JAMES McGEE

Sadly, Sam Neill passed away last month. What was heart breaking about his passing was that back in 2022 he was diagnosed with a very aggressive blood cancer, but it was not the Big C that killed him. Earlier this year, following treatment, Sam revealed that he was cancer free, which was great news. The sad news was that Sam was to die, of all things, from pneumonia. He will be greatly missed, but he leaves behind a great body of work, from Peaky Blinders and Reilly: Ace of

Len Deighton 1929 to 2026 So many great novels, so only a few of them listed below. Click on the link if you'd like to read the obituary from the BBC. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cervgrvekxzo Yep, that's what I thought, too. The image of Michael Caine on the cover of that DVD (published by Dutch FilmWorks DFW) is from Get Carter and not The Ipcress File. God knows what they were thinking...or possibly smoking.

A frightening look at the USA and the chilling campaign to remove books from school libraries. Click on the image if you would like to watch the trailer.

Frederick Forsythe 1938 - 2025 An absolute legend when it came to writing page-turning thrillers. If you would like to check out his CV, courtesy of the BBC website, click on the image....

Mick Herron has just been awarded the Crime Writers' Association (CWA) Diamond Dagger award for his lifetime contribution to the genre. The only reason you can't have either read or watched the Apple TV+ adaptations of his Slough House espionage series is because you've been living on Mars. There's no time like the present....

It was the 2024 British British Book Awards the other evening and Rory Stewart's memoir won the Non-fiction Narrative award. Happy to say it was one of my favourite books of last year and a cracking read. And talking of awards, another memoir I'd highly recommend as one of my favourite books from this year (so far) is Hits, Flops, And Other Illusions by the Academy Award and Emmy Award winning director Ed Zwick. While the name might not be familiar to non-film buffs, Zwic

RSF Militia - Khartoum April 2023 The above quote came from my agent when I e-mailed him a synopsis and the manuscript of my latest novel The Salma Option back in March 2022. Oh, and he also confessed, after some time had passed, that he 'didn't know the market' for the type of story it was, or rather is. Which goes some way to explain why I had to resort to getting the thing published through Amazon's Create Space/Kindle programme rather than my up-until-then regular publi

If you're reading this, quite frankly, it's a bloody miracle. No, seriously. Whenever I was engaged in penning one of Hawkwood's adventures I was invariably asked what I enjoyed most about writing historical fiction. My flip response was always that, unlike a contemporary storyline, you weren't likely to be overtaken by current events. Boy, was I ever proved right... If you've purchased, pilfered or even pawned The Salma Option and taken the trouble to read it, or even if,

This is a slightly extended version of the Author's Note that I've included in the paperback and Kindle editions of the novel, in that it provides links to the publications I used for reference, as well as sites pertinent to the story. Click on the images if you would like to visit them. I confess I'd never heard of Zakouma National Park until I read Poached, journalist Rachel Love Nuwers' cracking account of her investigation into the world of wildlife trafficking. I'd been

A must, if you're a fan of Bernard Cornwell's Richard Sharpe and the TV series. Fresh off the press following the new(-ish) Sharpe novel...

Publication date: December 7th. First Pearl Harbor, now this. Hasn't the USA suffered enough? Okay, that might not be the real dust...

Well, I guess he's brainwashed their parents, so he might as well go after the children as well. The smiley guy, as stated, is the Mike...

A cracking day yesterday (and it's not often you can say that at the moment, right?). Headed off to Bath for the Steve Van Zandt signing...

This from the woman, who, in the nine months she held the post of White House press secretary for the Trump administration, never...

Spotted this a couple of days ago: a report concerning students in a southern Pennsylvania school district who are are battling the...

September 7th - make a note. Looking forward to this one for several reasons: the subject matter, the author involved, the timeliness,...

Got a call from my sis last week. She told me not to make any plans for October 9th, as I would be heading to Topping & Co's bookshop in...