I write because there are questions that refuse to be silent.
The strange things we wonder about in the quiet moments. The memories that follow us. The choices we make and the roads we never took. These are the places where my stories begin.
Whether exploring childhood wonder, the darkness beneath familiar places, or the fragile moments that define a human life, my writing is always searching for the same thing: the truth hidden within the story.
Characters may be fictional, but their hopes, fears and dreams are real.
Every story is a journey.
Successful novelist Mike ward has had enough of England and decides to live abroad for a couple of years – to sever himself from his troubles and write a new book. Yet when he gets to his chosen paradise in the middle of the Indian Ocean, he finds himself drawn into a web of deceit and into the arms of the beautiful Rose Trelawney. His instincts, built up after years spent in journalism, leave him unable to stop himself digging into the affairs that haunt the High Commissioner and his wife. Against his will, he is thrust into the heart of a Communist uprising, the seeds of which lay in the dark past of the High Commissioner himself. Against his better judgment, Ward is sucked into the dangerous worlds of love and politics and the question becomes not just one of survival, but a fight to remain sane in a world of madness.
The polite, cultured, educated voice sent a chill through Ward. He recoiled at the sound of it, pushed back into his pillow like a man who had to get away from an approaching fire. He struggled to make sense of it all.
‘What in God’s name is going on?’
‘Just the usual, Mike. A little bit of blackmail, a little bit of murder, a little bit of mayhem. Oh, and a bit of a coup d’état.’
With the echo of the terrible events of Christmas and New Year ‘76 dying out, Mike Ward returns to his trusty 1965 Olympia typewriter to finish his latest book. Yet, with a seemingly random bombing and the murder of the Minister for Justice, the spectre of civil war once again rears its ugly head as, against his will, Ward is dragged by the ghosts of Christmas past into a more bitter, more vicious, more far-reaching conflict than anyone thought possible. The Devil Inside, the hard-hitting sequel to The High Commissioner’s Wife, brings Mike Ward back into the heart of the action in a fast-paced Indian Ocean island thriller.
MIKE WARD IS BACK...
…but now he is in England and stuck behind a desk for MI6. When he gets the call to the Chief’s office, he thinks it’s just a routine performance assessment; within twenty-four hours he’s in America on the trail of Lucas Grant, multi-millionaire, telecommunications businessman and philanthropist, who is found to have connections to the IRA and the Ku Klux Klan. With the help of the FBI’s Steve Kyte and the CIA’s beautiful Raven Temple, Ward sets out to find out why such a man is in league with some of the worst terrorist organisations in the world. Instead, he finds himself out of his depth and in danger as cross and double-cross threaten to send him into a spiral of defeat and despair. In a final race against time, Ward has to battle to rescue himself and those around him to save the the heart of England.
‘None of us know what’s going on, Ward. That’s the truth of it, but my gut tells me something’s afoot. What do you say? Fancy a crack at it?’
‘Do I have a choice?’ asked Ward.
‘None at all,’ said the Chief briskly.
A year on from the Catfish affair, Mike Ward is back in journalism. Chasing down a lead from an old friend, he is reluctantly dragged back into MI6 as an apparently run of the mill story explodes into violence and he is thrust into an elaborate world-wide web of intrigue and murder.From the English south coast to the avenues of Paris, from the underworld of Marseilles to the mountains of Cyprus, Ward must fight to follow the trail left for him, twist by twist, betrayal by betrayal, by the most devious, most determined enemy he has ever encountered. In the process, it strikes at the very heart of his existence and, as the world lies on the edge of destruction, it becomes clear that at the centre of it all lies a burning need for revenge driven by a past that Ward has tried to forget.
‘The Chief would like to see you, Mr Ward.’
‘Immediately?’
‘Yes, Mr Ward.’
Ward felt a thrill run through him. There was always the chance that when the Chief wanted him, it was for something big.
After Swissair flight SWR245 is blown from the sky in an apparent terrorist attack and the body of a wanted scientist washes up on the shores of Lake Geneva, Mike Ward is sent to find out the sinister connection between the two events.
It reunites him with old allies, old loves and old enemies and brings him and the world closer to destruction than they have ever been.
Mike Ward’s fifth, world-shaking adventure brings to a climax the battle between him and the all-powerful Chain...and only one of them can win!
MIKE WARD IS BACK...
