My Books
The books are arranged in chronological order backwards, starting with the most recent. Click on the Amazon link to read extracts and order. Hope you enjoy browsing.
A Liver Bird Sings
15 year old Bernie McCann is a typical teenager growing up in 1960s Liverpool. A rag and bone man’s daughter from a large and poor family, she dreams of fame and fortune as a pop singer. It’s a dream shared by most young girls but when she meets Peter and starts to sing with his band, it seems her dream might just come true. Romance blossoms but will Bernie be forced to choose between love and pursuing her career at all costs?
Published 5th November 2019 and available in paperback from Amazon, and FeedaRead
Kindle version available from 17th November 2019
Also to order from all bookshops and bookstore sites.
Mere
A dark novel set in West Lancashire on the site of an ancient lake. The lake is gone, drained centuries earlier but for two families who live at New Cut Farm, the lake is a presence that will one day return. A story of the hold land can take and what happens to those who go against their destiny.
Mere will be published on 21st June 2018 by Thunderpoint Publishing. Available to pre-order in e-book form now on Amazon, print version should be available for pre-order soon.
You Can’t, You Won’t
A Life of Unarmed Combat
The life story of Gary Skyner, one of the first British thalidomide children. Born in 1956 Gary fought his way to adulthood in a tough area of inner city Liverpool to become a well-known stand up comic, motivational speaker and tireless campaigner for the rights of thalidomide victims worldwide. You will be shocked by the horrifying facts of the thalidomide scandal and the terrible way that its victims have been neglected and in some countries never compensated at all for injuries that were not their fault but caused by corporate greed and dishonesty. Despite the facts this is a heartwarming story of a man with a big heart (and a big mouth) that will have you laughing through your tears. Published by Matador and available in bookshops and on Amazon or from Gary Skyner’s website.
Plotlands
Where you can hide… but not for long…
Set in a dystopian seaside shanty town in North Wales, Plotlands tells the stories of its residents, most of whom have come there to escape the secrets of their past lives. Plotlands is a place of escape but the past has a way of catching up. Meet the bizarre, the ridiculous and the poignant in this collection of short stories. Order from Amazon here.
Triple Death
Death comes in many forms and many unexpected ways. A chilling collection of short stories available here from Amazon and from bookshops.
Skelmersdale – A New Town in the Making
Part One: From fantasy to first brick
Skelmersdale was the first new town in the second wave of new towns built in the 1970s. This book details the history of the town before it was chosen to become a new town, the reasons for this and the events that led up to the first bricks being laid in 1964. Learn the history of the British new towns policy, starting from the utopian visions from the 15th century on to the socialist ideals of the garden citites to the post war idealism of a brave new world for the city centres and the working classes. Available on Amazon.
Consider The Lilies
Winner of the inaugural Impress Novel Prize 2007
Consider the Lilies is the haunting tale of Vicky, a feral child kept in a farm shed by her mentally ill mother. Jack Crabbe meets her in a squat when they are both in their thirties. He has his own guilty secrets but in helping Vicky, he discovers that she has special abilities that can help him solve his own dark dilemmas.
Available on Amazon from bookshops and from Impress Books.