Through the Granite Mirror

Published 25th September

Bowsie and Wowsie love the good things in life, especially good food. Political journalist Jane Bonnd isn’t so bad either. She’s silly enough to think she’s the owner and they’re the pets, when it’s so obviously the other way round.

Lucky for her she’s got them to watch her back when events catch up with her. Which they do when she tangles with a bunch of crazy populist guys running MEGA (Making England Great Again), who are determined to redraw the world map.

Not to say the dogs know everything, mind. Getting the hots for a top spy does make for tricky times. Even they don’t know how that’s going to work out, any more than she does, as it happens…

ISBN: 9781852002244

Size: 212x135mm 

Binding: Paperback 

Length: 233pp

Nobody's Perfect (First in the Alan Clarke crime series)

When superstar of stage and screen Eleanor Harrison is clubbed to death, the whole of Britain reacts to the tragedy.

It is a puzzling case for DCI Alan Clarke as, along with his working partner WPC Sarah Stevens, he sets out to find a reason why anyone would want to murder such a well-loved celebrity.

The detectives discover secrets about Eleanor’s personal life that differ from the public’s perception of her perfect character, and it becomes clear that there are a number of suspects. These range from Eleanor’s own sister Isabel to obsessive fan Peter Grant; with Eleanor’s housekeeper, ex-husband and counsellor all also in the frame.

Just when Alan Clarke considers the case might never be closed, events become personal. His girlfriend Zoe and a woman police constable go missing, and the hunt for a psychopathic killer becomes a race against time.

ISBN: 9781852001988

Size: 217x140mm

Binding: Hardback

Length: 200pp

Published May 14, 2026

Murder At Canterbury Cathedral (Fifth in the Alan Clarke crime series)

On Christmas Eve, a body is found lying in the snow outside the gates of Canterbury Cathedral. At first, it appears to be a tragic accident, but when forensic evidence reveals a fatal blow to the back of the head, the truth emerges: Jon West has been murdered – and DCI Alan Clarke has a crime to solve during the festive period.

The son of prominent MP Charles West, Jon was notorious for his reckless partying and serial womanising – and often saved from scandal by his responsible twin brother, Isaac. Nevertheless, Jon’s charm left a trail of damaged relationships and bitter enemies. He had affairs with sisters Eve and Lucy, the latter now married to Isaac, placing both women—and Isaac himself—under suspicion. Eve’s volatile boyfriend Mark, who openly threatened Jon shortly before his death, quickly joins the growing list of suspects.

As Alan and his team dig deeper, they uncover more unsettling connections. A troubled taxi driver, Dan Williams, seems unnervingly invested in the case; and when Alan discovers that Dan’s daughter died five years earlier, with her body found close to where Jon was killed, the investigation takes a darker turn. And then Jon’s closest friend Jack also has a motive, having been twice betrayed by Jon stealing his girlfriends.

Alan must unravel the truth from the lies beneath the snow to find out who was out to commit murder on that cold December night.

ISBN: 9781852002220

Size: 217x140mm

Binding: Hardback

Length: TBC

There seems to be a mystery about what happened to Uncle Freddy in the desert during the Second World War. Did it happen? How did it happen? And what were the connections with Stuttgart which came to a sudden halt in the Great War? There is certainly a Lonie in the family, named after a German friend of Uncle Freddy’s grandmother – and dachshunds, too.

The story behind these questions is told through memories delving back to the latter part of the 19th century. Memories which stem from, and return to, the gathering following Uncle Freddy’s funeral, in the room where his young eyes, captured in a photograph, seem to look out and reach through time into the present.

In the short story Grove Mansions, the author remembers her time living in a flat within a grand old house approaching the end of its days. Her life and the tenants within the house, including the ever-present Mr Barker, the caretaker, are recalled with a perception that leaves a lasting impression.

ISBN: 9781852002213

Size: 217x140mm 

Binding: paperback 

Length: 120pp

From the far west of Cornwall comes the story of Joel Andrewartha, the legendary Cornish wrestler born in 1781. His father, Richard, is a tin-miner/farmer, although his mother came from a more affluent background.

We follow the Andrewartha family as they struggle to make a living from their farm at Kenneggy, their hopes and fortunes tied to the land, mines and sea of Mount’s Bay, and as Joel finds love and solace with his childhood sweetheart, Caroline.

