loved her family, her violin, and her study. Once, a long time ago, she had also loved Liam.

When Annie opened the door that evening, she expected the supermarket delivery. Instead, it was Liam on the doorstep, begging for help. Annie, still a schoolgirl, was drawn into a situation that threatened not only Liam’s life, but the lives of many others, including her own.

The Covid-19 pandemic was raging as Annie fought to keep Liam, her family and herself out of danger. It would take every bit of her remarkable intellect and her incredible ingenuity to achieve this. All the while, she had another struggle on her hands – to maintain her focus and achieve the ambition that involvement with Liam was threatening to derail.

If it all went wrong a lot of people were going to die and not just from Covid-19.

Angel In The Mirror

Since losing her dad at a young age, Annith Padra has always feared losing those closest to her. So when she looks at her new-born half-sister Leanne’s reflection in an old rustic mirror and sees a dark figure looming there, she begins to panic. Annith becomes obsessed in finding a way to remove it, especially when she discovers this dark threat has the ability to destroy Leanne the same way it died — by fire. But this doesn’t appear to be the only threat, as only since this dark figure has appeared has Annith started to learn about her dad’s death nine years ago. 

Angels Can Love

Mike is an angel tasked to help the homeless of New York City. On the streets of Manhattan, Mike runs into Alice. Overwhelmed by love at first sight, he realises he would need to become human in order to be with Alice. Mike approaches The One in hope of experiencing human life for one day. The One grants Mike until sunrise the following day to make a crucial decision: to remain human or return to his angelic existence. What Mike decides to do will change his fate forever.

Benito's Truth

Amidst Peru’s rebellion against Spanish rule and an impending blockade by the Chilean fleet, the Viceroy of Lima and its priests devise a plan to safeguard the fabled Treasure of Lima. Captain Bennett Grahame, commanding the HMS Devonshire, is entrusted with this crucial task and instructed to return once the coast is clear. However, fate intervenes as Bennett falls deeply in love with Teresa, the enchanting daughter of the Viceroy. Their passionate affair leads to unforeseen consequences – Teresa loses her virginity, thwarting her father’s carefully arranged marriage plans and resulting in her exile to Spain on the galleon Santa Katerina Isabella, destined for a life in a distant monastery.

Driven by his unwavering love, Bennett embarks on a daring pursuit of the Isabella, defying all odds to rescue his beloved Teresa and confronting the Spanish Captain in a fateful showdown that forever alters his path. Cast into the realm of piracy, Bennett embraces his new persona as Benito ‘Bloody Sword’ Bonito, a fearsome figure renowned throughout the Spanish Main.

Compelled by both love and ambition, Benito sets sail from the Caribbean, in possession of the legendary treasure said to be hidden in a Queenscliff cave in colonial Australia. A tale of love, piracy, and insatiable greed unfolds, spanning from the shores of the Iberian Peninsula to the distant reaches of Australia’s colonial past. Revealed through the perspectives of Benito, Teresa, and their son Benjamin, Benito’s Truth offers a breathtaking account of the events that truly transpired—a narrative so incredible, it defies the boundaries of fiction. Prepare to discover that truth can be more astounding than any tale ever told.

Blue Water Blue

Why are strangers travelling to St Gilberts and aiming for Rodney Leon? What do they think he knows?

St Gilberts in the Indian Ocean, dubbed; ‘The most beautiful tropical island on the planet’ is home to Rodney Leon who, having lived there for all of his 25 going on 26 years, still feels like an outsider. His heritage, inheritance, physical appearance, and occupation, all mark him out as ‘different’.

A chance find and a casual internet enquiry bring a series of ruthless emissaries to St Gilberts who threaten both Rodney and his small circle of friends. What are they looking for and why do they think Rodney knows where it is?

As Rodney and his friends struggle to work out what is happening while dealing with the escalating threats to their safety, they also find themselves confronting the big questions in life; questions to do with wealth, friendship, loyalty, love, and belonging. How they respond to those questions will irrevocably affect, not only their own lives, but that of the whole island as well.

Bonecreake: The Strange Tale of Maudy Jiller

December 1878. North Sea gales batter the wash estuary of England’s east coast, covering the desolate marshes and riverbanks under a near impenetrable blanket of snow and ice. Isolated and alone, the impoverished fishing community of Bonecreake faces hardship like never before.

But when the warmth of spring thaws the freezing conditions of a prolonged winter, a terrible secret is revealed: four children of Bonecreake are missing.

Investigating their disappearance falls on the youthful shoulders of Constable Hollins. With both the inhabitants of Bonecreake and his superiors demanding answers, is the inexperienced Constable Hollins capable of solving the macabre puzzle of the children’s disappearance?

What part does the widowed mother, Maudy Jiller, have to play in an investigation exposing the hypocrisy at the heart of the social and moral values of Victorian England?

As disturbing as it is engaging, Bonecreake: The Strange Tale of Maudy Jiller is every parent’s fear, and every mother’s nightmare.

Bright Shadow

This is the story of Katherine Plantagenet, self-proclaimed “daughter, sister and aunt of kings” who endures extraordinarily traumatic reversals of fortune, as her life swings through wealth and adversity.  A glittering future as an English princess is swept away by the untimely death of her father, Edward IV, and the usurpation of her brother Edward V's throne. Surrounded by murderous intrigue, conspiracy and ambition, Katherine and her sisters fear what lies in store … The pragmatic marriage of the eldest, Bessy, to the victor of Bosworth, Henry Tudor, brings an uneasy peace to Katherine's young life but the shadows of suspicion and rebellion continue to swirl around her.  

Katherine witnesses first hand the events that plague her brother-in-law's reign. As a political expedient, she is given in marriage to William Courtenay, heir to the Earl of Devon, but Henry Tudor's paranoia soon falls upon her beloved young husband who is imprisoned in the Tower. An intelligent and resilient woman, in a world where men hold all the power, Katherine fights her way alone through a tense decade that ends in personal tragedy. With a vow of celibacy as her chosen route of self-preservation, Katherine continues to tread a wary path of survival ... until the charming Benedict Haute enters her life. However, the failure of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon to produce a living son changes the way any Plantagenet is viewed by the king; Katherine knows her royal blood could cause trouble for her family.

Brushstrokes

And for a brief moment, we finally set aside

The shield that we don, beneath which our hearts hide

Brushstrokes is an exploration of the nuances of love, the ebb and flow of hope, as well as the search for meaning, clarity and purpose.

A moving composition of poems and prose, it recounts the tale of an electric encounter and ensuing, all-consuming love – with its irresistible highs and perilous lows – that sets into motion a cascade of events. What unfolds is a transformative story of self-discovery, unveiling one’s deepest fears, longings and dreams.

Timeless and universal in message, Brushstrokes invites us on an intimate journey steeped in passion and wonder.