New non-fiction: The Noble Art of Heavyweight Boxing

The Noble Art of Heavyweight Boxing by Ralph Oates

The Noble Art of Heavyweight Boxing is a knockout trip through the history of this popular sport, from the last thrilling bareknuckle contest in 1889 between champion John L. Sullivan and challenger Jake Kilrain, right through to modern times, covering key fights and boxing greats such as Joe Louis, Muhammad Ali, Rocky Marciano, Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Lennox Lewis, and many, many more.

Illustrated with contemporary photographs and packed with fascinating true details about the personalities and bouts, this book will be a winner with every sports fan and boxing enthusiast.

Ralph Oates is a former amateur boxer and a renowned boxing historian. He has acted as a boxing consultant for the Guinness World Records. Ralph has also had eight previous books on the sport published, along with articles for The British Boxing Board of Control Yearbook and his own column in the Essex Courier.

Buy your copy of The Noble Art of Heavyweight Boxing here

Echoes From The Music Room

Not surprisingly, the idea for my novel, The Music Room came to me at a concert on a winter’s night eight years ago. Watching the young solo violinist rip majestically through Mendelssohn’s Hebrides symphony, my thoughts roamed away from the stage. I pondered the tremendous pressures on her to convey the hours, days, perhaps years of rehearsal into a thirty minute moment of performance perfection.  Then the applause. The bow.  Finito. That moment, once passed, is gone— and until the advent of recorded sound, some 125 years ago—gone forever. Performance is finite. Rehearsal goes on forever.

Is the musician’s incessant rehearsing akin to the writer’s eking out many drafts? I don’t think so. Writers write and re-write, and though the book itself passes through many hands (agent, editor, copyeditor, production people, publicist,) it emerges often without fanfare or applause. No bow. Sorry. And once published, the writer does not return to rework it. No second chance to right what was wrong, as a musician can with the next performance.

Moreover, for the most part, writers work alone. Music and drama, on the other hand, are collective undertakings. Musicians and composers and actors and dramatists actively require the input of others to bring any given work to fruition. Without the composer’s work, the cellist has nothing to play. Without the band to enrich the song, the songwriter might as well just sing in the shower. For musicians (and for actors and dramatists) each undertaking creates new professional and often personal relationships. In working together artists connect, come to recognize whom to trust.   These relationships, in turn often open up into future endeavours, broadening everyone’s horizons.

In The Music Room Gloria’s endless rehearsing involves no one but herself. In this she is more like a writer than a musician. Gloria imagines (or remembers) some joyous moment of performance, applause, public recognition for her talents, even her genius. However, in her dedication to rehearsal, to grooming, perfecting her repertoire, Gloria has lost some crucial connection to the world.  She has also lost a central element of musical life. Musicians are not meant to be alone. Even if, and as she achieves perfection, Gloria has atrophied, wizened as a human being.

Gloria Denham seems to me a splendid example of the artist as pathetic character, isolated from anything and anyone who might have given her life richness and savor. Her willful ignorance only underscores her pathos. Her gorgeous music room with its brilliant acoustics ought to have exalted the collective efforts of many musicians, and at one time it did. When that moment passed, it became a sort of cell, Gloria its prisoner in solitary confinement. Ironically, Gloria finally trades that room for the chance to perform, to play in front of an audience of sycophants who are waiting for her to die.

Thematically The Music Room asks:  what do the arts extract from people who practice them? What does the artists’ obsession, their single-minded pursuit, oblige from spouses, children, parents, the people who live with or around them? Musicians, composers, painters, actors, writers must, of necessity, carve time from everything else in life to give to their work. There will be costs and losses, just as surely as there will be moments of glory. The costs and losses in this novel are borne by two children, Marcella and Rose-Renee, detritus, in their parents’ nasty divorce, debris in their family’s egotistical pursuit of the arts.