Richard Nettell beautifully captures the real people and places of this far-flung corner of late 18th- and early 19th-century Cornwall, writing about his own distant relatives and showing his impressive knowledge of West Country customs, speech and folklore, including that of mining, farming and wrecking.

This is truly a rediscovered gem of a story by an excellent writer, first published just before the outbreak of the Second World War and out of print ever since.

ISBN: 9781852002206

Size: 217x140mm

Binding: hardback

Length: 220

Prime Position: A Novel on the Cornish Housing Crisis

Winner of the Holyer an Gof Publishers’ Awards 2026 - Literary Fiction

This is a story of relationships and life in the Cornish village of Porthallett, set on the south coast of Cornwall, where photographer Kenwyn Tabb finds he is the latest to be evicted to make way for yet another luxurious second home, as the scourge of second and holiday home ownership continues throughout the county.

Kenwyn is a member of a half-hearted group of Cornish patriots calling themselves ‘c4c’, and he becomes further enraged when he discovers his close friend Jackie’s parents are to be thrown off their mobile home retirement site based on the all-dominant Penquiddick Estate land.

The debt-ridden Penquiddick Estate has recently been inherited by the reluctant James Crago, who would really prefer to work on his sculptures than deal with the estate’s financial decline. He finds solace in giving the management job to Mark Shipwright, an estate agent with a taste for profit over people.

When James decides to scrap the traditional village show at Penquiddick for an upmarket literary festival, it is the final straw for locals, and ‘c4c’ decide to sabotage the festival. But as the locals unite to protest at the destruction of their community, the demonstration takes an unexpected turn, spiralling disastrously out of control and risking consequences none of them could have foreseen.

ISBN: 9781852002190

Size: 217x140mm

Binding: hardback

Length: 254

Murder at the Broadstairs' Funfair (Fourth in the Alan Clarke crime series)

DCI Alan Clarke, now settled in Beltinge with his wife Zoe and their young son, is given the urgent case to solve the high-profile murder of well-known author Stephen Wards’ wife Chloe. Her strangulated lifeless body has been found on a public bench on the Broadstairs’ promenade next to the Bank Holiday Funfair.

A tangled web of suspects emerges, ranging from Chloe’s famous husband, his best friend Richard, their nanny Kaye and a local boy with a huge crush on Chloe named Sam. There is also Vince, a gypsy from the funfair.

At home, Zoe has recently given birth to their baby daughter and is suffering from post natal depression, so Alan enlists the help of Monique, a French au pair. Unfortunately it becomes clear that Monique has her own psychological problems which could endanger their children.

As pressure to solve the murder case builds, Alan finds himself torn between his home life and work; not realising that the two are already more deeply and dangerously entangled than he ever thought possible.

ISBN: 9781852002152

Size: 217x140mm

Binding: Hardback

Length: 209pp

It’s hard to solve a mystery when you can’t even remember there’s a mystery to solve…

Suffering from partial amnesia, and unable to recall the events surrounding the accident that caused this state, twenty-one year old Dipali Kaur is placed under the care of Dr Thorn, a genial therapist who unfortunately has his own mental health problems.

Who did Dipali inadvertently save from plunging to their death? Does a six-year-old boy on a red tricycle really have any answers? And just who is the alluringly mysterious young man she meets on a visit to a WWI battlefield in France?

Throughout her witty, entertaining and occasionally poignant narration, Dipali highlights the fact that nothing in her life is as straightforward as it may seem, but her thoughts about everything and everyone are affirming and uplifting.

ISBN: 9781852002138

Size: 217x140mm

Binding: hardback

Length: 225pp

It is 1961, and Ellen is pregnant at the tender age of seventeen. Her boyfriend has moved on to another girl, and her mother is dominated by her father who she knows will be ruthless if he were to find out about her pregnancy.

On one day that changes her life forever, Ellen hitch-hikes to Herne Bay in the hope of starting a new life with her baby, but ends up being forced to have baby Grace adopted; an act which will haunt her and affect her mental health for the rest of her life.

The lives of both Grace and Ellen continue apart. Grace is in a loving home, supported by parents who embrace her even more when they learn she has autism, a condition by which Grace refuses to be defined; but she does have a continued curiosity about her birth mother.

Meanwhile, Ellen’s life takes unexpected turns, but the day she gave up her baby remains etched in her memory. The weight of her decision haunts her.

The years pass by but fate has one last surprise in store, another single day in Ellen’s life that holds the potential to rewrite their destinies.

