Category Archives: My Books

THIS COLD NIGHT: Being Nice

This Cold Night is a crime novel with a detective (Rosanna Quillan) trying to solve mysteries. Missing girl. Murder. Fraud. The usual. There is also an issue in it that might not have concerned me so much if we were not living through these present times. I am not so naïve as to think weContinue reading “THIS COLD NIGHT: Being Nice”

New Book: THIS COLD NIGHT

Yes, I’ve written another crime novel. It’s the third in my Cold Case series, featuring my detective Rosanna Quillan. She first appeared, as a detective constable, in BETHULIA, published by Diamond Crime, when I had no idea of writing a series. But since I decided to stick with my disillusioned Rosanna, after she left theContinue reading “New Book: THIS COLD NIGHT”

A Mad Move to Self-publishing

I appreciate it’s a weird thing to do, having spent most of my adult life seeking out conventional publishers (and occasionally finding them) but, having finally reached the age where bits of me are falling off/seizing up/dropping dead, I have decided to reclaim most of my titles and stick to self-publishing from now on. ItContinue reading “A Mad Move to Self-publishing”

The Unravelling: Time and Place

My third novel, The Unravelling was published by Honno in 2016. My protagonist, Karen, does visit Wales in one chapter, but the book is largely centred on a council estate in Lyford, which was also a setting for my second novel Motherlove. Lyford is fictional, but it’s based on Luton, where I grew up. ThatContinue reading “The Unravelling: Time and Place”

The Other Newport

If adverts are to be believed, some families celebrate together with scratch cards (I am not entirely convinced of this ancient tradition). My family is stingier. We take a walk. When I lived in Luton, the ritual family walk was usually from Ashridge monument, down the Chiltern scarp to the ever-so-picturesque village of Aldbury (thatch,Continue reading “The Other Newport”

A TIME FOR SILENCE: first love

A TIME FOR SILENCE. It wasn’t my first novel by a long chalk, but it was the first to be published. Like Jane Austen, you see (and I do try to bring her into as many posts as possible). She wrote several books, including FIRST IMPRESSIONS, which later became PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, before she wasContinue reading “A TIME FOR SILENCE: first love”