Find out what progress I'm making with new books, and hear about my plans

 

 

Special Offer !  

While stocks last, the Joslin de Lay Mysteries, the Hare Trilogy and Out of the Mouths of Babes are sold as new, signed by the author and personally dedicated to the buyer if specified !  Click here for details

 

 

If you want to see want you can buy that is currently in print, there is an update to this section here.  For links to buy books secondhand through Amazon Marketplace, see the complete works here.

 

 

 

 

You can purchase all my current books at Amazon, and you can even get the older ones from Amazon marketplace.

 

 

Now available from OUP

The paperback edition of Mystery Stories - click on the picture.  From creepy school computers to bungling bank robbers; from lost villages to deadly Christmas presents :

 

 

The Complete Works

Childrens' novels

Pageants of Despair  (Andre Deutsch – Puffin 1977) - buy now hardback/buy now paperback

  • Peter is whisked back into the fourteenth century and the old Miracle Plays

 

1976  Very Far From Here   (Andre Deutsch – Granada  1978) - buy now hardback/buy now paperback

  • August 1914,  War looms. Eddy and Jim think they’ve found a nest of spies.

 

1979   Landings   (Andre Deutsch – Granada 1981) - buy now hardback/buy now paperback

  • The Suez crisis of 1956.  Philip has his own crisis, flying gliders and pursued by a ghost.

 

The Shirt off a Hanged Man’s Back  (Andre Deutsch – Collins Lions 1986) - buy now Adlib edition/buy now paperback

  • Nine stories of the supernatural

 

1985   The Fourth Plane at the Flypast   (Andre Deutsch – Collins Tracks 1987) - buy now Adlib edition/buy now paperback

  • Sue and John see a phantom Wellington bomber which leads them to a secret in the past.
  • Republished by BACK TO FRONT 2004

 

1986    Haunted United   (Andre Deutsch – Collins Tracks 1988) - buy now Adlib edition/buy now paperback

  • Robbie plays for Bowland United, a once-great football club dogged by a past curse.
  • To be  republished by BACK TO FRONT 2004

 

1987  Dangleboots   (Andre Deutsch – Collins Young Lions 1989)- buy now hardback/buy now paperback

  • Andy, useless at football, buys the magic dangleboots and everything changes for him.

 

Tigger and Friends (Andre Deutsch – Collins Picture Lions 1990) - buy now hardback/buy now paperback

  • Tigger, a brown Burmese cat, loses one friend but gains another.

 

1989   Hare’s Choice  (Andre Deutsch – Collins Lions 1991)  Part 1 of the Hare Trilogy. - buy now hardback/buy now paperback

  • Hare is dead, but she lives on in the children’s story.   

WHILE STOCKS LAST, ALL THE HARE TRILOGY BOOKS ARE SOLD AS NEW, SIGNED BY AUTHOR AND PERSONALLY DEDICATED TO BUYER IF SPECIFIED - see here for details

  

 

Blood Line  (Andre Deutsch) - buy now

  • Rory watches a play on TV.  Somehow it breaks into his life, bringing fear and danger.

 

Coded Signals  (Andre Deutsch) - buy now

  • Eight strange tales you make you think.

 

1991    The War and Freddy  (Andre Deutsch – Hippo 1995)  Shortlist, Smarties Prize - buy now hardback/buy now trade paperback/buy now paperback   

  • Freddy is three when World War 2 starts and nine when it ends.   Here are his advenures.

 

1992    Badger’s Fate  (Scholastic)  Part 2 of the Hare Trilogy - buy now

  • Badger faces the cruel badger baiters and the children tell another story.

 

1993   Hawk’s Vision  (Scholastic)   Part 3 of the Hare Trilogy - buy now

  • The school is to close, Hawk flies over the valley and the children tell their last story.

 

Death Penalty  (Scholastic Point Crime) - buy now

  • A serial killer haunts Louring Park, home of Radwick Rangers.

 

The Railway Phantoms  (Scholastic Hippo Ghost) - buy now

  • The preserved railway is haunted and the ghost is coming to get Rachel.

 

Spirit of the Place  (Scholastic Adlib paperback) - buy now

  • Nicholas Fowler the poet builds a grotto.  Two hundred years later  Lindsey Lovelock lies in a hospital bed with amnesia.   What is the terrifying connection bewteen them?

 

Deadly Music  (Scholastic Point Crime) - buy now

  • Murder dogs the Hedfordshire Youth Orchestra:  Katie is nearly a victim herself as she tries to unravel the secret.

 

Dead Ringer  (Scholastic Point Crime) - buy now

  • Murder at the races.  What is the mystery which surrounds Mornington Sunrise, tipped to be one of the greatest horses ever?

 

1996   Spirit of the Place   (Scholastic) - buy now

  • Nicholas Fowler the poet builds a grotto on his estate: two hundred years later Lindsey lies in hospital with a lost memory:  What is the unearthly connection between them?

 

1997    The Ghosts Who Waited   (Hippo Ghost, Scholastic) - buy now

  • There’s something terrible lurking in the old cottage.  When the parents of Rose, Louise and William come to live there it reaches out from the past and nearly destroys them.