ISBN: 9781852002121

Size: 217x140mm

Binding: Hardback

Length: 215pp

*Paperback published on 4th September

Murder at Westgate Bay (Third in the Alan Clarke crime series)

Now permanently relocated to the Kent coast after the successful outcomes of his two previous murder cases, DCI Alan Clarke is just settling in to his new environment, together with his wife and baby son, when he is called to solve the cold-blooded and premeditated murder of Dr Ian Jones at Westgate Bay.

The doctor had been sedated and poisoned, dying in agony. DCI Clarke soon has a list of suspects, ranging from the doctor’s estranged wife and her lover, his gambling brother, his housekeeper and her sister. Added to these, Doctor Jones’s love child Holly comes into the frame. . . and then there is a second murder by poison.

Whilst the similarity of the two murders seems more than coincidence, DCI Alan Clarke cannot work out a connection, until a single piece of apparently innocuous evidence comes to light. But is it too late to prevent further murder and loss of life?

Size: 217x140mm

Binding: Paperback (ISBN 9781852002237) and Hardback (ISBN 9781852002091)

Length: 224pp

A Twist of Fate - The new Sanders & Wade Murder Case

When Cornish based DI Cassie Wade is called out to a violent murder scene in Penzance, her past collides with the present as her old school friend, Suzi, becomes the prime suspect.

Cassie refuses to accept her friend is responsible and her attitude leaves DCI Peter Sanders with no choice but to exclude her from the investigation. He is relieved when she travels back to her native Liverpool to give evidence on one of her former cases.

On her return, Cassie has to investigate the rape of a teenage girl which unexpectedly becomes a hunt for a violent murderer. A flash of inspiration provides Cassie with, not one, but two suspects whose identities are inextricably linked.

Now dealing with two murder cases and feeling pressure between work and family, Peter reluctantly decides he needs Cassie on board to find her old school friend, who, it is feared, may be in danger herself.

A surprising twist of fate sends Cassie back to her childhood home in Liverpool, revisiting past events which could finally explain present happenings three hundred miles away in her new home county of Cornwall.

ISBN: 9781852002084

Size: 217x140mm

Binding: hardback

Length: 210pp aprox

Perfectly Evil (Second in the Alan Clarke crime series)

DCI Alan Clarke returns in this new detective murder/mystery story set in Carol M. Creasey’s home area of Bishopstone and Reculver in Kent. Alan Clarke first appeared in the story Nobody’s Perfect, and has now been sent to solve the murder of a teenage girl found on a beach near Herne Bay. Coincidentally, another young girl at the scene of the crime is Dee, daughter of mentally unstable Sadie Morton Brown, a character from Carol’s Evil Woman novels and, along with her half-brother Billy, she becomes a possible suspect in this new murder case.

Together with his police partner Wendy Stuart, Alan is thrust into a world of teenage angst within which he needs to solve who killed Janet. Her body was found on the beach not far from Dee, and Billy was her boyfriend yet seems indifferent to her death. Beth is Dee’s closest friend, but appears to be hiding a huge secret, while Jenny only reignites her friendship with Dee just after Janet is killed. . .

The mystery deepens when a menacing leather-clad figure on a motorbike crosses the Fairy Bridge at Bishopstone Glen and forces Dee to tumble down towards the ravine. Then Dee disappears and Alan realises she is in great danger. Is her disappearance linked to the murder? And can he save Dee before it’s too late?

ISBN: 9781852002015

Size: 217x140mm

Binding: Hardback

Length: 208pp

We follow Emily, Sylvia, Paul and Gavin’s lives from 1990s carefree children through to the years of 2020-21 and the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Emily and Gavin become teenage lovers, but Gavin goes off to university to study law, giving a jealous Sylvia the opportunity to get close to him. His work takes them to the USA. Meanwhile, Emily and Paul get married.

The years pass through to 2019, when a disillusioned Sylvia returns to Britain and subsequently wreaks havoc against Emily’s happy but childless marriage. This culminates in Sylvia having a terrible breakdown, and Emily suspecting that Sylvia is carrying Paul’s baby.

Gavin also returns to Britain to visit his parents, but realises immediately on seeing Emily that he is still in love with his childhood sweetheart, who turns to him when her marriage is in turmoil. 

Due to the tragedy of the Covid-19 pandemic and severe lockdown restrictions, Emily cannot leave Paul, despite the fact that her friend might be having his baby, and Gavin cannot return to the USA to avoid his feelings for Emily. 