My two sons, both musicians, have taught me a lot about music, about rehearsal and performance. When they were in high school rehearsals were always at our house. As they moved out into the world, I have attended their various gigs and concerts, recitals and recording dates. While the performances are exhilarating, my favourite part of the experience is rehearsal. I like sitting at the back of an unfilled theatre, a sparsely furnished rehearsal room,  an empty nightclub, or in the recording booth at the studio, and listening to the start-and-stop, the mis-steps, the sometimes tedious repetition leading to the “Let’s move on” moment. Then they begin the same process on the next part of the program or the piece.   I enjoy sound-check just before the show. The guy at the soundboard barks at everyone. The musicians oblige him, but hold themselves in check: every bit of psychic energy must be saved up to walk out in front of the audience. Performance.

In the months just before I went to the Mendelssohn Hebrides concert that inspired The Music Room, I had watched my eldest son Bear conduct an orchestra of some eighty musicians, and watched my youngest, Brendan give his all onstage at a rock venue.  After being part of their bright, communal musical life, to return home, to this well-known room to write, seemed suddenly very lonely. It was winter and the days were short and sunless. The Hebrides concert inspired me to create, at least on paper, the noisy lives of children who live with music lilting through their lives. I wrote for a few months, finished a full draft, but then abandoned the book. Over the course of some seven years, I returned to the novel, and then left it again. The form changed, the title changed, but the story always stayed the same.

I intended to dedicate The Music Room to Bear and Brendan McCreary.  But now I have a little grand-daughter, fittingly, for a musical family, named Sonatine. So, of course, The Music Room is for her. I expect one day to attend her rehearsals too.

The Music Room is published July 2015 by Buried River Press, an imprint of Robert Hale Ltd.

 

New general fiction titles

Caged Angel by Anne Marie Vukelic

And so he stood now, as he had done since the first moment he had taken a room opposite her house: watching. He let the curtain fall, and on the glass remained a smear where his face had been. ‘Angela…’ he whispered the name to himself. ‘Like an angel…’

Through his journal of bloodstained poems and deranged fantasies, the frenzied consciousness of the barrister Richard Dunn is revealed, as he pursues the young heiress Angela Burdett-Coutts relentlessly through the streets of Victorian London.Driven by a fixation that binds him to her through the years, the reader shares his moments of fluctuating sanity and madness as he wrestles with his delusions.With the aid of influential figures of her time – the writer Charles Dickens, the Duke of Wellington and the scientist Charles Wheatstone – Angela seeks to deal with the pain of family secrets, while refusing to be defeated by Dunn’s obsession for her.

Anne-Marie Vukelic

Anne-Marie Vukelic was born in Codsall, South Staffordshire in 1967 and went on to attend St Peter’s School in Wolverhampton. In the 1980s, she moved to Austria but has now returned to the UK. Vukelic is a lifelong enthusiast of both Victorian history and psychology and currently works as a health and social care manager. She continues to live and work in the West Midlands. Her two previous novels, Far Above Rubies and The Butterflies are Free, were published by Robert Hale.

Buy your copy of Caged Angel here.

Duty and Deception by Roberta Grieve

Anna Grayson has been a dutiful, loyal and obedient daughter her whole life but her world is transformed when she meets the lively and outspoken Mitchell sisters, employees in her father’s factory, who awaken her interest in the women’s suffrage movement. Anna soon abandons her unfaltering obedience to her father to join them and attend a forbidden rally. This new world of excitement and freedom comes with risks. No longer sheltered by her father’s protection, Anna is forced to grow up quickly when tragedy strikes at a rally and her beloved new friend Lily Mitchell is knocked down by a motorcar and killed. Anna suspects it is no accident. Suddenly the world outside no longer seems so enticing. Convinced of foul play, Anna enlists the help of young doctor, Daniel Peters. At first, he is dismissive of her claim that Lily was pushed into the road – who would want to kill her? – but she persuades him to join her fight to uncover the truth and find justice for Lily.

