Children’s books
My books include The Missing Fur series of wildlife conservation-themed novels aimed at anyone who loves animals but especially children between 8 and 13 years old. Both books can be read independently from one another.
The Mystery of the Missing Fur, the first in the series is a heart-warming comedy mystery is set in England partially over Christmas, with flashbacks to the Amazon rainforest, and is centred on themes of friendship, loss and conservation. It follows Bernard’s adventures after he saves three rare Amazonian monkeys and a zoo full of animals from the clutches of a TV talent show judge, a short-sighted trophy hunter and an endangered animal trafficker.
Along the way, he makes friends with a giant anteater called Armando, an over-furred cat named Loki and a human child with an unfortunate name. Together, they solve the not-so-mysterious mystery of the missing fur and, most importantly, what happened to Bernard’s parents, famous conservationists.
The second book, The Macaw of Doom, sees Bernard’s long-lost cousin Ytsan arriving out of the blue with a beautiful macaw called Duke and a very smart African Grey parrot named Jesse. But is the cousin all he seems? Ytsan begins to turn Bernard against his best friend Larold and she embarks on a race against time to uncover the truth with the help of monkeys Emile, Zola and Titus, giant anteater Armando and his super-furred cat companion, Loki. But is it too late? Will the Wildlife Hero of the Year be stripped of his title forever?
The Stone of Surinam is a time travel adventure set in the late 16th century, just after the Great Fire of London, featuring three amazing children, kidnapping, coffee shops, wheelie shoes, a very mean dog and his even meaner owner.
Short stories
My stories have been published in various magazines like Women’s Weekly and Rosebud, Here Comes Everyone and online magazines like Funny Pearls and Storgy as well as anthologies.
They’ve also been short listed for different prizes including the Bridport Prize and the Colm Toíbín International Short Story Award and been long listed for Commonwealth Prize and RTE Guide/Penguin Ireland Short Story.
My collection of short stories called Homecoming Queen and Other Twisted Tales was published just before Halloween in 2021.
Plays
My first ever play, a short ghost story about a Syrian boy being rescued by two First World War soldiers, was performed for the Folkestone’s Living Advent Calendar at the Harbour.
In 2018, I was commissioned by Canterbury’s Marlowe Theatre to write a play set in Dover for the theatre’s Return of the Unknown project about how we remember and sometimes fetishize the First World War. I worked with some fantastic children from the Duke of York’s Royal Military School in Dover and my 40-minute play called Flagpole was performed at Dover Castle. I was also a storyliner for the Marlowe’s 2018 production Return of the Unknown at Dover Cruise Terminal.
My short play, Mrs Shipley’s Spinning Wheel, was performed in 2019 by Get Over It Productions at Chiswick Playhouse. And Guest List, was performed at the Chapel Playhouse, London, October 2019.
Mrs Shipley’s Spinning Wheel is available to listen to here.
Film
I went on a six-week Saturday basic film making course just before lockdown in 2020 and along with super talented friends made a 10-minute comedy film, The Beast of Romney Marsh, September 2020. It follows an inept reporter on the trail of a beast terrorising the local neighbours. We were surprised how well it did in festivals and it picked up a few best actor awards for the lead actor as well as a Falcon International Film Festival 2020 Best Comedy.
We ran a successful Kickstarter to raise money for our next films, Skulduggery and The Biscuit Poltergeists, and are just finishing off work on the latter and are very excited it’s being shown very soon.
Storytelling
Along with two friends, I run a community interest company called Hand of Doom Productions.
We were commissioned by Kent Wildlife Trust to write stories for an audio story trail using QR codes around Cromers Wood near Sittingbourne.
We’re now working on Folkestone StoryMap, an audio trail of fictional stories and memories of people living in the town which is also accessed via the website and QR codes across Folkestone and the Lower Leas Coastal Park. I worked with nearly 300 children in the town doing storytelling workshops, leading up to a free storytelling competition to find six stories. The audio trail has been funded by Folkestone Town Council, Folkestone and Hythe District Council, Kent County Council and The National Lottery’s Local Communities Fund.
Novels
For what seems like forever, I’ve been re-drafting an historical novel set in Brazil in the late 19th century. It tells the story of a young English engineer fleeing for his life from a corrupt, slave-using British-owned gold mine and ends up working on an Amazonian rubber plantation only to uncover the terrible torture and killings suffered by the Indian men, women and children forced to collect rubber.
The book is inspired by several visits to the area and reading lots of stories and documents from the era, including the bizarre attempt to build a railway line through the jungle which caused the deaths of around 3,000 people from all over the world. It’s also been inspired by people like Roger Casement and a young American engineer called Walter Ernest Hadenburg, who I understand was instrumental in exposing the groves of torture on British-backed ‘plantations’ described in Casement’s diaries.
Casement was sent out by the British Government to investigate the atrocities against the Indians where he met Hadenburg, who later wrote a book called The Putumayo: the devil’s paradise. It’s a brutal period of slavery mostly overlooked by history books.
Journalism
I trained as a news reporter many years ago and worked on local newspapers including the South Bucks Star Series (now defunct) and The Portsmouth Evening News and after shifting on national newspapers and for agencies, I started writing about health which I find fascinating. I’ve had features published in a diverse range of newspapers and magazines including the Good Health pages of the Daily Mail, Telegraph, Independent, BMJ and Spirit and Destiny (my favourite feature ever about children and reincarnation).
More recently, I was commissioned to write a feature for The Folkestone Foghorn about how sea swimming helped me cope with my mental health while caring for my mother and for Medical Device Developments about the best materials for 3D printing for medical devices such as replacement bones and the future of tissue and organ 3D printing. The work material scientists and surgeons are currently doing is truly mind blowing.
I’ve just started a newsletter which I’ll be publishing every two weeks on Substack. I’ll be writing about conservation as well as anything to do with writing, with regular updates on the follow up to The Mystery of the Missing Fur, and I’ll be throwing in a few ghosts and aliens for good measure.