With their lives in turmoil, and a final twist of fate to thwart Emily, what will become of their relationships set against the course of the pandemic?

ISBN: 9781852002046

Size: 217x140mm

Binding: Hardback

Length: 208pp

Vengeance Visits Cornwall (A Sanders and Wade Trilogy) 

These are three intriguing murder detective stories from the rugged coast and landscape of West Cornwall.

In The Moving Finger the newly reinstated DI Peter Sanders is under pressure to prove himself following his suspension by Devon and Cornwall Police. Sandra Parks is in a coma after being brutally attacked and DI Sanders and his team must find the person responsible. Their first inclinations are dashed when Sandra’s work colleague is murdered and there are two other apparently unconnected killings. Peter needs to solve this case for the sake of his reputation.

Dust to Dust brings a complex murder investigation from the wild Cornish coast, where the body of a young girl is discovered in a mine shaft. Now promoted to DCI, Sanders finds himself assimilating into his team the feisty ex-Liverpool detective Cassandra Wade, who is unhappy with her posting to ‘sleepy Cornwall’. However, her expertise in drug crime and child exploitation soon come to the fore and she becomes immersed in the case.

The finale of this trilogy, Snow Upon the Desert, finds DI Cassandra Wade at Cornwall’s Minack Theatre when a murder is committed on stage during the performance. As she was at the scene and witnessed the crime, identifying the murderer should be easy, but not in the world of acting and special effects, where Cassandra struggles to differentiate reality from illusion. Her boss DCI Sanders returns from his honeymoon to find the case in disarray and his DI blind to what’s in front of her.

ISBN: 9781852002008

Size: 217x140mm 

Binding: hardback 

Length: 325pp aprox

It’s the ‘best day ever’ for 11 year-old Tommy Wagstaff when his Da presents him with a feisty bundle of energy and fur in the shape of a small puppy, which the boy affectionately names ‘Our Patch’.

‘Our Patch’ turns out to be no ordinary dog. From day one the little Bedlington Terrier knows his ‘rightful’ place as ‘top dog’ among all the other animals in the village.

Set in a Yorkshire mining community named Hillthorpe just before the First World War, the book tells the tales (tails) of Patch’s many adventures and escapades with his ‘young master Tommy’.

Join Patch in his spats with his arch enemy Archie, a pampered ‘working’ cocker spaniel, and his feline nemesis Genghis – a half Mongolian wildcat, who terrorises his fellow creatures in the village. These two despicable creatures soon learn that ‘nobody gets the better of a Bedlington’ and there’s only one top dog (or cat) in Hillthorpe!

Sometimes hilarious but also quite profound, these stories of ‘Our Patch’ will appeal to all ages.

ISBN: 9781852001957

Size: 212x135m

Binding: Paperback 

Length: 210pp

Through the Granite Mirror: An epic story of a Cornish farming family

Standback only came for a funeral, and the ferrets. Fifteen years ago he’d turned his back on Cornwall. He’d stopped belonging after the sale of Trevarnon Farm. Curiosity leads him back to Trevarnon where his brother Eddie is repairing a Cornish hedge, a hedge originally built by Grandad. 

Standback can’t resist the stones. As the brothers work from opposite sides of the hedge in the traditional manner, the ever-present voice of Grandad echoing in their memories, we live through the changing face of rural West Penwith from the end of World War II into the 21st century.

This story of two brothers is also a story of the granite land itself . . . the soil, the cliffs and in particular the Cornish hedges, home to so many species of plants, mammals, insects, and secrets.

ISBN: 9781852001964

Size: 212x135m

Binding: paperback 

Length: 137pp

In this extremely original and creative story we share the present world of successful author Myra Vilas, a beautiful and confident woman with a baby daughter, but a dreadful secret, as she becomes inextricably linked with her latest novel; an account of a dystopian future set in the 24th century.Readers are quickly enticed from the present time into the future as the chapters of Myra’s manuscript are unveiled and her words unfold a disturbing story that keeps us guessing.

Meanwhile the narrative of Myra’s own life is revealed and we become aware that she is dealing with loss and post-natal depression, unable to open to anyone but her closest friend, despite her outward assertiveness.

As her manuscript evolves we find that the fictional future Myra is creating contains an enigmatic portrayal of characters from her actual world, with names being anagrams or puns of their real-world counterparts, but their stories darkly different.

