Showing results by narrator "Peter Wickham" in All Categories

At Leighford High, Peter “Mad Max” Maxwell is temporarily promoted to Head of History when his colleague is chosen for an American exchange. His counterpart is Hector Gold, who is accompanied by his eccentric family including his in-laws, Jeff and Alana O’Malley.

Proclus - or Proclus of Athens, as he is sometimes known - is widely and rightly considered to be one of the most significant later Neoplatonist philosophers. At age 40 (c.437 CE) or so, Proclus became head of the revived Plato’s Academy in Athens. In his role for the next 50 years, the unmarried Proclus worked hard, combining effectively the roles of administrator, teacher and writer. Astronomy, ethics, mathematics, physics, theology - Proclus tackled all of those topics that together fell under the umbrella of philosophy in his time.  

It’s July 1478, and business is good for Bristol’s bakers during the lead up to Lammastide – “Loaf-mass”, the ancient harvest festival. But the shady Jasper Fairbrother’s baking days are over when he’s found face down with a knife in his back. Suspicion immediately falls on the mysterious Breton who’d arrived that day....

It is 1921 and a terrible discovery has been made at a manor house in Surrey - the bloodied bodies of Colonel Fletcher, his wife and two of their staff. The victims have all been stabbed and the lack of disturbance in the house suggests that the attack was one of terrifying speed. The Surrey police force seem ready to put the murders down to robbery with violence, but Detective Inspector madden from Scotland Yard sees things slightly differently.

The Dark Angels Legion is couched in layers of mystery and secrecy, harkening back to the days of the knightly orders of Caliban that helped to raise their infant primarch. But Lion El'Jonson's greatest strength often proves to be one of the most divisive issues amongst his sons - rarely can any two commanders agree upon one single course of action from the start. As they seek to bring the world of Byzanthis to compliance, Chapter Masters Astelan and Belath are among those with very different notions of what victory might require.

As one of the many staging grounds for the forces serving in the Great Crusade, the verdant world of Tallarn has long served as a transfer point for the personnel and war machines of the Imperial Army. Now, destroyed by a deadly virus-bomb attack launched by the battered Iron Warriors fleet, the entire world is reduced to a toxic wasteland where the survivors must fight to defend what little remains of their home.

John Pearce is going home. But he has to avoid capture by an Algerine warship, having his Pelicans pressed into a British frigate, and that's before they are at risk of being hanged for desertion once home. Then there is the problem of Emily Barclay and their son, Adam. By cunning and bluff, he protects his friends but not his troubled love life. In a whirlwind of action, there are forged wills, devious trades, contrived murders and dangerous spy missions, with so much deceit that Pearce does not know whom to trust. All he can hope to do is survive.

With girlfriend DS Jacquie Carpenter back at work, and baby Nolan rapidly growing into a feisty toddler, Peter "Mad Max" Maxwell, Head of Sixth Form at Leightford High, hires an au pair. But one afternoon Max returns home to find that the exotic Juanita seems to have disappeared into thin air. Meanwhile, two walkers are surprised and disturbed when their Border collie digs up an arm on Dead Man's Point.

Queen Elizabeth I is dying, and the king of England’s oldest and bitterest enemy, Scotland, is poised to take the throne. With all her old allies and advisors dead, she turns to the only man she can trust: Henry Gresham. Gresham finds himself unwillingly dragged into the political manoeuvring that will decide England’s next ruler. Involved in the race to be the first to tell James VI of Scotland that Elizabeth has chosen him as her successor, Gresham faces savage attacks on his home and those he loves.

King Edward IV trembles as he decides the fate of his sibling. And Richard, Duke of Gloucester tries to find a way to save George from being put to death by their eldest brother, the King. So when the Duke sees his loyal servant Roger the Chapman at his trial, he recognises that he has a chance.

As Head of Sixth Form at Leighford High and a new father, Peter "Mad Max" Maxwell is a very busy man. Despite this, he still finds time for some amateur sleuthing, even though his policewoman "Significant Other", DS Jacquie Carpenter, has decided that, this time, he's leaving any murder investigations to her. But how can he refuse when the school photographer asks for his help after accidentally photographing a murder on the beach?

Summer 1940. The evacuation of Dunkirk proves that the British can rise to a challenge, even under seemingly insurmountable odds.But now the soldiers, weary and defeated, wander the streets of Dover, conscious that over the channel and above them in the skies, the might of the German war machine comes ever closer. But life must go on and people must take comfort where they find it.

1949. An unsigned letter arrives on the desk of Chief Inspector Derry of the Canterbury police. Enclosed is a jade pendant, identical to the one that went missing from the body of an actress murdered a decade previously. The case had been shut quickly at the time - the accused vagrant gave a written confession and was sentenced to the gallows - but the necklace was never recovered. Until now. Inspector Madden is asked to investigate the letter's worrying claims by his old friend....

The derelict house on the edge of the sleepy seaside town was a haven for courting couples, down-and-outs - and someone with altogether more sinister intentions. It was there that they found the corpse of 17-year-old Jenny Hyde. She'd been strangled.

Winter 1795. Lieutenant John Pearce, reckoning to have finally ditched his old enemy, Admiral Hotham, has found a new one in Henry Digby, previously a friend. Meanwhile, Pearce's pregnant and recently widowed lover is adamant they cannot be seen together for the sake of their unborn child as she seeks respectability in society. Aboard HMS Flirt as part of the squadron led by Horatio Nelson, Pearce and his Pelicans soon join them on a reconnaissance which results in the destruction of a key French battery.

History teacher Peter 'Mad Max' Maxwell, a bit of a maverick, is sent on a short-term swap with another teacher at a nearby private school, Grimonds.

Only the past can save the future for Winston Churchill, and it’s a past with many secrets.There is vast treasure hidden in an almost impregnable Central African fortress surrounded by cliffs. The mountain is a honeycomb of ancient tombs and palaces, as well as the ancient burial place of a Nubian queen mysteriously wedded to a Roman. Young Winston Churchill, a prisoner during the Boer War, is offered a secret deal for freedom by Britain’s enemy Louis Botha

Haunted by the brutal killing of his UN interpreter wife in Bosnia, ex-SAS operative Ed Coltrane is consumed with the need to hunt down her murderers. Drinking too much and spending too much on his search, his life is going into meltdown. Just as it seems he can fall no further, a former colleague informs him that one of his wife's killers is in London, as a guest of the British government. Certain unofficial figures in the corridors of power would like to see this man disappear, and they'd like Ed Coltrane to accept the contract.

The Beecheys were a close-knit family, eight brothers and five sisters under the loving eye of their widowed mother, Amy. As the First World War raged across Europe and beyond, the brothers were one-by-one swept up into its devastating path.

The worst has happened. On the eve of their return to Blighty, Brigg and his fellow National Servicemen find themselves sentenced to another six months in Panglin Barracks. Many of the surviving characters from The Virgin Soldiers live again in these pages: dogged Tasker, the odious Sergeant Wellbeloved, the vulnerable Colonel Bromley Pickering and the comically touching Juicy Lucy.