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Reparation – Entwined Victorian Lives and Cotswold Gypsies
Gail Fulton

Reparation
Entwined Victorian Lives and Cotswold Gypsies
Set in rural Victorian Cotswolds, we follow the intrigue of a fleeting love affair, mistaken identity and the tragic repercussions of jealousy.
Albert’s combustible temper together with Peggy’s secret past, lead their twin children into an adult life of risky adventure and heartache.
Truth will out but not without personal torment and devastating consequences.
Published: April 2022
Paperback: 262 pages
Price: £9.99
ISBN: 9-781914-424502
Available on Amazon

Gail Fulton has recently moved to the Cotswolds with her husband and Border Collie, Monty. Their two daughters and a future son-in-law have also relocated to the area and they look forward to many hours of dog walks, dining out and laughter.

Gail is now retired from teaching but has also always been passionate about interior design and floral art is also. Another passion is people watching! Gail gained an M.A. in Psychology, focusing her interest on personality development and she is intrigued by body language. She so loves her visits to coffee shops and observing behaviour.


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A new novel about double dealing in the murky world of international football
Alec McGivan and Hugh Roderick

The Bid by Alec McGivan and Hugh Roderick

A new novel about double dealing in the murky world of international football. Snouts are in the trough and fortunes are to be made from World Cup campaigning and presidential patronage.

Who will host the Global Football Organisation’s World Cup 2003? Six countries are bidding but Russia and Germany have a gentleman’s agreement that will fix the result to suit them both. Or so it seems...

Meanwhile, the GFO’s President is up for re-election. He and his confidants – including the sinister ‘Laundryman’ – are desperate to hang onto their golden tickets. And they don’t care how they get the support they need.

Bumbling onto the international stage comes England’s credulous football chief. He begins to unravel a web of corruption, some of it closer to home than he ever imagined. But how can an elderly Cornishman bring down this monstrous organisation? Or will he get blown away by ruthless men with too much to lose?
Published: March 2022
Paperback: 385 pages
Price: £9.95
ISBN: 978-1-914424-29-8
Available from Amazon

Sometimes this is a world of farce. Where a drunken former footballer is slow to unravel the mysteries of Bangkok. And where a GFO Board member happily offers his World Cup vote in exchange for naming rights to a royal baby.

Then suddenly it all becomes a matter of life and death...


Alec McGivan

Alec was born and brought up in Bristol, the son of Welsh parents.

In 1981 he was appointed National Organiser of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), the new party’s first member of staff. He quickly established a reputation as a formidable campaigner in a series of high-profile parliamentary by-election victories.

A decade later Alec was recruited by The Football Association to be part of its management team established to plan and stage manage the highly acclaimed Euro 96 tournament. He then became Director of a bid to stage the World Cup in 2006. Following the bid Alec joined the BBC, working first on the project to renew the BBC’s Charter, and then as Head of BBC Outreach.


Hugh Roderick

By a strange coincidence, Hugh Roderick was also born in Bristol to Welsh parents. But the authors first met much later, while living in the same village in Oxfordshire.

After university he became a journalist, specialising in education. He went on to write speeches for Government Ministers (including Shirley Williams…coincidentally one of the SDP ‘Gang of Four’ that Alec was working with shortly afterwards) and IBM UK’s chairman and CEO. Hugh later headed marketing and communications at the Science Museum, and then became director of a corporate marketing agency.
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The Pastoral Symphony – Part 3 of the Beethoven Trilogy
Tess Alps

The Harp Quartet
Book Three of the Beethoven Trilogy
Reunited with her family in Rowanbridge after twelve years’ estrangement, Cathy Fitzgerald is forced to reconcile herself to the shocking secrets revealed to her by her mother, Hannah. She must reassess many of the people who featured so vividly in her childhood, the secretive, the sinister and the sinful. But making up for lost time and rebuilding family life with her three siblings is joyful.
Cathy helps her young son, Johnny, discover his place within both his Irish family and that of his English father. But where does she belong herself? The Maple Academy in Dalkey is her home but the lure of Connemara proves irresistible; there are many people there waiting for her to rescue them after their brutal experiences at Letterfrack School. Cathy creates a new life for herself as a professional healer, where music plays a central role, while Ireland continues to struggle with its own painful past. Cathy realises that true healing depends not only on love and kindness, which she has in abundance, but also on justice, which is a much harder goal to pursue.
Published: July 2021
Paperback: 420 pages
Price: £13.99
ISBN: 9-781914-424090

UK Only
£13.99 (+ £3 postage)
Number of copies:

Available on Amazon

For Australia and USA, please order from Amazon.com
Tess Alps has written all her adult life, from educational plays from her time in theatre-in-education to regular columns on advertising for The Guardian. She read English at Durham and her long career in advertising has required many forms of writing. But this is her first published novel. Inspired by a photograph of her grandmother at a finishing school in Dublin, and using snippets of memories from her mother, The Harp Quartet is the first of three novels about Hannah McDermott and her family. The second is The Moonlight Sonata, and the final part is The Pastoral Symphony. It is fitting that this ‘Beethoven trilogy’ is making its first appearance in the 250th anniversary year of Beethoven’s birth. Although the book is inspired by Tess’s grandmother and mother, the characters are totally fictional and bear no resemblance to any real person, living or dead. Tess lives in the Chilterns with her husband. She edits the village magazine and is an avid gardener, competing fiercely in the village-garden club shows.