A Parallel Life becomes a broodingly and deeply psychological account of a woman who is beset with a traumatic and emotional past that culminates in the most extreme despair life can offer.

ISBN: 9781852001940

Size: 217x140mm 

Binding: hardback 

Length: 200pp

With his knowledgeable and humorous approach in telling these stories from a westcountry council chamber, Ted Sherrell provides a wry insight into the workings of local government and what it is that councillors actually do – or perhaps that should read ‘don’t do’.

At the meetings councillors are faced with the most unlikely proposals and subject matter. They could be dealing with trees that are in the way or dropping their fruits on people, or dogs that leave their droppings in public places, or unreachable flagpoles, decrepit bridges or even the need to set up committees under government policy that never actually do anything!

The problem with all the discussions and decisions is that each of the councillors have their own strong individual personalities and quirks, and these can quickly make them appear either outrageous or extremely inflexible. Whilst democracy is obviously essential, there are other considerations – can they afford the proposal, which proposal will close the meeting quickest to allow them to go home, and will the outcome affect their chances of re-election?

When we consider that many of those who eventually reach the hallowed halls of Westminster start out as elected councillors, it is perhaps not surprising that the one true principle that can be seen running through our democratic system, just as occurs in this book, is that of procrastination – and perhaps it’s just as well!

ISBN: 9781852001919 

Size: 217x140mm 

Binding: hardback 

Length: 204pp

Tragically orphaned at the age of eight, twins Rachel and Diana share identical looks but not personality. 

As they grow up and become more independent, the studious and quiet natured Rachel is alarmed when dramatic and attention seeking Diana meets travelling gypsy Jake at a fair, but it is she, Rachel, that unexpectedly falls madly in love with strikingly handsome Neil Morris, whilst Diana has a feeling of foreboding about the relationship and does not like or trust Neil. 

Diana’s flatmate, Clare, has recently had a miscarriage and is desperate to replace her loss, and when Diana finds she is herself pregnant after being raped, she agrees that Clare can adopt her unwanted baby. However, when her daughter is born there is an immediate bond and Diana decides to keep baby Ella, much to the dismay of Clare. 

Events take a very dark turn when baby Ella is stolen from the hospital, with the last sighting being that of a nurse taking her out of the maternity ward. . . 

Whilst Diana immediately assumes Clare has taken the baby, it soon becomes apparent that her twin Rachel has vanished without trace and the baby’s father, who now has a new partner called Anna, also seems a possible line of enquiry for the police. 

As time passes, Diana is left devastated at the abduction of her baby and she desperately misses her twin sister to confide in. She is surprised when her first love Jake turns up as one of the detectives and wonders what the future will hold – will she ever find out what happened, in that one terrible moment, to baby Ella?

ISBN: 9781852001865 

Size: 217x140mm

Binding: Hardback

Length: 221pp

The author Valentine Barnes invites you to accompany him on a ‘Return Journey’. It is a journey spanning over 70 years and a period of time in which he recalls, in both prose and poetry, the many and varied experiences he has undergone. Throughout the pages of this book we are transported to his inner world of elation, joy, humour, loss and extreme sadness. 

Within Return Journey Valentine travels back to the grief and humour on the day of his grandmother’s funeral; he remembers the sadness of the family who lost their parents during WWII, and he reminisces under a big tree on the site that had once been his home. He also remembers helping with the Daily Mail Channel Swim, amusing school camp incidents, some stories behind photographs, and experiences in Cornwall. 

At the beginning of each piece of writing Valentine has included a short descriptive explanation of the material so that the reader can fully comprehend each piece of prose or poetry and understand how it fits into Valentine’s particular journey through life. He has also included some of his own drawings and photographs of people, events and places that feature within this book.

ISBN: 9781852001827 

Size: 217x140mm 

Binding: Hardback 

Length: 180pp

The late 1950s and early 60s is not a good time for unmarried teenage mothers; so when Laura Clark finds herself in just this situation, it is her own feisty naivety that propels her to keep her baby son Matthew. 

Pregnant at 17 and exiled to her Aunt Agnes, Laura has no idea why her first love Simon, father of her baby, has disappeared out of her life, and is fortunate that her determination against adoption is helped when her aunt becomes an unexpected ally. 

From the earliest days with baby Matthew, Laura can see in him features of Simon, the man she still longs for; but her lovely son also shows other characteristics which, she learns, are a form of autism. Realising the new difficulties she must face as a single mother, Laura determines to do all she can to help Matthew deal with his social skills and behavioural problems. 