Roberta Grieve

Roberta Grieve has always loved writing and when she took an early retirement, after working for West Sussex Library Service for over twenty years, she was determined to turn her hobby into a second career. Her first book was published in 1998 and since then she has had many stories and articles published.She is secretary of the Chichester Writers’ Circle and editor of the Chichester Literary Society’s quarterly newsletter. In her spare time she enjoys painting and walking, although writing and research always take precedence. She lives in Chichester, West Sussex.

Buy your copy of Duty and Deception here.

The Rescuer by R. S. Hill

Bideford, Devon, April 1873: the River Torridge is in flood. Almost as soon as she sets foot in the town, Abigail March saves a young woman from drowning. Abigail, the daughter of a progressive Canadian politician, is in Bideford on official business, deputizing for her father. Accompanied by Inspector Theo Newton of Scotland Yard, she has travelled to the West Country to inspect the cache of smuggled weapons being guarded by the local borough police. That night, the woman Abigail saved is murdered and the weapons disappear. The police make an arrest, but when Abigail befriends Norman, the twelve-year-old brother of the accused man, she and Newton realize that the police have made a mistake which could have tragic consequences. At first, Newton is bewildered by Abigail. He has little experience of women and her forthrightness and ideas about women’s rights unsettle him. But, as their relationship progresses, Newton is inspired by her example. Spurred on by Abigail’s fearless determination and her sympathy for those less fortunate than herself, Newton shows bravery and strength, as they works tirelessly together to solve the case and uncover the truth.

R. S. Hill

R. S. Hill was born and grew up in North Devon. He taught EFL in Greece, became Head of Department in comprehensive schools and later a local authority consultant. He now writes full time. He has contributed travel, local history and educational articles to various magazines and newspapers. An experienced Western writer, The Rescuer is his first foray into crime writing.

Buy your copy of The Rescuer here.

Sherlock Holmes and a Scandal in Batavia by Jeremy Kingston

When Holmes and Watson are visited at Baker Street by a frightened figure in a stovepipe hat, their interest is immediately piqued. The bizarre man turns out to be the reclusive Prince Alexander, the only son of the King of the Netherlands. In despair, he relays his suspicions to them about a plot to steal the throne, a jilted marriage proposal, and an attempted poisoning. The detective and his assistant agree to help solve the case and quickly enter a dazzling world of power, inheritance and ambition. Passing between the grandeur of The Langham and Claremont House, Holmes and Watson meet an array of enchanting and mysterious characters, each with their part to play in the struggle for the throne. With stakes this high, the game is bound to get dirty. With chapter headings derived from the titles of Conan Doyle’s short stories, Kingston cleverly weaves together the explosions in London, the extinction of the male line of the Dutch royal house of Orange, and the death of Queen Victoria’s favourite and haemophiliac son, the Duke of Albany.

Jeremy Kingston

Jeremy Kingston is a playwright, novelist and poet. For many years he was also a theatre critic, reviewing plays for the magazine Punch and then as a critic on The Times. His most recent play was Making Dickie Happy where he imagined Noel Coward, Agatha Christie and Lord Louis (Dickie) Mountbatten happening to meet at the start of their careers at an island hotel off the coast of Devon. Two volumes of his poetry have been published. He was born in London, brought up in various Home Counties and now lives again in London.

Buy your copy of Sherlock Holmes and a Scandal in Batavia here.

The Upton Undertakers by Kerry Tombs

March 1891. A group of mourners gather for a funeral in a small country churchyard in Worcestershire, but events do not go according to plan. An old friend invites Detective Inspector Ravenscroft to investigate, and before long the detective and his associate Constable Tom Crabb are embroiled in the dark world of the Upton Undertakers. Their long and dangerous investigation takes the duo across the country, from Temple in London, to the ancient Shropshire market of Ludlow, to a strange educational establishment near Bromyard. Ravenscroft eventually draws the case to a dramatic conclusion, only to find that fate has one last surprising trick to play. This is the seventh book in the thrilling Victorian Inspector Ravenscroft series.

