Cinderella Timkins

The staircase in Dormec House, a Ministry building, is certainly elegant, but to Arthur Timkins, messenger, one of the quota of variously disabled employees, it is the scene of an encounter that changes his life miraculously.

Selected as one of Professor Knowle's guinea-pigs in a pilot trial to enhance intelligence, he is whisked away to a world beyond his wildest dreams. Workers at Matcham Grange, from kitchen staff to the Professor himself, treat Arthur kindly.

Everything that puzzled him slowly clears, he is like a man emerging out of thick fog into sunlight. This new life comes to an abrupt end.

By the merest chance, Arthur left the Grange before the explosion that kills all his companions: his brief experience of luxury is over.

Hunted down by the spies responsible for destroying Matcham Grange, he changes identity with the tramp killed by a bullet intended for him. Grief-stricken and suffering physical hardship, he owes it to the Professor to reach the Ministry, proving there is one guinea-pig left. An outcast from society, after a hard journey, Arthur has to convince headquarters that he is the real Timkins, not a spy impersonating him.

The transformed Arthur is taken to Dormec House. The psychiatrist (who had selected him) swears that no one will recognise the down-trodden slow-witted messenger in this handsome, well-heeled executive, but someone does, on that very staircase...

Clairvoyance

“…What I needed was one look,

and with that,

I was clairvoyant.

Your soul and your mind,

the tiniest part of your heart,

I knew it all and I made a promise

that I would teach you

about you,

share my knowledge,

and from this fruitful kinship,

we rise and raise each other high,

me seeing all of you

and you there,

right by my side.”

Trying not to think about it but to see how it makes you feel.

Class Act

Biggsy is an idealistic 50-year-old English teacher in a West London boys’ secondary school. A maverick head of department who battled against the educational establishment for twenty-five years, he’s beginning to crack. His departmental colleagues love him, but he suspects that the school’s management team is out to get rid of him.

His wife, Myra, a medical secretary, is his mainstay. She patiently endures his total commitment to his calling without complaint. However, when she realises that his work is taking an inordinate emotional toll on his personality, her patience wears thin.

Through his exchanges with teenage Ella, their only child, Biggsy reveals his beliefs about the connections between literary theory and the lives we all lead. But a violent assault on one of his students, an unexpected sexual encounter and professional betrayal expose the flaws in his philosophy. He discovers that trying to think one’s way through life is all very well, but the time comes when one has to act. 

Cleaning Stories And Other Tails

Cleaning Stories And Other Tails is a broad sweep of mainly the underclass. Bread crumbs of prostitution, idyllic adoption and the mumblings of a white woman near an indigenous reserve make the reader ponder, lash out and albeit care for the various winners and losers that cross days and nights.

The characters drawn from a realm of healers, liars and ordinary Joes populate urban landscapes with self-deprecating wit, emotional shortcomings and identifiable crisis.

The first incarnation of this book was a rough sketch I did while working as a maid in the Jewish ghetto of Montreal, Quebec.

There have been many stained mattresses, unavailable rooms, and smoke-inhaled lobbies in the interim.

Clone Ladies

In Clone Ladies, dive into a near-future where medical advancements have made cloning not just possible, but commonplace. As technology evolves, it’s not just organs that are replicated – entire humans can now be duplicated, possessing the same abilities, thoughts, memories, and skills as their originals. While this brave new world promises enhanced happiness and longevity, it also introduces unprecedented challenges. What does it mean to be truly unique in a world of mirrors? This gripping exploration into the promises and pitfalls of cloning raises profound questions about identity, ethics, and the very essence of human existence.

Coffee Time

The essence of a good writer is to find that ‘writer’s moment’ – that little piece of observable idiosyncratic behaviour where humour lives. How Susanna loves to discover those eccentricities in people’s characters that she can frame on her artist’s canvas.

Humour is found in the ordinary, the everyday, the awkward and the sublimely ridiculous events that grace our faces. When faced with the Covid-19 pandemic during 2020 Susanna’s pen had hardly time to rest between scenarios, furiously recording stories, such as the stupidity of the Tissue Issue – ‘Spare a Square,’ or about the sneaky company tricks in ‘Plays and Ploys’.

Other stories share precious family time with her little granddaughter, whilst many raise issues prevalent in all our lives. Instead of becoming exasperated by incompetence, or the folly of people’s foolishness, Susanna’s pen quickly slips into writing mode to create each immensely amusing saga.

