Nocturne – Wayman’s Sky
Alfred Wayman is an enigma: solitary, strange and with no past. All that is known of him is his hatred of falsehood and obsession with the night sky.
Friends and enemies speculate on his character and history; some aiming to understand him, others to destroy him. In doing so they reveal their stories and the loves, hates, jealousies and rivalries that make them who they are.
Wayman thrives in darkness, but every night must come to an end and the night-creature must face the triumph of the light
Kindle edition is available from Amazon
Also available from Waterstones and Hive
A Mirror
Eight short stories
A dissident under threat; a man trapped within himself; a teenager who wants to destroy all music and start again; a dying man; a dying town; a child trying to tell truth from lies; a short history of war – and the lender of last resort.
Eight portraits of the fight against the tide.
E-book only – £1.99
The Crossword Solver
‘The Crossword Solver’ is concerned with an aspect of community life that has vanished lately – going to the pub! It follows the stories of a group of regulars at ‘The Bat and Ball’ in an unnamed town where the bulldozers – literal and metaphorical – are poised to change everything.
Kindle edition is available from Amazon
Also available from Waterstones and Hive
The Beauty of Chell Street
Will the past never leave the present in peace?
Did you learn family tales at your grandmother’s knee? Just harmless old stories. But what of the reality behind them?
The Beauty of Chell Street is the story of a family dominated by its own poisonous mythology; one which outlives them all.
Nora Wilson endlessly recounts the story of her betrayal by her husband, Sam, during her heyday as the incomparable Beauty of Chell Street. Her demands to a lost God for Sam’s damnation become her only life force.
Long after their deaths, when their great-granddaughter, Francine, discovers old pictures of Nora and Sam, their story obsesses her. As she collects the past, Francine is as single-minded as Nora and as ruthless as Sam. Can she even cheat time and death to get to the people who knew Nora and Sam?
As betrayal weaves its way through turnabout time periods and Francine assembles her evidence, the story is told again and again into Francine’s old age while the image of Nora remains frozen, looking out from the photograph that started it all, forever the beauty of Chell Street.
Available from Amazon
Also available from Waterstones
Coming in 2023
My Life In Receipts – Spring 2023
A life spent lost in numbers – from chanting times-tables and unlearning old money, discovering the sinking schoolroom ‘Maths Feeling’ that ends a child’s ambitions to be a ‘scientist’, to the promissory note of student days, the hard times of the dole giro, the exuberance of the first wage packet, and the pleasures, limits too, of being able to pay your way. A plunge into bags full of threatening letters, threats of bailiffs, bankruptcy, eviction – even imprisonment: the lives of people in a perpetual cost of living crisis, and the work of those who help them fight to reclaim their lives. A memoir? Too fictionalised. A novella? Too close to the truth. The past, the future, money, debt: whether to flee, whether to fight, some victories, some routs – and thoughts on electronic train tickets too.
Natasha [Redacted] – Autumn/Winter 2023
Welcome-welcome-welcome-welcome to Being Young! And to the inner life and internet ragepage of Natasha {Redacted]. Her first name is all you’re getting : there are too many haters, trolls and stupid adults out there. Iffen you understand me then you’ve picked up the rhythm of my heartbeat and maybe you’re a friend. But that means you’re a potential danger too, if you get too close and you know too much – be careful.
If you’ve ever loved music with a matchless passion, wanted to form a band and play a gig on the Moon, you could be the friend that Natasha is waiting for.