After training as an automotive engineer, I left the UK and spent the next twenty years working overseas, mainly Africa and the Far East. Later I returned to the UK and worked in the research side of the automotive business before retiring in 2004. It was then that I took to writing about my experiences in Africa and thus far I have produced four books.
The first book, "The Up-Country Man", is a memoir recounting my adventures in Eastern Nigeria, where the Regional Military Governor declared secession from the Federation and renamed it the Republic of Biafra. When the Federal Nigerian Government instigated a "Police Action" in July 1967 and war threatened Enugu, the capital of the region, I was evacuated by road to Port Harcourt and then by sea to Lagos on the Italian vessel, MV Isonzo, along with 800 other expatriates. "The Up Country Man" is a personal account of the first one hundred days inside secessionist Biafra
My second book, "Tribal Gathering" is a collection of short stories set in an imaginary West African state called Nibana. The contents draw deeply on my own experiences over many years and several of the stories have a "Twist in the Tail of the Tale" and include witchcraft, juju, Freemasonry and any number of African deities.
The third book "The Last Bature" is a fictional novel about the last senior white police officer in Nibana. The country, having recently been granted independence by the British, is heading for disaster. With a failing infrastructure and a second military coup imminent, Nibana lurches from one crisis to another until the actions of an unbalanced and jealous military governor brings the whole nation to the very brink of disaster.
The fourth book, "The Mine", is a political thriller, which is also set in Nibana and is a sequel to "The Last Bature", though it is not necessary to have read that book to appreciate "The Mine". With the Eastern Region about to secede and Nibana heading for civil war, an astonishing archaeological find initiates a chain of extraordinary events that lead to a police investigation, MI6 involvement and the printing of large sums of money. An abandoned mine becomes the focal point when the main characters are incarcerated there and discover its secret.
All four books are set in Africa during the turbulent sixties and therefore the lifestyles, language, attitudes and opinions as presented are prevalent of the era, thus providing the reader with an insight into the lives of both Africans and Europeans as they struggle with lif'e's problems.
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