‘That Perfect Little Writing Day’

Knock, knock.

“Who’s there?”

“Me,” a newly turned three-year-old gives her nanny a kiss.

“Where did you come from?”

“From the door.”

“How d’you get here?”

“I walked. Silly Nanny – I don’t drive!”

The stories and poems are written for entertainment. Coffee Time invites you into the coffee shop to sip one or more of the delicious brews on offer. Please stay a while and chat and share these little treasures with your family and friends.

Collectanea Cygna

Collectanea Cygna is a collection of 25 short stories, ranging from humour to pathos, from fantasy to science fiction and time travel, and from love stories to tragedy. Each story is complete in itself. 

Travel back to the Second World War or forward to a virtual reality environment. Empathise with the loss of loved ones or rejoice in the finding of one’s true love. See inside the mind of a murderer or laugh at the antics of the newly retired. This book will take you on many journeys.

Collected Poems

Having lived in New Zealand, Britain and Germany, the author is amply experienced to comment on various aspects of British, New Zealand and German culture. Currently living in Germany, he visits Britain frequently. His interests include indigenous cultures and music sponsorship in Britain and abroad.

Here is a book of poems that will amuse and educate adults as well as older children. The poems cover a range of topics from young children to threatened species, and poems from classical Greek and Roman mythology. There are different cultures portrayed in a positive light while the best ideas taken from the worlds of psychology, stress management, and values reflecting religious principles are incorporated in an often amusing way.

If you want an easy read on the train or to relax with at home, this is a book that will entertain and give a feeling of hope and happiness in a world that often presents us with difficulties or perplexing problems.

Colour Coded: The Black Bullet

Having a dark past, she left it all behind… At least she tried to. When Bullet moved from Prismatic to Colour Coded, her previous boss, Neon, did everything in his power to win her back. But, knowing the kind of man he was, she did not accept any of his pleas. After his begging turns into threats, Bullet and the rest of Colour Coded are forced into a dangerous chess game as a means of not only protecting their own, but protecting their pasts. In the end, a choice must be made. What means more to her, her Colour Coded family… or her horrific history she has shielded for so many years?

Colour Coded: The Silver Sparrow

Sparrow’s stress and anxiety is close to boiling point after Neon’s latest move, and it is beginning to take its toll on the rest of Colour-Coded.

Somehow, they must get one step ahead of Neon.

While Sparrow not only deals with troubles of the mind but of the heart as well, tempers are flaring, relationships are faltering, and Neon continuing to elude them all sets their teeth on edge.

Will Sparrow’s aggravating behaviour drive them to fight harder? Or will it merely make him the weaker link and the easier target with Colour-Coded?

Condemned

What happens when the “Circle of Life” goes horrendously awry?

Murder- we see it splashed across the tabloids all of the time. We try and escape reading about the horrors of appalling crimes by clicking out of such articles or by physically closing our newspapers. It’s easier not to think about it; it’s best to scroll down to another article; it’s better to turn the page.

But what if you don’t have the option to “turn the page” and escape the atrocity of murder? What are you supposed to do if you’re Susanna, blissfully ignorant at home until you receive the phone call on that devastating night, telling you that your son has been murdered? What are you supposed to do if like Susanna, it’s your child’s smiling face splashed across the tabloids with corroding words like “Murdered”, entwined with his image? Who are you supposed to turn to, when like Susanna, you are the mother who has to face her son’s killer in Court?

Susanna is facing the unendurable; the extent of her agony is incomprehensible. As a result, people don’t really know what to say to her. People appear to tire of the strained small talk and silences; one by one, those around Susanna are retreating.

It is time for Susanna to reclaim her voice and finally be heard. 

The very least that we can do is listen.

Condolences to Gaea

As our planet burns, people starve and species suffer extinction at an alarming rate, should we relegate ourselves as watchers, powerless to stave ignorance and greed’s insistent clamouring for more? Condolences to Gaea is a poet’s expression protesting the mindless, violent, selfish, often religious rationale for self over the wellbeing of our planet’s countless, marvellous inhabitants. The thematic arc encompasses paeans to those wonderful people recognizing Mankind’s imperative to intelligently address life’s accelerating demise and includes introspective musings by an author vacillating between dire pessimism and joyful optimism.