‘Based on the true and tragic tale of one man's life in peace and in war.’
Gerald Davies, the eponymous hero of the novel has a hard upbringing, his mother is forced into an asylum by his father who has taken up with a woman half his age. Unknown to Gerald, the person he knows as his aunt is actually his real mother.
To escape, Gerald joins the RAF. He trains to be a pilot observer.
Gerald is attached to 211 Blenheim Bomber Squadron and is sent to the Western Desert campaign. He is injured and taken to hospital in Alexandria where he meets Pilot Officer Roald Dahl, who has been injured in a crash flying his Gloster Gladiator. He also has an encounter with other famous people who played their own part in the conflict, including Syd Lawrence (he of orchestra fame) who, coincidentally, lived and was brought up, just a few streets away from Gerald’s home in Shotton.
During the Greco-Italian War he famously goes missing for several days, being shot down over Corfu. His family think he is dead. Meanwhile, Gerald and crew are being wined and dined by the people of Corfu and meet the famous Spiro Amerikanos, who famously befriended the Durrells (as written about in ‘My Family and Other Animals’ – by Gerald Durrell) on the island when they lived there pre-war. You couldn’t make it up if you wanted to!
From this episode, Gerald gained fame in his own right in 1940, with nationwide press coverage, when he proposed to his girlfriend via the press - this tragic relationship also forms part of the story. Gerald always carried a photograph of ‘Susan’ and when he crashed on Corfu in 1940, he blamed the fact he’d lost the photograph of Susan as the cause of his bad luck.
Things get worse when Germany declares war on Greece on 6th April 1941.
On Easter Sunday, 13th April tragedy strikes when all six Blenheims sent to tackle the German advance pouring into Greece are shot down. Gerald is tragically killed.
This is a true story based on the life and exploits of my uncle. This is a true story based on the life and exploits of the uncle of the author. The book contains contemporary plus images from my trip to Corfu in 2020 where I was presented with the compass from my uncle's crippled aeroplane.
Crime FictionHistorical FictionLiterary FictionFantasyTeen & Young Adult
BIOGRAPHY Gerald's War
(Foreword by Sir David Jason)
‘Based on the true and tragic tale of one man's life in peace and in war.’
Gerald Davies, the eponymous hero of the novel has a hard upbringing, his mother is forced into an asylum by his father who has taken up with a woman half his age. Unknown to Gerald, the person he knows as his aunt is actually his real mother.
To escape, Gerald joins the RAF. He trains to be a pilot observer.
Gerald is attached to 211 Blenheim Bomber Squadron and is sent to the Western Desert campaign. He is injured and taken to hospital in Alexandria where he meets Pilot Officer Roald Dahl, who has been injured in a crash flying his Gloster Gladiator. He also has an encounter with other famous people who played their own part in the conflict, including Syd Lawrence (he of orchestra fame) who, coincidentally, lived and was brought up, just a few streets away from Gerald’s home in Shotton.
During the Greco-Italian War he famously goes missing for several days, being shot down over Corfu. His family think he is dead. Meanwhile, Gerald and crew are being wined and dined by the people of Corfu and meet the famous Spiro Amerikanos, who famously befriended the Durrells (as written about in ‘My Family and Other Animals’ – by Gerald Durrell) on the island when they lived there pre-war. You couldn’t make it up if you wanted to!
From this episode, Gerald gained fame in his own right in 1940, with nationwide press coverage, when he proposed to his girlfriend via the press - this tragic relationship also forms part of the story. Gerald always carried a photograph of ‘Susan’ and when he crashed on Corfu in 1940, he blamed the fact he’d lost the photograph of Susan as the cause of his bad luck.
Things get worse when Germany declares war on Greece on 6th April 1941.
On Easter Sunday, 13th April tragedy strikes when all six Blenheims sent to tackle the German advance pouring into Greece are shot down. Gerald is tragically killed.
This is a true story based on the life and exploits of my uncle. This is a true story based on the life and exploits of the uncle of the author. The book contains contemporary plus images from my trip to Corfu in 2020 where I was presented with the compass from my uncle's crippled aeroplane.
Excalibur Reborn...
This book is my first venture into fantasy/general fiction and I loved every minute of the writing journey.
The book mixes my love of writing with my love of my home country Wales and the Dark Ages history, about which little is known, especially the historic King Arthur or 'Cadwaladr,’ as he is known in these parts. The ancient unwritten history and legends of forgotten Celtic lands is the backbone of my book Excalibur Reborn, but I coupled this with my interest in the ‘Elysian Concept of Consciousness’ which, I believe, affects all our lives. This is an exploration of our inner soul and the consciousness which may already exist within us at birth, showing we have existed somewhere before. As Wordsworth put in… “…the Soul that rises with us hath had elsewhere its setting and cometh from afar… trailing clouds of glory…”
Sounds crazy I know, but I explore this theory in detail. I mean, what if the reality of our inner souls meant we’d been someone else and we could be that someone else again? The theory means we may all be time travellers within our deepest consciousness and hence hostages of our souls and past lives. Excalibur Reborn leads us to these adventures, in worlds far removed from our own many eons ago.
You will see from the book I love animals and I currently live with two Bernese Mountain Dogs... a Bernese called Truffle features throughout the story – I just couldn’t help putting one in. They are so adorable.
Esmeralda's Talisman
‘An Epic Fantasy Adventure of Souls, Lost Souls, Bloodlines and Mythical Creatures.’
Esmeralda is the progeny of a very special bloodline; a bloodline of Witches, Wizards and Wu-Shi. Even her birth is steeped in mystery, when her mother finds out the mysterious Chinese doctor and French midwife present at her birth don’t even exist. Months later a mysterious package arrives from China containing the ‘Dragon Talisman’ with a note explaining how unique a person Esmeralda is going to be.
Living on an isolated farm in Nouvelle Aquitaine, France, Esmeralda is eleven when she is given the contents of the package, which until then her mother has hidden from her. Her life alters unimaginably, and she is thrown, full on, into a life as a Chinese witch – a Wu-Shi.
Trouble looms when the evil and malicious White Bones Queen seeks Esmeralda out, to complete the Sorcerers Supernatural Trinity; something which will make her immortal.
Esmeralda establishes she is from a long line of evil herself. Can she take on the fight within and conquer her demons and her enemies at the same time.
The book whisks you off to China, then back to the heart of France and into the Catacombs of Paris, eventually leading on a trail to the holiest of shrines in North Wales.
Treachery and traitorous events are ready to take you at every turn.
Esmeralda's Talisman is the long-awaited prequel to Excalibur Reborn.
