Category Archives: fiction

fiction

The Twisted Legacy of Maud de Braose
Fran Norton

9781911175360 In 1230 William de Braose , Lord of Abergavenny, is hanged on the orders of Llywelyn ap Iowerth, Prince of Wales for adultery with his wife. William’s widow, Eva Marshal, daughter of the legendary knight, William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, decides to keep the true facts of his death from his favourite daughter, Maud. Nonetheless, the little girl finds her life has changed forever, due to the sin of her father. Subsequently she inherits the twisted legacy of pride and shame; a legacy from which there is no escape. As Maud grows towards adulthood she falls in love, but her forbidden love only complicates her efforts to fulfil her family duty as she faces the fact she is expected to marry the young Roger Mortimer, heir to the Marcher barony of Wigmore.
Published:September 2016
Paperback:432 pages
Price:£13.99
ISBN:9-781911-175360
£13.99 (+ £2 postage)

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Maud, feisty, fearless and shrewd, plays a unique role in the history of England during the disastrous reign of Henry III: a period, riven by wars and dissent. Troubles in Wales and Gascony, and eventually civil war, see the nation fall into poverty and unrest. The loyalties of the magnates are tested when the charismatic leader of the Barons’ party, Simon de Montfort, challenges the authority of the king. It is a time when friends become enemies and families are divided by their loyalties, as warring factions fight for democracy. Roger Mortimer is immortalised for slaying de Montfort on the bloody field at Evesham, a place where honour and friendships are sacrificed and where the future king, Edward Plantagenet, gives the fateful order of ‘no quarter’, heralding death to anyone who dares oppose him. Edward orders de Montfort’s head to be sent to Maud at Wigmore Castle in recognition of her part in his victory. Factual events are woven with fiction to bring the eventful life of this extraordinary woman to the reader. Now let us step back into the thirteenth century and meet Lady Maud de Braose, daughter of the March.

Books by Fran Norton...
The Twisted Legacy of Maud de Braose

Isolde, Lady de Audley: The Mortimer Myth

The Secret, The Sword and the Seal
Reader Reviews...




fiction

Poor Ronnie – A Tale from the Dales
Andrew Price

Poor Ronnie
A Tale From The Dales

 There’s trouble brewing in the Yorkshire Dales when the natives of Richmondshire start behaving out of character. It just so happens that a local pub is trialling a new organic cider – and it’s going down a treat.
Cider should make people merry but this normally docile community of Yorkshire folk finds itself in the grip of paranoia, fear, and confusion. That’s when casual boozer, Lenny Plant, discovers that the disruption is down to something far more sinister than a glass or two of an apple beverage: lying dormant in the corner of his best friend’s garage there lurks a threat to humanity deadlier than a thousand nuclear wars. The cider is almost an innocent bystander.
Against his better nature, Lenny decides to take matters into his own hands, only to find himself up against the KGB, a psychotic war veteran and, perhaps worst of all - his affection for the cider.
Published: March 2020
Paperback: 330 pages
Price: £9.99
ISBN: 9-781913-425159

UK Only
£9.99 (+ £2.50 postage)
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Andrew Price was born ages ago in Saltburn by the Sea. He didn’t write for forty-nine years – much too young. Andrew allows that, although the British are useless at most things, sport in particular, their fluency in humour is without equal. His novels “Poor Enid” and “Poor Ronnie” are humble contributions to the cause – a manifestation of all that has inspired him. For every sentence is etched onto the hard drive with stubborn purpose, goaded by a duty of care, to celebrate, perpetuate, and create.
Reviews...

 Roger Ordish, TV Producer and Director
Remarkable imagination. As a retired piss artist, I laughed most at the wonderful pub scenes.

Willie O'Kane
Andy Price does it again! Just when you thought things in Yorkshire couldn't get any worse, along comes Lenny Plant and his cohort of assorted wasters to foil another evil plan to take over the world.
The story ties in (and picks up from) where 'Poor Enid' left off, as centenarian monomaniac Art Schitthelm locks horns with Russian spies and local winos in a bid to control the entire world. In a plot that defies description, Andy deploys his wide-ranging knowledge of quantum physics, time-travel and the workings of the human alimentary canal to create a truly madcap story where nothing is as it seems. In a dim-lit world where gargantuan guzzling of alcohol truly makes a man, Lenny and co prove that it takes more than scientific know-how to take over the world, and once again our heroes win out despite the odds and without their even really trying.
A tale for our times, 'Poor Ronnie' will make the reader marvel at the dexterity with which the main players face up to fate - and despite the occasional jolt to one's digestive system it has to be recommended for its raucous energy and imaginative spirit.
John Vickers, Amazon Review
“Intricately funny. A very enjoyable read which complements the first book.
Funny, dark and twisted; you can really relate to the piss-heads in the book.”

