Malik of America Square
Malik is running in the first ever election for President of England. Outright freedom has been granted to Scotland, Wales and N Ireland and the House of Lords has been replaced by Euro MP’s. With eight weeks to go in the race for President, the monarchy has been dissolved and there is growing panic in the traditional parties and their supporters.
Malik, the Egyptian head of an international management consultancy based in the City of London, is campaigning in a situation of political and social unrest. He uses his power base as Mayor of the extended London Planning Authority and his newly formed political party, the Peoples Party, to push for power. His philosophy of ‘people not funds’ is changing voters’ perceptions of politics and challenging the traditional big business view where accountancy rules treat people as liabilities not assets.
Changing history is seen through the lives of five Peoples Party activists, three women and two men, led by Patrick McCarthy. As they seek to expose the corruption and manipulation of the traditional parties, particularly the Royals Party and their cronies, they run into lethal opposition. They face what Malik calls ‘the twelve grey men’, the core power centre that has ruled the country behind the scenes no matter who has been in Government. But the new PR system of voting for this Presidential Election is changing the race and the traditional political parties can see the outsider, Malik, gaining an edge. As Election Day nears, Malik’s chances are getting better. He could win…
What people are saying about Malik
The story rushes along exposing power battles and fraudulent business operations, murder, blackmail and old family corruption. There’s action, sex, and, if you want to think, philosophy too
........it is a straightforward adventure with plenty of action and tension, humour and romance. .... it also has a strong political underbelly addressing some of the key issues facing Britain today.
A rebellious look at Britain projected forward a few years with new ideas that tease and provoke thought....
Every day in the real world, we seem to move closer to the antics that form the core events and political manipulations of the Malik story.
Trench
An Irish period family saga set in Cork 1923.
After WW1, the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War there was a vacuum of uncertainty in the new Irish Free State. The vacuum was being filled by dangerous internal and external elements affecting all communities including the O’Brien family in Cork.
Will O’Brien’s philosophy was tied up by the Trench. He had marched through Belgium in September 1916 with the Irish Guards until they reached the Somme. He had been nineteen years old, hardly an age to realize that he was in a vicious world war. And while the place was full of trenches in which to feel safe he and his comrades only had shallow shell holes for cover before charging the Prussian Guards and their murderous nests of machine guns. Will had seen his comrades fall dead as he, a sprinter, ran towards German lines. He fell wounded and spent a painful time crawling back to the Trench being sprayed by German machine guns. It was getting back to the safety of the Trench that kept him going. He was one of thirty that had returned.
In 1923 Will was a Captain in the Irish Army stationed in Cork. He was part of Green Branch whose task was to keep peace in a country alive with guns. Green branch was directly answerable to the new President. The roaming guns included old and new IRA, British Army adventurers, colonials who chose to stay behind after Michael Collins had won freedom for Ireland. Churchill wanted to invade Ireland again. He was looking for any excuse to persuade his colleagues to reoccupy the country and some colonials were sending him information urging him to take over again. Will had discovered a group of suspicious old British Army adventurers coming together and staying in a hotel were his brother Joe worked.
Will hadn’t been chosen by Green Branch for his great intellect. But because he was considered honest and fair by everyone and was popular, playing rugby and cricket for Munster, he could call on people who would normally be thought his enemies. His family helped too, especially his brothers. Joe, a hotel commissionaire, was married to a standoffish wife Margaret and Ed, a bank manager, was married to Jo who constantly engaged him in sex lest he look elsewhere, which he was inclined to do. His sister Kay worked in the local Tax Office and loved a shell shocked teacher.
Although Will was keeping up with the dangerous activities of the different armed factions, he was less able to stay in tune with the women in his life. Being a military man virtually since leaving school he was unaccustomed to the subtleties of women. He was in love with Julia an English teacher, while his sister Kay was pushing him towards her friend Monica, a Belgium immigrant. Then Will stepped into the dangerous world of Eileen Murphy. She was the only child of the Cork IRA leader who doted on her. Eileen thought she had become compromised with Will and to save her reputation was prepared to seduce him into marriage, but Will wasn’t at all sure whether she really loved him. He had to find the safety of the Trench.
What people are saying about Trench:-
"A delight of fast repartee ...... the craic writ large."
"A confection of Irish conversation and philosophy".
"An entertaining mix of romance and adventure – don’t you just want to meet these brothers?!"
"See this period of post-World War 1 through different eyes in the culture of an emerging newly independent Ireland."