Kerry Tombs

Kerry Tombs was born in Smethwick, near Birmingham. After a career teaching in both England and Australia, he moved to Malvern where he became a genealogist, lecturer and bookseller. He currently lives in Ludlow, Shropshire. There are six previous books in the Inspector Ravenscroft series, including the Tewkesbury Tomb and The Droitwich Deceivers.

Buy your copy of The Upton Undertakers here.

New Fiction (Buried River Press): The Music Room by Laura Kalpakian

The Music Room by Laura Kalpakian

Young Marcella McNeill’s family are always rehearsing: her father is an actor, her mother Valerie an aspiring opera singer, her grandmother Gloria a renowned violinist. During the summer of 1969 – after their parents’ bitter divorce – Marcella and her little sister Rose-Renee are sent to live with their enigmatic grandmother in her decaying countryside mansion.

Instructed never to disturb the formidable woman as she endlessly rehearses in the music room, the children are left to run wild. They form a relationship with their cheerful neighbour Dorothea, who convinces their grandmother to allow the girls to be home-schooled with her sickly son, Rodney. Dorothea recognizes and nurtures the children’s gifts in ways they have never before experienced.

That autumn, their wayward aunt Linda returns home with a drawling, Arkansas boyfriend in tow. The struggles between mother and daughter – Gloria angry that Linda has abused and denied her gifts, Linda attacking her mother’s musical delusions – create a storm of clashing egos.

The Music Room is a novel of arrogance and artistry, of sacrifice and negligence, of delusion and conviction, of interminable rehearsal and profound performance. It is a story of love muddied with need, expedience, and opportunism – as love always is.

Laura Kalpakian

Laura Kalpakian is the author of twelve novels and three prize-winning collections of original short fiction. Her work has appeared extensively in the UK and the USA. She has been awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, a residency at Hawthornden Castle, Scotland, and her 2007 novel, American Cookery was nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. A native Californian, Laura was educated on both the east and west coasts of the USA, and lives in the Pacific Northwest.

You can find out more about Laura at her website: http://www.laurakalpakian.com

Buy your copy of The Music Room here

New non-fiction: Marathon Training by Nikalas Cook

Marathon Training: Get to The Start Line Strong and Injury-Free

Each year, thousands of people are inspired to don their running shoes and take on the challenge of a marathon. But on the road to the finish line many marathon hopefuls fall by the wayside, struck down by injury. Largely to blame are plans that are too running intensive or that don’t prepare the body for running and ignore correct technique.

In this book, published for the first time in paperback, Nikalas Cook adopts a cross-training approach to running. Into his plan he incorporates functional strength training, complementary activities such as cycling and swimming, and only three focused running sessions per week to deliver you to the finish line 100% prepared and injury-free. In 28 weeks, you can go from being a complete non-runner, through your first 5k, 10k or half-marathon, and finally on to success in the full 26.2 miles of the marathon.

‘I decided to do the Marathon des Sables. Nik Cook trained me, and despite a long history of late nights, smoking and drinking, I don’t think I could have been better prepared. At the start line the other competitors laughed at me, but at the finish line some were conspicuously absent. Cook has a global, holistic and highly intelligent view of fitness. I revere him and am eternally grateful. He is, ‘The Man’.’ Kate Spicer, journalist & TV presenter

‘Nik’s balanced and varied approach meant I stayed injury-free throughout all of my training…  His technical knowledge of training methods, nutrition, motivation and human physiology is truly impressive.’ Ramez Sousou (Founder and co-CEO of TowerBrook Capital Partners)

Nikalas Cook

Nikalas Cook is a writer and coach who specializes in health, fitness, endurance and adventure sports. Having studied a postgraduate degree in Health and Exercise Science, he worked as a top personal trainer in London. As well as completing marathons, triathlons, ultra-marathons and other endurance challenges, he’s successfully trained clients to achieve their own endurance goals, including four successful Marathon des Sables (150-mile race in the Moroccan Sahara) clients.