Peter Ullathorne, Amazon Review
“It is always said the measure of a good book is if you cannot put it down.
This one is so entertaining and funny that you always have that ‘just another chapter’ thought.

fiction

Posh Rats
Jack Worsfold Snr.

Peggy's Life Falls Apart when her husband, Eben, is brutally beaten to death on a winter’s night in 1932. As he’s bleeding in the freezing mud, he beseeches her to tell everyone that he was trampled by the horse, everyone, that is, except his older brother, Larcey. With his last words to her, Eden extracts a promise from Peggy that she will tell Larcey the name of his killer. The killer is Rapley, the game keeper.
Left alone with only a gypsy caravan to call her own, and with three young children, Peggy seeks refuge at her brother-in-law’s small-holding. Custom in the travelling community dictates that Larcey look after his brother’s widow and children. But because Larcey knows that his brother’s death was no accident, his grief turns to seething hatred.
The funeral provides another opportunity for him to show his generosity with the promise of free food and flowing liquer, and a large number of mourners turn up at the holding. However Peggy is shunned for ‘speaking posh’ as are her children who are teased. Danny has stayed at the small-holding to support Peggy and to help Larcey with the funeral. Whilst the funeral is in full swing, Larcey, with murder on his mind, confides to Danny that he plans to kill Rapley.
This is a story to chill the blood.
Published: Feb 2020
Paperback: 346 pages
Price: £12.99
ISBN: 9-781913-425036

UK Only
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Jack Worsfold Snr. was born in Surrey in 1924, the son of a coal merchant. At nineteen years old he joined the RAF as a rear gunner on Lancasters under the command of Flight Lieutenant John Keards, flying out of Ludord Magna with 101 Squadron. On the 3rd May they were one of twenty one Lancaster bombers ordered to participate in a raid on Mailly-Le-Camp, intended to be an attack on the German depot, south of Reims in France. 340 Lancaster bombers took part in total, forty-two were shot down including Jack's. They had only bombed once when they were attacked with cannon fire. At that point the Lancaster broke up and Jack fell to earth, trapped in the tail section and with his parachute was on fire. He heard himself say; " Make it quick," and he passed out. He spiralled to the ground 7.500 feet, crashing through a power line and fir trees before coming to rest in gorse near the village of Aubeterre, ten miles south Mailly. Jack was too badly injured to escape but was rescued by the French resistance. They put him in the woods but were rumbled by the Germans which actually turned out to be fortunate because he was taken off to Paris where his broken leg was expertly fixed by a German doctor. He was then transported to a pow camp in Poland and held for one year until the war had finished. The rest of Jack's crew mates died in the crash.
Reviews...


fiction, Front Page

The Ashes of D. H. Lawrence
John Welsh

In the summer of 1936 a young Englishman is sitting in a Siena café when he is approached by a stranger. It is an uncomfortable encounter but the man’s words draw him inexorably into the lives of a writer, his wife and their immediate friends. Eventually their identities become clear to him but he keeps this to himself at further, seemingly chance, meetings. Overtaken by events in Europe and the war that is to come he can eventually return to his notes. After the success of Lady Chatterley’s Lover, D.H. Lawrence is able to travel from Italy to France no longer beset by a lack of money. His friendships and the relationship with his wife are tested as, increasingly constrained by ill-health, he is beset with reminiscences, regrets, and contradictory emotions about his past and present life.

With thanks to John Farrington for the cover image.
Published:October 2018
Paperback:196 pages
Price:£9.00
ISBN:9-781912-419203
Available from Amazon
The author was born into a Fife mining community in 1938. After Grammar School he worked briefly in banking until joining the Royal Air Force and subsequently entering college. Following a short teaching career and a post-graduate course at Reading University he again changed course to gain a Masters degree, lead an economic research team in the Midlands and was invited to the Triplex Lloyd Chair of Management in Brno a few months after the 1989 Czechoslovak revolution.
Now retired, he lives in Shrophire and walks, writes and plays golf, both at Crail Golfing Society on the banks of the Firth of Forth and at Ludlow. He also travels frequently through central Europe by car and is familiar with some of the locations in which the Ashes of D.H. Lawrence is set..
Reader Reviews

Amazon Reader
 Lovely read, heard about the book thanks to local newspaper.
Read in a day - could not put it down.
Characters were believable. Liked the time hopping element.
Childrens, fiction, Front Page, Uncategorized