Mike Ward sets out on what appears to be simply a case of madness and murder, set on the beautiful Caribbean island of Saint Quintian. Of course, it’s never that straightforward and he is thrown from drug dealing, to blackmail, to murder and to the edge of the Apocalypse. On the way he confronts the beautiful assassin Mirlande, is allied with the rough and ready Penny Sweeting and teams up with the exquisite Marianne Knightly. Ward must confront his deadliest foe, a product of the twisted wartime Nazi regime, a deformed madman who will stop at nothing to start a brave, new world. This time, it’s all or nothing for Ward and the be all and end all for humanity.
Every belief has a consequence. Every action has a cost.
Lieutenant Remi Orthesian is an Enhanced warrior of the Wounded Sons — a soldier created to serve the Supremacy without question.
When his clan is accused of treason and destroyed, Remi survives only to discover that the truth behind their downfall is far more dangerous than any enemy he has ever faced.
As he searches the ruins of his past, he uncovers a conspiracy of betrayal, forbidden knowledge and political ambition that reaches into the highest levels of power.
But Inquisitor Valeria Mordeen has her own vision for humanity's future.
Brilliant, ruthless and utterly convinced that she alone can save civilisation, she will sacrifice anyone and anything to bring about a new age.
Caught between loyalty and truth, faith and corruption, Remi must decide what honour means when the very foundations of his life have been built upon a lie.
Because beliefs are easy.
It is what we do because of them that defines us.
PRAXIS is a dark, epic science-fiction novel of war, power, betrayal and redemption.
THEY WERE MADE TO FIGHT. THEY CHOSE TO LIVE.
Remi Orthesian has spent his life serving the Supremacy.
Raised to be a weapon. Trained to obey. Forged into the perfect soldier.
But war has a way of revealing truths that cannot be ignored.
After surviving betrayal, imprisonment and the horrors of a forgotten world, Remi returns home believing he has finally found something worth protecting: a new family, a new purpose, and a chance to rebuild what was lost.
Then an old enemy returns.
Mordeen has escaped. The Supremacy is threatened. And across the galaxy, worlds are beginning to burn.
As Remi gathers those abandoned by the very system they once served — soldiers, outcasts, aliens and survivors — he must face the greatest battle of all: the truth about the empire that created him.
Because regeneration comes with a price.
And sometimes the things we save are the things that destroy us.
Praxis: Regeneration Paradox is the second chapter in the epic saga of Remi Orthesian — a story of war, redemption, loyalty and the search for what it truly means to be yourself.
PRAXIS: THE LIAR’S TRUTH
The final instalment of the Orthesian Trilogy
Commander Remi Orthesian has spent his life fighting wars he never chose. Born an Enhanced warrior, he was designed to be stronger, faster and more lethal than ordinary men. But after years of conflict, sacrifice and impossible choices, Remi has discovered the one thing his creators never intended him to possess: a conscience. Now the universe faces annihilation. An ancient experiment has unleashed a terrifying plague that defies death itself. The dead are rising, worlds are falling, and an enemy army marches towards the final battle for the fate of the Supremacy. To survive, Remi must unite fractured clans, distrustful allies and former enemies against a threat unlike anything they have ever faced. But the greatest danger may not be the armies gathering on the battlefield. For behind the war lies a conspiracy of deception, manipulation and betrayal. Those who claim to protect civilisation may be the ones destroying it. Those who claim to seek peace may be preparing for war. As the final pieces of the game fall into place, Remi must uncover the truth hidden beneath a lifetime of lies. Who can be trusted when everyone believes they are the hero of their own story? Epic battles will be fought. Ancient powers will awaken. Friendships will be tested beyond breaking point. And in the darkness between worlds, one question remains: Is humanity something you are born with — or something you choose? Praxis: The Liar’s Truth is the explosive conclusion to the Orthesian Trilogy — an epic science-fiction saga of war, identity, betrayal and the search for humanity among the stars.
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK. SUMMER. 1978.
Detective Frank Matto lines up for his last case as a cop. He’s had enough. He wants out. He wants to retire upstate with his wife to the lakes and fish.
He attends the scene of a grisly and apparently motiveless murder and, as the number of victims increases, Frank finds that they all have one thing in common – the murderer has taken a souvenir, a little piece of each of them.
Dubbed by the press ‘The Token Killer’, Frank Matto not only has to find him, but also the mysterious man who guides him to each murder scene.
As his health deteriorates, Frank begins to doubt his sanity and his own innocence and not only has to combat the terrors of Brooklyn, but those inside his head.