Nikalas knows what constructing and implementing a safe and effective training plan involves, the kit needed, the nitty-gritty questions that always get asked and, most importantly, how to get you to the start line fit, strong and injury-free.

Buy your copy of Marathon Training here

New non-fiction: Blue Remembered Hills by Keith Pybus

Blue Remembered Hills: The Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty

The Shropshire Hills are alive with stories, although all too few of these are known to the casual visitor or even to the interested long-term resident. But each year, a lucky few will hear these weird and wonderful tales as they accompany landscape detective Keith Pybus on his walks around this Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Now, for the first time, these stories have been committed to print for all to enjoy.

Follow in the footsteps of A.E. Housman, Mary Webb, Bruce Chatwin and John Osborne to rediscover this lovely part of England. Meet three local ‘Grand Designers’ and explore the mansions they built with the fortunes they made. Find out what brought Napoleon Bonaparte’s brother, Lucien, to the Ludlow social scene. Read the hair-raising tale of Molly Morgan, twice sentenced to transportation. Ponder over the mysterious case of the wretched maid of Ferney Hall. Ache at the heart-wrenching stories of children banished to the New World on the Mayflower. Stories that will surprise and move you and make you want to find out more about the Shropshire Hills.

Of course, explorations are not just into the past. Every year thousands of ‘foodies’ attend the Ludlow Food Festival, and its markets and restaurants could not exist without the unique and varied produce of local farms, moors and hedgerows. Church Stretton, Shropshire’s very own spa town was once promoted as ‘Switzerland without wolves and avalanches’. And Rectory Wood was recently voted the least stressful location in England.

So join Keith Pybus on an unforgettable adventure through the Shropshire Hills in all their glory. Feel the breeze in your hair, just as you feel the history at your back…

Keith Pybus

For much of his life Keith Pybus travelled the world. He has lived in the Far East, Germany, Sweden, Belgium and the Netherlands. He speaks fluent French, German, Swedish and passable Dutch. In 1977 he began to explore what lay on his new doorstep, the county of Shropshire.

Keith has appeared on the BBC’s Countryfile and The House Detectives, among others, and has made numerous broadcasts for local radio. When not writing, he enjoys the Shropshire Way, which runs past his front door and where a first fingerpost beckons.

Buy your copy of Blue Remembered Hills here

New non-fiction: Model Planes by Martyn Pressnell

Model Planes: Aerofoils and Wings

Model flying is a challenging and exciting hobby as well as a recognized international sport. The broad principles of flight as applied in full-size aviation are just as important to flying models, but these principles are not always recognized or understood fully by aeromodellers.

Written specifically with aeromodellers in mind, Model Planes: Aerofoils and Wings is a practical guide to the aerodynamic principles of the ‘aerofoil’ and the way that wings produce lift, which is vital to establishing flight. Included are over forty ready-to-use aerofoil sections in a range of typical sizes, together with a detailed method of plotting these sections on a home computer, using Excel or a similar software. A comprehensive glossary provides clear explanations of the modelling terminology used, and diagrams illustrate key principles and themes.

Written by a distinguished aerospace engineer with a passion for modelling, this comprehensive volume is perfect for the enthusiastic aeromodeller, whether starting out or looking to hone their craft.

Martyn Pressnell

Martyn Pressnell has been an aircraft enthusiast since childhood, becoming an experienced model designer by the age of eighteen.On graduation, he joined Handley Page to train as a professional airframe structures engineer. He went on to work at what is now the University of Hertfordshire, becoming Group Head, Aerospace Engineering, in 1992. For a time he was a CAA-designated Chief Stress Engineer in the airship business. Now retired, Martyn is as busy as ever pursuing model aircraft technology and acting as a consultant in airframe structures to the Engineering Sciences Data Unit, providing information to the aerospace industry worldwide.

Buy your copy of Model Planes here 

New fiction (Buried River Press): Murder on the Minneapolis by Anita Davison

Murder on the Minneapolis 

Flora Maguire, a young governess, is on her way home on the SS Minneapolis after the wedding of her employer’s daughter. She meets the charming Bunny Harrington on deck on the first night, after having avoided the dining room, conscious of her status among the first-class passengers.

