Lighthouse Stories

Lighthouses remain a fascination to most people. The light beam still flashes a warning to all shipping and acts as a guide to safe harbour in rough weather, but unfortunately the lighthouse keepers are now a thing of the past. Modern technology has meant that satellite navigation where signals can be bounced off satellites to turn engines on and off and fog signals can be operated from ashore without the trusty keepers. The lights still twinkle and backup systems ensure ships still have guidance to safety. No keepers, alas: they have all been made redundant. The way of life of the lighthouse keeper is now well past.
The reader of my stories should gain an insight into what being a keeper was all about. The working details provide a fair look at what makes a lighthouse function. The short stories cover a wide variety of different locations including the Channel Islands. Characters within the service are as varied as the lighthouse but there is always a story to tell given the nature of the work and the importance of safety at sea for shipping. As always, it’s the sea that is the master in everything that happens but humour keeps rearing its head to remind us of the simple things in life; it constantly raises a smile.
Although lighthouses are now unmanned, the public is still curious about their history and what a keeper's life was all about. This book and its stories perhaps can give an insight into a time when keepers were essential to safe passage.

Lighting the Blue Flame

"Welcome to my last day. I am Joshua McKenzie, 16 years old. "I fluctuate between an internal rage at the ones I blame for me feeling like this, and sadness for myself for not being able to do anything about it. "I'm not really scared, just sort of numb, sadness overwhelms me, no one has been there for me and no one is going to be there for me now. I loop the noose; I kick the chair. Fade to black…" Joshua has been bullied to the point of suicide and in his final act wants those he feels are responsible to make things right. Share the journey of those left behind to deal with Joshua's suicide and come up with solutions to prevent this from happening to others.

Lines of Evidence: How Recent Science Infers the Existence of God

Secular science demands we accept the philosophical dogma of scientific materialism—that only material entities exist. Yet recent science has discovered the immaterial!

Also mandated is the assumption that all things must be explained by natural causes. But we now are certain that the universe had a beginning. There was a time when “nature” didn’t exist—and yet we must attribute the origin of the universe to nature!

And what about Darwin’s theory of evolution—taken as fact that every plant and animal owe its origin to a common ancestor and naturalistic causes. At the time of Darwin, over a century and a half ago, no one knew the true complexity of the cell. We now know the simplest of living organisms has 159,662 base pairs of DNA and 182 protein-coding genes. What naturalistic cause put all of this together? Could this be assembled by blind, purposeless accident? What does recent science have to say?

And what about recent discoveries in origin-of-life research? Do we now know enough to suggest life could not have created itself?

A lot is happening in today’s science that is best explained through the Christian worldview. Let’s see what some of today’s scientists are now saying.

Little Bundle of Sorrow

Birth is made out to be the happiest time of your life. But what happens if you have a difficult pregnancy, a traumatic birth, your baby is fussy, or just won’t go to sleep? Are you meant to bond with your baby straight away?

Sometimes, the experience of being a new mum sucks. You’ve been sleep-deprived for weeks or months, and post-natal depression can creep up and take over. If you’ve found yourself struggling to cope, you’re not the only one. Other women have had similar thoughts and feelings to you, no matter how extreme they seem.

The women in this book have experienced postnatal depression and have come out the other side. Their stories will give you hope that there is a way out of the dark hole you are in.

You are not alone.

Little Orange Nightbook

Written in the first person, these stories are designed to be read in bed just before you go to sleep. The way to enjoy this book is to follow the author’s intentions: read one letter each night, put in your bookmark, firmly resist the temptation to turn the page and read the next one, switch off the bedside light and go to sleep. That way you have nighttime reading – hence the book’s title – for a month, more or less, and at quiet moments during the course of each day you can, if you so fancy, speculate about what’ll be on the reading menu tonight: which country you’ll be transported to, and whether he’ll be telling you about something which happened to him last year or half a century ago. To read it straight through would be the equivalent of ordering a three-course meal of, say, tomato soup, poached salmon with a side salad followed by chocolate fudge cake with hot sauce – and then putting them all on the same plate and eating the mixture with a spoon. Of course, it’s a free country. But courses are served separately so that different flavours may be enjoyed.

If you’re now sufficiently intrigued, turn to page one and the Introduction.

Living in Interesting Times: Curse or Chance?

These are the memoirs and reflections on the most acute issues of the contemporary world by a boy from the Estonian countryside who, through accident and pure ambition, ended up as a professor at Moscow University and adviser to President Gorbachev on matters of international law. After a stint as head of Estonian diplomacy at crucial moments in the restoration of its independence, he later became a centennial professor at the LSE and chair of international law at King’s College London. This is not a traditional autobiography. Besides reflecting on issues he dealt with while advising Soviet leaders, such as Yakovlev in his speech on the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact or the status of the Kuril Islands, and their repercussions in today’s world, the book analyses the roots of the crisis within liberal democracy, the upsurge of populism, the rise of China and the re-emergence of Russia as a great power. A Marco Polo fellow at Jiaotong University in China and recently awarded the highest Russian Order for foreigners – the Friendship Order by President Putin, Professor Müllerson, who lives in London, feels equally at home discussing the renewal of great-power competition, the problems of the European Union including Brexit, the conflict in Ukraine, as well as the negative impacts of political correctness both in the former USSR and today’s West. Having lived equal thirds of his life in three different worlds and worked in and visited many countries as a UN diplomat, he is a man who understands small country mentality, though being ‘spoilt’ by great-power mindset. 