When Laura finally tracks down Simon, she has no idea whether he will cope with the knowledge that not only is he a father, but also his son is autistic. While circumstances prevail against the couple reuniting, a sinister act on a traumatised Matthew becomes the catalyst to prove just how strong the power of love really is.

ISBN: 9781852001810 

Size: 217x140mm 

Binding: Hardback 

Length: 215pp

From the Banks of the Tamar: Stories of Country Characters from the 1950s

We meet 'Deadeye' Dawkins with his antics to beat his brother in the local produce show, Jim Burnham the village dodgy dealer, farmer Pym Harper, poacher Cuthbert Wells, postman Alfie Spooner, the Reverend Luke Maxwell, and Ronald Penrose, chemist and local film entrepreneur, and together with the other country folk who meander within their individual tales, these characters reflect the heart of the community that existed in 1950s' rural Devon. With the slow improvement of the economy and the ending of rationing it is a period of great hope and much anticipation for a brighter and more prosperous future.

Brought up himself on the banks of the River Tamar, Ted Sherrell is able to utilise his intimate knowledge of the people and places of the area to bring his stories to life, depicting them with an entertaining mixture of humour, sadness, love and occasional despair, but always with a sense of belonging within a close and caring village community.

Size: 212x135mm 

ISBN: Paperback: 9781852001773 / Hardback: 9781852001766

Length: 200pp

Having spent four years locked up following a crime she didn’t do, Sadie Morton-Brown once again uses her seductive charm to convince the authorities, male and female, that she is no longer a danger to society. 

She is anxious to return to her daughter Danielle, who lives with Sadie’s parents together with her nanny Alice, the woman Sadie knows is responsible for killing Danielle’s father, her only true love. 

The quiet of Herne Bay in Kent, where her parents now live, is darkly disturbed by the arrival of Sadie. There is revenge to be had on Alice, and the incredible secret carried between herself and her mother is finally unleashed. But her disgust at the family’s friendship with Nathan, the man she had left for dead, turns to unexpected love and marriage. 

Although Sadie appears normal, her jealous character is unable to lose those dark, malevolent murderous thoughts and actions; she still disposes of those she dislikes, and the evil devastation she left behind in the USA, long before her incarceration, lurks in the background throughout everything, waiting to pounce.

ISBN: 9781852001742 

Size: 217x140mm 

Binding: Hardback 

Length: 214pp

When 14-year-old Tommy Wagstaff starts work as a miner in North Yorkshire his father carves him a small angel out of wood ‘to protect him wherever he goes’. This is soon put to the test when arrogant Archie Tilsley causes an explosion in the mine endangering Tommy’s life. 

Three years later, with the First World War in full flow, Tommy is swept up by patriotic fervour and enlists into the army with his best pal Bert – a decision Tommy soon bitterly regrets and one that is much against his loving ma’s wishes. Then his misfortune continues when he unexpectedly finds himself plagued by his nemesis Archie Tilsley during training and later in the front line trenches on the Somme. 

Amidst all the horrors of fighting, Tommy witnesses Bert being blown apart before his eyes. In his grief, and to the astonishment of both the British and German troops, he ignores the dangers and buries his dead comrade in no man’s land. This caring action becomes his purpose – to give friend and foe alike a Christian burial; his only protection being the carved angel. It is almost a mania, which at the same time offers some solace from the horrors of the battlefields and trenches across France and Flanders that surround him. 

Even on returning to his home village his prayers still seem unanswered and there remains something missing within him, but once again the little carved angel miraculously appears to come to his aid. 

The story is enhanced with the inclusion of black and white illustrations by the artist Jane Andrew.

ISBN: 9781852001711 

Size: 217x140mm

Binding: Hardback 

Length: 195pp

The news that Professor Marcus Deighton has developed a technique to bring the dead back to life – a process known as rejuvenation – is immediately met by hysteria within the media and a polarisation in society between the overwhelming majority who welcome it and a negligible minority who do not. 

One of the opponents is Deighton’s daughter Helen, and another the Reverend Mouland, both of whom join forces with a small protest group ironically called Man Against Doctors (MAD) which is led by unhinged fanatic Mary Fields. 

Reverend Mouland’s despair at the total secularisation of society is deepened when his church is sold for the storage of bodies awaiting rejuvenation, whilst Professor Deighton is unable to see anything but benefit for mankind and becomes egotistical about the great plaudits his discovery brings him. 