"This has something for everyone providing entertainment through its sharp wit and conversations."
"An enjoyable look at the wit and free spirit of this Irish family that Britain could not suppress, an adventure in times rarely covered in fiction."
The 1906 Great Tullamore Whiskey Triumph
Patrick Ahearne, His Majesty’s Inspector of Excise, has been sent to Ireland from HQ in London to investigate allegations of fraud at the Tullamore Distillery in his native Ireland. With his fellow inspector Whistler, he quickly decides that the local Excise man working at the distillery is honestly representing the position and that there is no fraud. However given HQ pressure from Chief Inspector Booth to find some transgression, and the ever lengthening and bizarre list of witnesses claiming there is fraud, it is clear that there is commercial competition and national discrimination at play in the system.
Patrick Ahearne, His Majesty’s Inspector of Excise, has been sent to Ireland from HQ in London to investigate allegations of fraud at the Tullamore Distillery in his native Ireland.
With his fellow inspector Whistler, he quickly decides that the local Excise man working at the distillery is honestly representing the position and that there is no fraud. However given HQ pressure from Chief Inspector Booth to find some transgression, and the ever lengthening and bizarre list of witnesses claiming there is fraud, it is clear that there is commercial competition and national discrimination at play in the system.
Ahearne, a career civil servant whose life has revolved around his work, is only too well aware of the nature of the Excise system where its corruption and manipulation have led to its reputation of being the most corrupt Department of Government. But throughout his career
Ahearne has tried to keep his head down and do an honest job as far as possible. This has been difficult given the manipulations and leverage regularly used by the Board to achieve their political masters’ whims and the wishes of their influential friends. Behind the scenes he has benefitted from this personally but not by his own instigation.
Now in his fifties and still single, he finds Tullamore and its community pulling at his heart both via his roots as an Irishman and his fundamental sense of fairness and what is right. His Tullamore landlady, Nell, proves irresistible and throughout his investigations around Ireland, Scotland and England he cannot wait to get back to Tullamore. His English colleague and friend Whistler also comes under Tullamore’s spell. So, with both of them having fallen for local women, they devise a way of exposing questionable evidence while managing an ever more high profile case as it comes under the spotlight of international press and an increasingly anxious Excise Board eager to serve their cronies.
This story is loosely based on true events recorded by the Excise under the report The Great Tullamore Whiskey Fraud. At the time questions were asked in Parliament and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Asquith, was forced to defend his local Excise officer in Tullamore. This officer was Mike O’Sullivan’s grandfather.
First Night
Dominic Hurley is 19 living in Cork with his parents and unable to get a job. It is 1968 and the youth culture sweeping Britain has not reached the deeply Catholic culture of the Irish Republic. Dominic and his girlfriend Bernadette know that their innocence combined with their passion will lead to trouble but do not know how to resolve their predicament.
Dominic decides to explore the possibilities in London, just for a week or two. He finds London vibrant and so positive that his life changes in just a few days. His innocence fades fast with all that London puts before him and he readily accepts the opportunities he stumbles across. His passive somewhat cerebral approach to life in Cork changes overnight as he indulges action and gets involved - a new job, new friends, new love, new education – he seems to have everything............
The House Sale
The House Sale - a romance set in London and Kinsale County Cork in 1989.
Luke O’Brien is a successful 34 year old management consultant operating internationally out of his London base. Originally from Cork he decides he needs a base in Ireland and begins house hunting in Kinsale a fishing village with an up and coming sailing reputation on the south coast 14 miles from Cork City.
He views a rambling stone farmhouse overlooking Kinsale Harbour and succumbs to its atmosphere of brooding sexuality and to that of its middle-aged owner Eileen Murphy a New York heart surgeon with whom he enjoys a one-night-stand. On impulse Luke buys the house and begins refocusing his business to serve the promise of a booming economy in Ireland.
Luke encounters the stunning Niamh, a customer at one of his clients in England and fellow compatriot. He feels he has found a partner to share his business interests and new life in Ireland. Luke reshapes the Kinsale house with Niamh in mind and helps her to work out the direction for her own career as new options open up for her.
It seems everything is falling neatly into place when she moves in with him. However he soon senses that she is being overwhelmed, so, accepting she does not feel comfortable in Kinsale, he puts the house back on the market to please her. Through a series of twists and turns in his new business contacts locally and coincidences with some old friends, his new beginnings in Kinsale take on a new dynamic and the Kinsale house still has its part to play ........