Tyrone Muth is sixty years old, unemployed and slowly disappearing. After a lifetime of work, his redundancy from Dormy Place — a once-grand estate now reduced to a fading public building — leaves him with something far more devastating than the loss of a salary. It leaves him without purpose. Without routine. Without a place in the world. His marriage to Genny has become a quiet tragedy. Thirty years together have not ended in hatred, but in something more painful: two people who have gradually lost sight of each other. When Genny dies suddenly, Tyrone expects grief. Instead, he experiences something that horrifies him — relief. Forced to confront the truth of a life he no longer recognises, Tyrone begins to examine the choices, compromises and disappointments that brought him to this point. In the process, he discovers that the past is never truly gone; it lives on through the people who inherit its secrets, its mistakes and its unfinished stories. At the centre of that journey is Dormy Place, a house that has witnessed generations pass through its doors. Once a symbol of wealth, privilege and empire, it has become a place of memories — a repository for the lives of those who built it, served it and eventually abandoned it. Through old friendships, family histories and the discovery of a forgotten collection of poetry, Tyrone begins to understand that the ghosts we carry are not always there to haunt us. Sometimes they are there to remind us who we are The Ghost of Dormy Place is a poignant exploration of ageing, love, regret and redemption — a story about the invisible scars we inherit and the possibility of finding ourselves when we believe we are already lost. At its heart, it asks a simple question: When the life you built disappears, is there still time to become someone new?
Tassin has spent his life searching for freedom.
Rejecting the ordinary, fearing attachment and haunted by the certainty of death, he has built a philosophy around survival: never depend on anyone, never trust too deeply, never allow the world the chance to break you.
But the walls built to protect him have also become his prison.
When a chance encounter forces him to confront the fragility of life, Tassin is drawn into a journey through memory, loss, love and the painful truths he has spent years avoiding. From the betrayals of his childhood to the relationships he has destroyed, he must finally face the question that has shaped his entire existence:
Is a life protected from suffering still a life worth living?
As the past catches up with him and time begins to run out, Tassin discovers that the greatest battle is not against death, but against the fear of truly living.
The Stilling of the Heart is a deeply moving exploration of mortality, love, loneliness and the search for meaning in an imperfect world. A haunting portrait of a man who spent his life preparing for the end — only to discover what it means to begin.
A lonely artist. A mysterious stranger. A final chance to face the truth.
Jumeau has abandoned the world.
Living alone above the city, he has convinced himself that isolation is freedom and that distance is the only way to protect himself from disappointment. But when a strange and enigmatic man named Wint arrives at his door with an extraordinary request, Jumeau’s carefully constructed life begins to unravel.
Wint is everything Jumeau is not — wealthy, confident and seemingly fearless. Yet beneath the surface lies a story of suffering and scars that challenges Jumeau’s understanding of art, humanity and himself.
As he begins to paint Wint’s portrait, Jumeau discovers that every image hides another truth, and that the person he has been trying hardest to understand is the one staring back from the canvas.
Eidolon is a haunting and thought-provoking novel about art, memory, love and the fragile boundary between illusion and reality.
‘Don’t I want to make love to you? Of course I do! I’m not dead. Not quite. But I can’t sleep with you. Between my need for frequent naps and my lack of energy, I couldn’t even stay awake with you. And I’m married. Above all else, I’m married. Admittedly, my marriage is coughing like a cat choking on its farewell furball, but I can’t just stand there and watch it die. I have to give it some sort of pat on the back.'
And there lies the agony and the ecstasy for university lecturer Raley Street, a man locked in a cold marriage, enslaved by a midlife crisis and tempted by the beautiful student Jenny Summerleas to make it all go away. It's life as viewed by an ordinary man in all its comedic darkness and all its loving light.
Seven stories.
Seven doors.
Each one opens onto a world where the ordinary slips its leash.
A lone rider crosses a merciless Western landscape, where justice is as dry and unforgiving as the land itself. A private investigator conducts a routine stakeout in a mall and finds his present entangled with his past after meeting a perceptive young boy. The encounter drags up memories of childhood and lost friendships. In fog-bound Victorian streets, a woman is offered a mysterious potion that promises love, but exacts a price no one ever explains. A broken-down car, a relentless rainstorm, and an isolated house called Chaddleworth draw a traveller into an English countryside nightmare that refuses to let him leave. Inside a quiet care home, residents cling to life by means too terrible to speak of, hidden behind tea trays and visiting hours. In 1930s America, a black man seeks revenge for the lynching of an innocent friend, delivering justice in a world determined to deny it. And when a magic lantern is rubbed, wishes are granted - but the cost of getting exactly what you want may be far worse than never having wished at all. Dark, sharp, and threaded with irony, these stories explore obsession, desire, vengeance, and the thin line between salvation and damnation. Some are cruel, some are tragic, some darkly funny - but none are safe.
Conrad Borscz has always preferred a quiet life. Unfortunately, life has other ideas.