Flora finds the body of a man at the bottom of a companionway, but when his death is pronounced an accident, she is not convinced, and, having experienced her own tragedy as a child in the form of her mother’s disappearance, is driven to find out the truth.

Flora starts asking questions, but following threats, a near drowning during a storm and a second murder, the hunt is on in earnest for a killer.

Time is running out as the Minneapolis approaches the English coast. Will Flora be able to protect Edward, her charge, as well as herself, and uncover the identity of the murderer? Is her burgeoning relationship with the handsome Bunny Harrington only a shipboard dalliance, or something more?

Anita Davison

Anita Davison is a regular blogger for various historical blogs including Unusual Historicals and English Historical Fiction Authors, and also reviews books for the Historical Novel Review. Details of her other published novels are available on her blog: thedisorganisedauthor.blogspot.com

Buy your copy of Murder on the Minneapolis here

Journalism: The Essentials of Writing and Reporting by James Morrison

James Morrison

When Robert Hale asked me to pen a book about journalistic writing, my immediate question was how could I make it stand out from all the other ‘how-to’ guides to journalism and plain English already cluttering college bookshelves, library catalogues and recommended reading lists? In the event, we quickly agreed that our contribution to the canon should have two unique selling points. Firstly, it should cover all forms of written journalism, from news writing to essays, rather than focusing exclusively on the business of reporting or crafting features (as most do). Secondly – and perhaps more ambitiously – it should be as much a critical appreciation of good journalistic prose as a step-by-step guide to the nitty-gritty of how to produce it. To this end, it would need to include not only made-up examples to illustrate the ‘dos and don’ts’ of written journalism, but extracts from classic (and not-so-classic) journalistic texts. I will spare readers a rant about the agonizingly labour-intensive business of clearing copyright permissions (suffice it to say, I am much greyer than when I started out). For what it’s worth, though, I think the book benefits greatly from the inclusion of excerpts from Orwell, Gellhorn, Wolfe and the like – and lesser-known contemporary writers whose work also sparkles – primarily because showing is always better than telling when it comes to explaining how to do something, but also because few ‘how-to’ guides have ever taken this approach.

So what of the book’s structure? As Journalism is the latest volume in an already established series – the Hale Expert Guides – it was felt that it would be wise to adopt a similar overall format to its fellow titles. For this reason, it is divided into two parts, respectively labelled ‘guide’ and ‘aid’: the first section introducing the various forms journalism takes, and the second focusing on specific technical aspects of writing, from how and when (if ever) to use first-person narratives to the importance of active sentences. Peppering the text throughout are examples of good (and, occasionally, bad) practice by named journalists, which have been chosen to illustrate key points about the writing process. As for the sequencing of chapters, I took the view that it was best to start with ‘the basics’: moving from the simplest, least fussy, most formulaic form of journalistic writing (news stories) towards longer-form, more colourful articles (features, reportage) and, in turn, less objective, more opinionated ones like essays, reviews and comment. And, of course, no book about journalism in the digital era would be complete without a chapter devoted to the multifarious pithy and more immediate forms in which it is composed for today’s web and mobile platforms.

But for which audience, or audiences, is Journalism intended? The simple answer is anyone and everyone with an interest in writing – a realization brought home to me ever more clearly as I progressed through the book. For all its limitations as a form of literary expression – a subject I address explicitly at the outset – there is so much variety to journalism, so much invention, so much, in essence, to love about it that I hope this book can be read as a celebration of its subject, rather than a dry, mechanical re-run of any number of previous tutorials on how to string an article together with passable competence. What I would like readers to take away from it is (if you’ll pardon the conceit) a feeling of itchy fingers – the sense of wanting to sit down at the nearest keyboard and have a go at it themselves. Although I expect the book’s primary readership to be trainees and early-career journalists working for newspapers, magazines and websites, I’d also like it to appeal to a wider constituency – the great mass of people out there who, from time to time or more regularly, feel the urge to put their thoughts and observations down on paper, to blog, or to interact with others via social media.