 

1997    Out of the Mouths of Babes   (Scholastic Press) - buy now

  • Three children are born on the same day in very different circumstances.  Years later their fates intertwine with tragic results

WHILE STOCKS LAST, OUT OF THE MOUTHS OF BABES IS SOLD AS NEW, SIGNED BY AUTHOR AND PERSONALLY DEDICATED TO BUYER IF SPECIFIED - see here for details

  

 

THE JOSLIN DE LAY MYSTERIES

WHILE STOCKS LAST, THE JOSLIN DE LAY MYSTERIES ARE SOLD AS NEW, SIGNED BY AUTHOR AND PERSONALLY DEDICATED TO BUYER IF SPECIFIED - see here for details

  

1998    Of Dooms and Death    (Point Crime, Scholastic) - buy now

 

1998     A Pact With Death    (Point Crime, Scholastic) - buy now

 

1999     Hell’s  Kitchen   (Point Crime, Scholastic) - buy now

 

2000     A Devil’s Judgment    (Point Crime, Scholastic) - buy now

 

2001     Angel’s Snare     (Point Crime, Scholastic) - buy now

 

2001     The False Father   (Point Crime, Scholastic) - buy now

 

2001     Orpheus in the Land of the Dead   (Everystories, Scholastic) - buy now

  • A retelling of the Greek Myth.  Orpheus descends into the Underworld to rescue Eurydice.

 

2001     Ryan’s United   (OUP) - buy now

  • Ryan has new foster-parents.  Life is at its worst and his footballing days seem over, until he meets the hopeless kids playing football in the park.

 

Story Anthologies edited

 

2001   The Young Oxford  of Train Stories   (OUP) - buy now hardback/buy now paperback

 

2003    The   Young Oxford Book of Mystery Stories   (OUP) - buy now

 

Many short stories scattered through collections from different publishers.

 

I am putting together all my football stories to be published under one cover soon by BACK TO FRONT , followed by a collection of my favourite ghost stories.

 

Stories and Plays for educational publishers

 

Sparks - published by Franklin Watts :

 

Stories from the Second World War

 

D-Day    -    Philip makes a terrible discovery  - buy now

Flying Bombs  -  Josie has a scary time with an unexploded doodlebug - buy now

 

Stories about the Victorians

 

Tunnel Rescue  - disaster as the Box Tunnel is built  - buy now

The Iron Ship -   Brunel’s SS Great Britain  sails for America  - buy now

The Tay Bridge Tragedy - Will the Tay Bridge stand up to the storm?

Stage Struck – A tale of the music hall and a young girl’s triumph

 

Diaries, published by Franklin Watts

 

The Diary of a Victorian Apprentice – Sam Cobbett is apprenticed at Swindon locomotive works on the Great Western Railway - buy now

The Diary of a Young Soldier in the First World War – When Billy Warren joins the Todheaton Pals and goes to war, his dreams of glory soon fade - buy now hardback/buy now paperback

The Diary of a World War 2 Fighter Pilot – Johnny Hedley is one of the Few in the Battle of Britain and lives to fight on till 1945 - buy now hardback/buy now paperback

 

Longman

 

The Longman Book Project :

 

Tales From the Underland – Eight retellings of tales from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland about humans entering the dangerous world of Faeryland - buy now

 

Pelican Big Books

 

The Mystery of the Straight Ice Cream -  Courtney finds a new ice-cream man who can’t pour ice-creams properly, stumbles on a mystery and foils a crime.

 

Heinemann

 

Kingswood Plays

 

Three Towneley Plays -  Modern versions of “Noah and his Sons”, “Cain and Abel” and “Te First Shepherd’s Play” from the Wakefield Cycle of Mystery Plays.

 

Impact Books

 

Dracula – a retelling of Bram Stoker’s novel.  Dracula leaves Transylvania and comes to England.

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde – a retelling of Stevenson’s novel.   Who is Dr Jekyll’s friend Mr Hyde?    Mr Utterson’s investigations lead him into horror.   

The Broken Shield – a Play.   It is 1066, William the Conqueror is landing at Hastings and the Saxons must decide what they are to do.

 

Short Stories for Collins Education,  Cambridge University Press, Longman and Reed Primary.

 

 

Various books for teachers and students

 

 

Yule Logs now out !

Click on the cover to order from Amazon UK

Christmas has always been and always will be a special time of year, a time either of great happiness or great sadness and sometimes both.   Here are eight stories of different Christmases, all of which are memorable in their different ways.

The stories are arranged in order of age: the first for young children, the last for adults.

There are two World War 2 stories, one which refers to it and one which refers to another war.  There’s a football story, a ghost story and  two stories with carols in them - and a lot more besides.   There’s a story about a really weird Christmas guest and another about a tumultuous family row.   All ordinary Christmases to start with, but which turn into being anything but ordinary.

Each story has a postscript telling what real memory lies behind it and how it came to be written.

 

 

Many of my earlier books are back in print via the Back-to-Front imprint of the Solidus Press. I have chosen some of my favourites to be rereleased by this new publisher. Here are some that you can read now :

 

The Great Football Treble

All three books are now available.  You can buy them by clicking on the titles :

Haunted United

Beautiful Games

Death Penalty

 

Two chilling ghost stories

You can buy them by clicking on the titles :

The Ghosts Who Waited

The Railway Phantoms