In a single week he loses his wife, his job and his home, leaving him with no choice but to seek refuge in a small south-coast guest house. A chance to recover. A chance to start again. A chance for everything to go horribly wrong.
Because Conrad’s new beginning comes complete with arson, attempted murder, an aged Nazi, incompetent criminals, even more incompetent policemen, illicit drugs, overdoses, heart failure, madness — and falling in love at precisely the worst possible moment.
For the first time in his life, Conrad must stop hiding from the world and learn how to live in it.
Unfortunately, the world has chosen a rather dramatic way of introducing itself.
There has never been a worse time to be a kind and gentle man.
THE MIKE WARD NOVELS
THE ORTHESIAN TRILIOGY
INDIVIDUAL TITLES
CHILDREN'S BOOKS
Drift into a world where dreams come alive…
Follow a gentle journey through glowing skies,
whispering waterfalls and magical creatures
that appear only when the world grows quiet.
In this beautifully illustrated rhyming story, each page invites young readers to explore imagination, wonder and the comforting magic of bedtime. Perfect for sharing at the end of the day, The Dream Within a Dream
creates a peaceful reading experience that children will want to revisit night after night. A tender and enchanting picture book celebrating creativity, calm and the power of dreams.
Gentle rhythmic verse for reading aloud. Dreamlike illustrations filled with wonder. A calming story to end the day. Perfect for ages 3–8
Two kingdoms. Two very different wars. Two unexpected truths.
In Gallamazzaar and Pallamazzaar, two colourful kingdoms stare across the sea in envy, each wishing their land looked more like the other - until a remarkable discovery changes everything.
In The Woodworm War, a stubborn king spends twenty years trying to conquer a wooden castle… until he unleashes the most dangerous army of all. Packed with wit, rhythm and rich imagination, these delightful poems explore rivalry, curiosity and the strange ways the world brings people together. Perfect for children who love funny rhymes, big ideas and unexpected endings. Two wildly imaginative poems about silly wars, strange worlds and the surprising things that bring us together. These playful rhymes are full of humour and imagination, with a gentle reminder that the things dividing us may not matter - and that everything can end in the most unexpected way.
What if donkeys were monkeys…
And monkeys were hens?
Step into a delightfully silly world where nothing is quite as it seems! From sheep that soar through the sky to lions strutting in high heels, this playful rhyming adventure invites children to imagine the impossible—and laugh along the way.
With charming, laugh-out-loud illustrations and a rhythm perfect for reading aloud, If Donkeys Were Monkeys encourages curiosity, creativity, and a wonderfully wild imagination.
Perfect for bedtime, classroom giggles, and curious little thinkers who love asking…
“What if?”
For ages 3+
What if penguins secretly ruled the world?
What if being very, very hungry led to the biggest adventure of all?
Step into a joyful world of silly animals, magical surprises, and laugh-out-loud rhymes.
Join a curious child and a wonderfully inventive waddle of penguins as they slide through spaghetti snow, climb towering mountains of food, and discover the funniest secrets on Earth.
Packed with playful humour, colourful imagination, and hidden details to spot again and again, this delightful story collection is perfect for bedtime giggles and read-aloud fun.
Ideal for children who love animals, nonsense, and magical adventures.
For ages 3-8
When a young boy visits the remarkable Dr Smith—who proudly claims he can cure any illness—he expects a simple diagnosis.
But there’s just one problem…
His symptoms don’t make any sense.
As the boy describes his increasingly bizarre condition, Dr Smith finds himself facing a case unlike any he’s ever seen. And as the truth begins to unfold, a surprising secret is revealed—one that turns everything upside down.
Told in playful rhyme and brought to life with richly detailed illustrations, this charming and humorous story celebrates imagination, curiosity, and the joy of seeing the world a little differently.
Perfect for children aged 5–10 and for anyone who enjoys a touch of nonsense and wonder.
A muddy treasure hunt. A flying disaster. A very surprising reward…
Meet Mick — a man who loves digging holes more than anything else.
When he spots a rainbow stretching across the countryside, he becomes convinced that gold must lie at its end. What follows is a wildly funny adventure filled with tumbles, explosions, pigsties, unexpected friendships and one very small piece of treasure.
This delightful collection of three rhyming tales includes:
A chaotic rainbow treasure hunt
A surprising dinner with a friendly spider and a very important fly
A gentle story about crumbs, kindness and quiet companionship
Perfect for reading aloud at bedtime or sharing in the classroom, these warm and humorous poems are sure to make children laugh — and maybe even look at rainbows a little differently.