We live in an age when more of us than ever before are effectively journalists already, not only keeping diaries or journals, compiling information on our pet likes and dislikes or exchanging banter, gossip and speculation with our peers, but publishing all this material for the whole world to see – even if we don’t always consciously think of it as journalism. Much of this ‘citizen journalism’ has evolved out of the online firmament, and, as such, is busy establishing its own conventions customised to the needs and demands of today’s mobile, 24/7, forever-on-the-go audiences. At the same time, it is challenging the ways many traditional forms of journalism I explore in this book are done, as news stories and features written by professional practitioners are reshaped and reconceived as three-dimensional, multimedia packages replete with hyperlinks, video footage and discussion-threads.

Yet, for all this flux and change, the mainstays of prose journalism remain remarkably resilient. Indeed, the Internet itself – once seen as the enemy of long-form writing – has lately spurred its renaissance, with sites like http://longform.org/ and http://longreads.com/ curating the best new and ‘classic’ features, reportage and other non-fiction articles from across the web, and http://www.theawl.com/ commissioning lengthy pieces from scratch. Moreover, most people who go into journalism as a career, rather than flirting with it as a hobby, still need to master its tried-and-tested forms if they are to make more than a partial living from it – whether in print, online, or on radio or television. Here in Britain, the best way into the industry is still to enrol on a university, further education or private-sector course accredited by the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ). The fact that the NCTJ diploma remains one of the few sure-fire passports into gainful employment – or, indeed, sustained paid freelance work – rests on the industry’s continuing confidence that it ‘does what is said on the tin’. Sure, this means equipping trainees with the ever-growing suite of digital skills they need to succeed – but, above all, it rests on nurturing their ability (and eagerness) to write.

Journalism: The Essentials of Writing and Reporting is available to buy now.

New fiction

Angel and the Actress by Roger Silverwood

Award-winning actress, Joan Minter, is murdered in front of a gathering of her closest friends. However, nobody knows who the murderer is, nobody saw him or her, and nobody present could possibly be the guilty one. That’s the challenge facing Detective Inspector Angel and his team when they are called out to her luxurious home in Bromersley, South Yorkshire, at the foot of the Pennines. At the same time, an apparently innocent young insurance man is found murdered in his own house. The only clues are a new vacuum cleaner left by the murderer and an open refrigerator. Who committed the crime and what has the vacuum cleaner got to do with the case? This is the twenty fourth story in the highly successful Inspector Angel series.

Son of a Yorkshire businessman, Roger Silverwood was educated in Gloucestershire before National Service. He later worked in the toy trade and as a copywriter in an advertising agency. Roger went into business with his wife as an antiques dealer before retiring in 1997.

Buy your copy of Angel and the Actress here.

Dying Wish by James Raven

Murder, kidnap, torture – these are not words usually associated
with Britain’s beautiful New Forest National Park. But when
local author Grant Mason has a heart attack, he makes a bizarre
dying wish: he wants his loyal assistant to burn his house down.
The request sets off a chain of events that leads to a huge police
hunt for a missing couple and a deranged killer. DCI Jeff
Temple and his Major Investigations Team take on their toughest case yet, and in the process they uncover vicious depravity and horror that was meant to lie buried forever. This is the fourth book by James Raven in the hugely successful DCI Jeff Temple series.

James Raven was a journalist for most of his working life. After
reporting for local, regional and national newspapers he moved into
television in 1982 as a news scriptwriter with TVS television where
he then worked his way up to become Director of News across
Meridian, Anglia and HTV. When Granada took over most of ITV he
became Managing Director of Granada Sport before setting up his
own production company. James spends much of his time writing and
travelling and also performs magic at various venues across the
country. James has previously published four novels with Robert
Hale, including Urban Myth and Random Targets.