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The Moonlight Sonata – Part 2 of the Beethoven Trilogy
Tess Alps

The Moonlight Sonata
Book Two of the Beethoven Trilogy
Cathy Fitzgerald, the longed-for daughter of Hannah and John, enjoys a charmed childhood in Rowanbridge until the harsh realities of life in 1930s Ireland bring the idyll to a shocking end. Cathy’s life changes forever.
Escaping all the demons lurking in her home village and armed with everything her parents have taught her, she finds a new home in Dublin before moving on to England to train as a nurse just as the Second World War is looming. The world needs her kindness, intelligence and industry more than ever and Cathy has more than enough love to heal every wounded soul.
But finding long-lasting love in return proves elusive until Cathy returns to Connemara, where her father had taken her as a child and where she had been so happy by the sea, skimming stones, in the shadow of the dreaded Letterfrack Industrial school.
Eventually, Cathy is drawn back to her family in Rowanbridge where the many secrets that have lain buried so long - and have shaped her family so profoundly - begin to emerge.

By the author of The Harp Quartet.
Published: August 2020
Paperback: 256 pages
Price: £9.99
ISBN: 9-781913-425388

UK Only
£9.99 (+ £3 postage)
Number of copies:

Available on Amazon

For Australia and USA, please order from Amazon.com
Tess Alps has written all her adult life from educational plays from her time in theatre-in-education to regular columns on advertising for The Guardian.
She read English at Durham and her long career in advertising has required many forms of writing. This is her second published novel.
Inspired by a photograph of her grandmother at a finishing school in Dublin and using snippets of memories from her mother Kay, The Moonlight Sonata is the second of three novels about Hannah McDermott and her family.
The first, The Harp Quintet, was published in April 2020 and the final part, The Pastoral Symphony, appearing in 2021, all being well.
It is fitting that this ‘Beethoven trilogy’ is making its first appearance in the 250th anniversary year of Beethoven’s birth.
Tess lives in the Chilterns with her husband; she edits the village magazine and is an avid gardener, competing fiercely in the village garden club shows.

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The Harp Quartet – Part 1 of the Beethoven Trilogy
Tess Alps

The Harp Quartet
Book One of the Beethoven Trilogy
While Ireland fights for its independence, sixteen year-old Hannah McDermott is fighting for her own. And what Hannah sets her heart on she usually gets, much to the frustration of her strait-laced sister Stasia.
After being expelled from her school for disgracing herself in front of the new priest, she finds herself freed from the tedium of village life, from nuns, suitors and her annoying sister, and becomes the latest student at the exclusive Maple Academy, near Dublin. There she meets the formidable but impressive Mrs Fitzgerald, its principal, who recognises and nurtures her extraordinary skill as a violinist. Hannah’s life is transformed at the Academy and she finds soul-mates and makes friends for life while Dublin offers her artistic inspiration, excitement and a perfect stage for her musical talents.
But Hannah’s greatest discovery is the power of music to touch and awaken hearts. Although, when too many hearts are woken, some are likely to be broken.
Published: April 2020
Paperback: 274 pages
Price: £9.99
ISBN: 9-781913-425173

UK Only
£9.99 (+ £3 postage)
Number of copies:

Available on Amazon

For Australia and USA, please order from Amazon.com
Tess Alps has written all her adult life from educational plays from her time in theatre-in-education to regular columns on advertising for The Guardian.
She read English at Durham and her long career in advertising has required many forms of writing. But this is her first published novel. Inspired by a photograph of her grandmother at a finishing school in Dublin and using snippets of memories from her mother Kay, The Harp Quartet is the first of three novels about Hannah McDermott and her family.
The second, The Moonlight Sonata, will be published later in 2020 with the final part, The Pastoral Symphony, appearing in 2021, all being well.
It is fitting that this ‘Beethoven trilogy’ is making its first appearance in the 250th anniversary year of Beethoven’s birth.
Tess lives in the Chilterns with her husband; she edits the village magazine and is an avid gardener, competing fiercely in the village garden club shows.

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Cotswold Crime and Corruption – Unearthing Victorian Secrets
Gail Fulton

Cotswold Crime and Corruption
A gripping tale of inequality and the search for justice at a time just prior to the establishment of Dr. Barnardo’s revolutionary homes.