Irish Tales from Coolshannagh
Christo Loynska

The Untimely Demise of Friday the Pig
Irish Tales from Coolshannagh

Coolshannagh is an ordinary Irish village situated on the coast halfway between Dublin and Belfast.
The villagers are pretty ordinary too; Father Joe, a clubfooted priest who likes to dance; Duffy the bar owner who runs a great pub; Stochelo a Gypsy bandolier and his mighty son Miquel; Eamonn McGarvey who loved his pet pig; Ludmilla the one handed Ukrainian Headmistress who escaped the anti-Jewish pogroms of 1881; Mary-Ellen the village elder, wise-woman, and nurse in the Crimean War; Vincenti Quilto the Italian Matchmaker and teller of unlikely fables; Father Dan, a guilt ridden whiskey priest decorated for bravery in the First World war and The Diabhal (Devil) also comes calling intent upon mischief.
Published: Feb 2020
Paperback: 260 pages
Price: £9.99
ISBN: 9-781913-425074

UK Only
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So, just an unremarkable Irish village going about its daily business; hum-drum times punctuated by birth, death, love, not much hate (except the Devil for whom hate is his only purpose).
And every word is true…
at least according to my father who came from Coolshannagh and passed these tales on!
Reviews...

 Debbie Turfrey - Authorised buyer
5 out of 5 stars Beautifully written Irish tale
This is a wonderful book, a whimsical yarn which flows beautifully!
In true Irish story teller style, the author weaves the threads of the story together.
I would highly recommend it to anyone!

fiction, Front Page

Healing Hearts and Apple Tarts
Annie Beaumont

Healing Hearts and Apple Tarts
and a totally demented dalmatian
 When Hetti returns home to discover that the locks have been changed she soon realises that her boyfriend, Daniel has absconded with one hundred-thousand pounds of trust fund money left to her by her parents.
Hetti isn’t the sort to let him get away with it and sets about trying to find him and recover her money. She turns to her gay godfather, Oscar, for emotional support. Oscar’s go-to comfort food and remedy for all ills is homemade apple tart.
Hetti finds a housesitting job and moves to Wisteria Cottage, in the Norfolk countryside. What she doesn’t realise is that the job involves taking responsibility for Tosca, a totally demented adolescent Dalmatian. Hetti has no experience of dogs, especially crazy ones.
Nathan runs a smallholding in Norfolk, close to Wisteria Cottage. He has been nursing a broken heart following a tragedy five years earlier.
Will Hetti find Daniel and retrieve her money? And will Nathan’s heart ever heal? Can Hetti and Nathan learn to trust again? Annie Beaumont takes us through a rollercoaster of emotions, dramas and comedic situations before we find the answers to these questions.

Published:Nov 2019
Paperback:282 pages
Price:£9.99
ISBN:9-781913-425005
Paperback edition (UK only)
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Number of copies:


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Annie Beaumont was born in Scotland and left before her first birthday. She was brought up in various places around England and the Far East. At 47, she began her Bachelor’s degree at Sussex University and went on to complete a Master’s at the University of East Anglia (UEA) and a PhD at Essex. She has taught sociology at Essex University and social sciences at The Open University. Annie is currently a student at the Unthank School of Writing in Norwich. Set in Wymondham, Norfolk, the county she made her own, Daughters of Hamilton Hall is Annie Beaumont’s first novel.
Reader Reviews

Amazon Reader
 Healing Hearts and Apple Tarts is set in Wymondham, Norfolk, and is Annie Beaumont’s second novel.
Her first novel, Daughters of Hamilton Hall is also set in Wymondham and has received five-star reviews.

fiction

In Support of Butterfly Conservation
Stephen Lewis

Postcard from the Common
A tale of conservation and romance in rural Shropshire
spanning World War II and the present day.

A lowland heathland Common is used as an airfield in World War Two. A plane crashes and a series of events begins as, seven years later, two friends, Luke and Alina, try to unravel the truth about what happened.
As they seek answers they are faced with increasingly urgent questions about the background to their own lives, as well as the need to act as the Common itself, its heritage, landscape and wildlife, is threatened with destruction.


All royalties from the sale of this book will go to
support the work of Butterfly Conservation.
Published: October 2019
Paperback: 176 pages
Price: £8.99
ISBN: 9781912419883

8.99 (+ £2.50 postage)
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Reviews...

fiction

The most awful loss imaginable…
Nick Jones

The most awful loss imaginable…

 Two English couples, holidaying in Andalusia with their daughters, experience the nightmare that every parent dreads – one of the girls (Lucy) disappears.

Despite an extensive police search no trace of her is found and her distraught parents return to England.

But within a secretive convent beside Lake Lucerne, Lucy is being groomed for adulthood, soon to travel to England to live with the man described as her adoptive-father – the shadowy Aamir Kashani – in a luxury apartment in the City of London.

Lucy determines to trace her real parents and devises an ingenious escape plan, to free her from her captor’s grasp.
Published: Sept 2019
Paperback: 192 pages
Price: £8.50
ISBN: 9-781912-419807

£8.50 (+ £2 postage)
Number of copies:


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Reviews...