.Buy your copy of Dying Wish here.

One Bullet Too Many by Paul Bennett

Life in the Polish resort of Lake Cezar is idyllic, that is, until
local crime lord, Emil Provda, not satisfied with prostitution,
drug-smuggling and gun-running, starts a protection racket
among the resort’s businesses. But this time Provda has picked
the wrong battle. Local hotel owner, Stanislav, is one of a group of five ex-mercenaries.The old gang – Stanislav, Johnny Silver, Bull, Red and Pieter – must get together for this final fight. Putting their
lives on the line, they decide to close Provda down if it’s the last
thing they do. The gang’s crusade against Provda brings them up against their
toughest opponents yet and the odds against them rise with each
battle, until the final duel on a deserted island. Just when they
think it’s over, there’s one more bullet to come; but who is on
the receiving end?

Paul Bennett was born in London and educated at Alleyn’s School
in Dulwich. He studied Economics at Exeter University and spent
seven years in advertising before setting up a market research
agency which he sold in 1986. He is now semi-retired in order to
pursue writing. Bennett lives in a converted barn in Essex with his
wife and two daughters and his previous novels, Killer in Black,
Catalyst and Mercenary were also published by Robert Hale.

Buy your copy of One Bullet Too Many here.

Riding the Storm by Heather Graves

Beginning in tropical North Queensland and continuing in Melbourne,
this is the story of two brothers, consumed by a rivalry that has
dominated their family for generations. Both love the same woman,
and both covet the same beautiful racehorse, Hunter’s Moon. But only one can win. When Robert Lanigan is the loser for the second time, he reaches out to exact a terrible revenge on his brother Peter. One wayor another, he is determined to own that horse. Peter’s death is only the first disaster to befall his son Ryan: that summer, a tropical cyclone devastates his entire life; his home is destroyed, along with the market garden
that is his livelihood, and Ryan’s mother is killed.If Ryan wants to see his father’s beloved horse Hunter’s Moon again,he must go to Melbourne and live in his uncle’s house. Here, past family torments are brought up, and he begins to unearth more about the disputes between Robert and Peter. The last thing Ryan expects is to fall in love with the clever, complicated girl who also happens to be his cousin….

Born in Warwickshire, Heather Graves has spent a great part of her
adult life in Australia, where she lives with her husband and daughter.
Her father maintained a lifelong interest in racing and Graves now
regularly attends races in Melbourne. A writer for over twenty years,
her books include Red for Danger, Starshine Blue, Indigo Nights and
Magenta Magic.

Buy your copy of Riding The Storm here.

Terror by Gaslight by Edward Taylor

Victorian London is gripped by fear as a serial killer slays an
apparently random victim on Hampstead Heath every month, each
with a single knife thrust.Two men begin to suspect a mysterious link between the victims: Major Henry Steele and ex-Sergeant Mason have been discreetly retired from Military Intelligence following the suspicious death of a dangerous German agent in the Middle East. Now they work as private investigators, and are helping Scotland Yard hunt the so-called ‘Heath Maniac’. Their search takes them into large Heath-side houses where certain residents seem to have secrets, to the offices of shady lawyer, to the laboratory of a vivisectionist, back-stage at a London music-hall, and
later at the bedside of a dying comedian. Steele and Mason find themselves fighting for their lives on Hampstead Heath, before the Maniac is finally exposed in a shattering
climax.

Edward Taylor wrote and performed with the Cambridge University
Footlights, and was spotted by the BBC during the London run of
their 1955 revue. Offered a twelve-month contract as writer-producer,
he accepted and stayed for thirty-six years, being responsible for
Round the Horne, I’m Sorry – I’ll Read That Again, Just a Minute,
The Men from the Ministry and other top shows. Since then he’s written six plays, and Murder by Misadventure is widely performed throughout the world after a long London run. His first novel, The Shadow of Treason, was published by Robert Hale in
2012.

Buy your copy of Terror by Gaslight here.