Lord Dorchester omits to prepare his daughter for the question of a lifetime but Tobias’s proposal is not about marriage and his introduction to Lady Louise is clumsy and calamitous. Serendipity however, plays a hand in enforcing their proximity and ultimately leads him to the very man he most wishes to haul into court. His path to justice has many challenges and he must first survive all that threatens his success as he encounters mystery, guilt and secrecy. Determined to protect innocent victims, Tobias witnesses chillingly gruesome discoveries, whilst a grieving Lady Louise moves to the Cotswolds in search of inner serenity but destiny sends further complication in her life.

An intriguing story that sees love in all its different guises.
Published: March 2021
Paperback: 222 pages
Price: £9.99
ISBN: 9-781913-425791

UK Only
£9.99 (+ £3 postage)
Number of copies:

Available on Amazon

Gail Fulton has recently moved to the Cotswolds with her husband and Border Collie, Monty. Their two daughters and a future son-in-law have also relocated to the area and they look forward to many hours of dog walks, dining out and laughter.

Gail is now retired from teaching but has also always been passionate about interior design and floral art is also. Another passion is people watching! Gail gained an M.A. in Psychology, focusing her interest on personality development and she is intrigued by body language. She so loves her visits to coffee shops and observing behaviour.

This is her first publication but she hopes not her last!
Amazon review. Highly recommend. 18th March 2021
5 Stars - Such a great read! Thoroughly enjoyed it, would definitely recommend!


Amazon review. An enjoyable read. 23rd March 2021
5 Stars - A thoroughly enjoyable, well researched and descriptively written book.
A great first book from this author. I look forward with anticipation to the next.


Gripping story. 8th April 2021
5 Stars - Couldn’t put it down, great page turner with so many twists and turns
it keeps you on your seat all the way through.
Make a great tv drama!

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Environment Correspondent of The Times and Environment Editor of The Independent
Michael McCarthy

Fergus The Silent by Michael McCarthy

In 1983 Fergus Pryng, an idealistic young naturalist, was sent to survey Lanna, remotest of all the Scottish islands, which had never been surveyed before, and discovered there something so remarkable that it would have caused a global sensation – had he disclosed it. But Fergus did not tell the world of his discovery. Instead, he devoted his life to keeping it a secret, for 17 years, sacrificing his career, his marriage and his happiness – until the threat of nearby deep-sea oil development forced the astonishing truth out into the open, with ultimately catastrophic results.

What made Fergus keep his secret, and whether or not he was right to do so, are the questions Michael McCarthy makes central to this extraordinary story, because they go to the heart of one of the key issues of our time – the increasingly tragic nature of the human relationship with the Earth. Fergus The Silent highlights this issue in a particularly acute way, in the story of one singular and solitary individual with an unquenchable love for the natural world, himself a tragic figure whose fate is unforgettable.

Published: November 2021
Hardback: 452 pages
Price: £12.99
ISBN: 9781914424380
Available from Amazon

Michael McCarthy is one of Britain’s leading writers on the environment and the natural world, and has won a string of awards for his work as Environment Correspondent of The Times and Environment Editor of The Independent. As an author he has written Say Goodbye To The Cuckoo (2009) and The Moth Snowstorm – Nature and Joy (2015) both of which were widely praised, with the latter book shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize and the Richard Jefferies Prize.
Most recently he has written (with Jeremy Mynott and Peter Marren) The Consolation of Nature – Spring in the Time of Coronavirus (2020) which was chosen as one of The Guardian’s Nature Books of The Year. This is his first novel..
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Presumed Dead
James Holder

Bored with his job, with no real prospects and barely a penny to his name, the last thing Wally Mortimer needed was a letter from a solicitor delivered to his home one Saturday morning. But instead of a letter threatening legal action for one of his many unpaid bills, things are about to change for Wally - the letter tells him that he has inherited the estate of George Hart, a wealthy benefactor unknown to him.
Assured that the letter is genuine, he turns to his family to see if they can tell him anything about his benefactor. But the only lead they can give him is one from his grandmother whose fading memory remembers a George Hart who died more than 60 years ago.
So, who is George Hart, Wally’s benefactor? Is it just a coincidence that his grandmother once knew someone with the same name? If not, who is he and why did he leave his estate to Wally? Wally’s attempts to find an answer lead literally to a dead end. It is not until he finds a notebook at the chateau he has inherited that he discovers who George Hart was and uncovers secrets about his family unknown to them, secrets never meant to be discovered.
Published: September 2021
Hardback: 212 pages
Price: £9.99
ISBN: 97819144424076
Available from Amazon

James Holder was born in Somerset and, after reading law at Cambridge University, practised as a solicitor; he now works as a consultant.
He and his wife have four children and two grandchildren and live in Oxfordshire.
Also by James Holder...
The Great War’s Sporting Casualties