Tim Croy is an average thirteen-year-old boy with a dark secret in his recent past. Join Tim as he starts at a mid-ranking Public School in 1975 and follow him and his peers as they wade through the confusion of unfamiliar rules regulations and traditions of an ancient school during the slow moving first few days.

As the boys settle in the pace quickens and Tim experiences the horrors of fagging, constant bullying, and the gradual understanding that he is destined never to fit in with the expectations of the school. Feel the pride and excitement of totally unexpected sporting success and weep as Tim suffers serious physical abuse which comes close to making Tim end it all. Take pride in Tim as he fights back and see the gentle kindness which develops between Tim and some senior boys. Laugh out loud as the maturing Tim begins to take control of his situation with subversive and subtle challenges and disruptions to the self-satisfied routines of the school.

Share the fun that Tim and his two close friends begin to derive from observing the ways of the school from the viewpoint of questioning teenagers and cry with Tim as he faces the shock of tragedy befalling his closest friend. To Fight My Own Battles looks closely at the accepted standards of the period and their long-lasting effects on those who were subjected to them.

Had Tim been at school in modern times he would have been considered to be depressed, possibly traumatized but in the 1970’s it was simply expected that a boy should take all such things in his stride, and it was accepted that this was a part of the transition from boyhood to manhood.

Free to Grow is the sequel to “To Fight My Own Battles”, in which we share Tim Croys’ experiences and adventures in the freedom of Hull University in the early 1980’s.

Enjoy the regular contrasts with his life in Hull and his memories of life in his restrictive boarding school, laugh as his naturally high spirits and enquiring mind are, at last, given free reign and share his pain as he and some close friends share their first adult experience of sudden tragedy. The story is packed with period historic detail and gives an insight into the ways in which the rapidly changing face of Britain at the time affected the perceptions of a whole generation.

Free to Fall is the story of Usman Albad, a young man from Saudi Arabia who comes to study in England, in search of adventure and a better set of opportunities.

The reader is transported between the life of a student at an English university in the early 1980’s and his sun-soaked life in Jeddah. The contrasting cultures and the questions that Usman has to resolve about exactly who he is and who he wants to become present us with amusing and thought- provoking insights into how English culture and customs are perceived through the eyes of somebody from a totally different background. Usman finds himself increasingly isolated from those he loves most as the story reaches its’ heart stopping climax.

Convoy to Change is an autobiographical snapshot of a few months in 1993, during which the author spent his time fundraising, collecting donations of food and medical supplies and driving, each month, to deliver them to refugees in the war-torn former Yugoslavia.

Join Dave and his friends, old and new, as they get drawn ever deeper into the developing crisis and find themselves motivated to push boundaries and take increasing personal risks to help people for whom each feels growing responsibility.

Based upon recent European history, the story looks at the fragility of all societies and the potential danger of contemporary demands for regional self-determination and autonomy. The reader is confronted, repeatedly, with the uncomfortable question: “Could that happen to me?”

Heart stopping incidents combined with heart-warming acts of kindness are expertly interwoven with the regular lives of our protagonists, creating the feeling of reading about personal friends rather than a historical novel.