Living Through The Great War at Home: How the People of Bromley Faced the Challenges of War

Living Through the Great War at Home tells the story of the people of Bromley from the month before the outbreak of war to the Armistice in 1918 and the celebration of peace in July 1919. Although it shows how men were mobilised, volunteered, conscripted and left to ‘follow the colours’, it is a book about the people of Bromley and how their lives were challenged and changed during the war, how they supported their own boys in the army, how they dealt with the problems of war, the restrictions of DORA (Defence of the Realm Act) and the threat and reality of the Zeppelin raids. We learn of the generosity of the people in supporting their ‘boys’, caring for the Belgian refugees and the wounded—the VAD hospitals and how women rose to the challenge, both in terms of filling the gaps in the workforce left by the men and struggling to put food on the table as rising prices and shortages finally led to rationing. The work is based on real information from the local newspaper, together with research to put them into context and understand the stories better.

London Firefighter

Dave and I crept up the stairs, the floor had burned through in places as had the floor above, the roof was gone so there was a bit of dull light. The floor was covered in rubble; tiles from the roof, burnt timber, cork and all sorts. Dave took the nozzle and we pushed forward along the floor. The smoke was tolerable, the heat was a different matter. As I breathed in it was searing my lungs, a bit like trying to breathe in over a boiling kettle, I was lying on the floor in a puddle of steaming water trying to find some cooler air.

As Dave opened the nozzle we were engulfed in steam as the water cooled the superheated atmosphere above us. I buried my head a little lower and held on for dear life as Dave worked the jet around the large hallway, extinguishing the burning contents.

We pushed further and tried making our way into a room on the right. I was suffering a bit now, and as if reading my mind, Dave pulled back and I pushed up to the nozzle. I opened it and aimed in the direction of the fire. I got some relief by breathing in the cool clean air that was being forced out of the nozzle with the water. Soon we had pushed a good way forward but we were taking a real beating. I could feel my skin scalding as the wet fire tunic steamed in the heat…

London Heathrow Airport June 2021

125 years ago no one thought there would ever be such things as airports. An aerodrome was then built on a small part of the site during 1914 to 1918 which became derelict after 1918. Then it was opened as a private aerodrome in 1929, and then expanded to it present size but only for military purposes during the World War. It became London's passenger airport after the war. It was just a set of tents along the A4 in 1946, which gradually expanded to its present layout over the past seventy years, on very much a piece meal basis, with each development thought to be the "state of the art". Various projects relating to the airport have been seriously considered but aborted. No one can say for certain how the airport will develop in the future.

London's Firefighters

London's Firefighters is a wonderfully readable, lavishly illustrated
anthology of articles, fiction and verse about the London Fire Brigade,
most of it gathered from the Brigade's house magazines London Fireman
(1966-82) and London Firefighter (1982-2005).
The book's editor David C. Pike, himself a retired firefighter, has cleverly
selected material that delivers both a comprehensive history of the
London Fire Brigade and a fascinating portrait of individual firemen
and women, at work and (occasionally) at play. The book includes
vivid, occasionally harrowing articles on important events involving the
Brigade - the Sidney Street Siege of 1911, the London Blitz and the 1981
Brixton riots, to name just a few - as well as covering key figures within
the Brigade like James Braidwood and Massey Shaw. The more personal
sections provide a revealing insight into the bravery, commitment and
camaraderie of ordinary working firefighters and their families.
The numerous, often highly dramatic illustrations, many from the London
Fire Brigade's own collection, offer a lively commentary on the text.
All the profits from this book will go to the Fire Service charity,
Firemen Remembered.
David Pike was a London firefighter for more than 30 years, retiring at
senior rank in 1996. His first book, Beyond the Flames, was published by
Austin Macauley in 2013.
‘A fascinating peek into the world of the London Fire Brigade. A finalist
and highly recommended.'
The Wishing Shelf Book Awards 2014/15, on Beyond the Flames

Lord of the Dead

In an age where the story of murder is told of perpetrators who are generally behind bars, by the families of the victims of crime, or by the authorities who have prosecuted killers, here is a story told from a different perspective. This is the story of Nicolas Claux, a self-confessed Vampire and Cannibal who, having been convicted of murder in the 1990’s in France, and has since been subsequently released from prison. This is the story of his life, from his own words and detailed recollections, told in a manner unlike any other. This is an insight into the life and mind of a killer.

Love and Music Volume One

This is a joint autobiography of two singers whose lives have run in parallel from 1961 until the present day. It is based on the couple's letters and diaries. They met at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 1961 and married in 1963. Love and Music - Volume One illustrates the training, dedication and grit that preparing for a life in the musical theatre entails. It also shows the enjoyment that such a life brings not only to the audience but to the performers themselves. As they say: "It's a great life if you don't weaken, but if you can't stand the heat in the kitchen, get out!!!"