Following on from the failure of MAD to have any influence over people ever more devoid of meaningful concern because life can last forever, an attack on Deighton’s now estranged daughter finally alters the course of the whole rejuvenation project in a way that no one could ever have imagined.

ISBN: 9781852001704 

Size: 217x140mm 

Binding: Hardback 

Length: 262pp

The enigmatic Summer Beethoven affects all those who come into contact with her; each character of the story becoming influenced by their own individual image of this unique and  tantalising female. 

Based on a real person, long dead, the rich and wonderful, if slightly obsolete, vocabulary of the English language used within this novel is intended to reflect the singular heroine of the story; for the language should not die, and nor should the memory of such an extraordinary character.

ISBN: 9781852001698 

Size: 212x135mm 

Binding: Paperback 

Length: 203pp

This is an unusual novel about one man’s discovery of the philosophy of existence. 

The late 1950s and early 60s is a time of rapid change in society in general, but for Jack Smith, brought up within a privileged background by preoccupied parents, early life consists of books and his own contented company. However, this changes on his arrival at boarding school, where he meets a good friend called Ron, with whom he can share his young ideas about ideology, mankind and the other eternal questions of life. 

Jack’s life remains quietly inward during his early working career, but good fortune and happenstance lead to his marriage, and from this he discovers that he has an unexpected ability to be successful in business. 

Now more confident in character and having a settled lifestyle, Jack joins his childhood friend Ron when on holiday in Ebstowe and is introduced to a remarkable old man named Enoch Flint. Flint’s curious philosophy of life, knowledge about metaphysics and odd disassociation with the mundane world around him, rekindles Jack’s own interest in the question of mortality and all the philosophical texts he had studied earlier in his life. 

It is when Jack loses his father and becomes depressed about life that he feels strongly drawn to return to Ebstowe, and this leads to the amazing revelation that there was something genuinely unusual about Enoch Flint and his life-changing concepts of time and space.

ISBN: 9781852001667 

Size: 217x140mm 

Binding: Hardback 

Length: 120pp

A compelling story based on the actual lives of a family living through the dying days of British Colonial rule in what was then Northern Rhodesia and is now Zambia, utilising extracts from the diary of Charles Barlow.

In 1945 Charles 'Chas' Barlow is a man in his 80s, with 3000 acres of farmland at Lemera, where he lives with his wife Beth who has a child called Rick from a previous marriage. As a stepson Rick is a burden to Chas, constantly owing money and not pulling his weight when employed.

With the birth of Rick's own first son, also named Charles, his wife Helene suffers serious postnatal depression and the elderly Chas and Beth find they are left to look after the new infant. Chas, in particular, becomes a real grandfather and mentor to the boy and this is later repeated with a second child named Jamie.

This real story of the two boys' upbringing, largely undertaken through the caring and indomitable spirit of Chas, together with the problems surrounding their parents, and those of running such a large farm, reflects strongly the historical background of the era, with all their lives so different to those in England at that time.

Gabriel Ellison has carefully woven a moving account which records the lives of Chas and Beth, and their close friends and grandchildren, using archival material from the period, with the book beginning and ending with poignant memories by their grandchild Jamie.

ISBN: 9781852001643 

Size: 217x140mm 

Binding: hardback 

Length: 262pp

Back to the Tamar: Country Tales from Early Post-War Days

Following the success of his present-day stories in Looking Towards the Tamar, in this new anthology Ted Sherrell looks back to the early post-war years. He captures the period of the 1950s brilliantly, with inspired stories of country folk, some of whom he has loosely based on characters he remembers from his childhood. 

There is still considerable austerity, with wartime rationing only just being phased out, and people’s lives still affected by the previous decade’s hostilities. Yet, as the new decade progresses, there awakens a sense of exciting beginnings and a chance for modernisation and a better life. It is from this background that these country tales evolve, with the old farmer on the brink of embracing the combustion engine, a taxi driver talking to his car as if it were his old horse and rarely moving faster than the animal would, and the firemen who need to update their drill from that of dealing with the Blitz.

Always drawing his inspiration from real life, Ted Sherrell brings a mixture of humour, idiosyncrasy and occasional tragedy within these tales, once again reflecting his great knowledge of the Tamar area and the humanity of the many characters that have evolved from it.

Size: 212x135mm 

ISBN: Paperback: 9781852001681 / Hardback: 9781852001636

Length: 225pp