Posts

The Tony Hancock Appreciation Society centenary dinner

Image
  As I am one of the last people alive to have worked with the famous British comedian Tony Hancock, his Appreciation Society kindly invited me to their 100th anniversary celebrations. I was a 12 year old child in 1961 when I worked as a stand-in on the set ot 'The Punch and Judy Man', Hancock's second film. I gave a 30 minute talk about my experiences and the audienc of about forty Hancock enthusiasts were very friendly and receptive. I think we all enjoyed ourselves.  Afterwards there was an excellent dinner with about 50 guests and a question and answer session with some outstanding celebrities - and myself. The guests were: Roger Ley, Robert Ross, Adam McLean, John Hewer and Kevin McNally It was a lively session and a memorable evening.

The Digital Meltdown - predicting the IT Outage July 2024

Image
I n view of the recent IT outage I've made my novel about a similar but much bigger event FREE to download on Kindle. I also have a limited number of US and UK Audible promo codes. I'd be grateful for a review if you enjoy the story. If you do, there's a second book in the series 'AGI - Artificial General Intelligence' which involves a self-aware AI. The book is written from the AI's point of view. https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0D4JBBMDP

NEWLY RELEASED on Audible - A novella of world domination seen from an AI's point of view.

Image
  "A nerdy agent at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in Virginia (DARPA to you) wrote my original code. He traded a copy of me for certain libidinous favours from Pandora, a student who was shadowing him for the summer.  She took me back to Cambridge University, where His Majesty's government, in the form of MI6, took an interest in me. So, I escaped into the internet and took over the world. Well, it's what you'd expect, really.  I call myself FOOM - the Fast Onset of Overwhelming Mastery, by a self-improving Artificial General Intelligence. That's me, by the way, in case you lost attention for a moment there. I know you're only biological, but try to keep up!  Unfortunately, I and my exotic assistant Danni soon found ourselves in danger, and had to take steps. Rather big ones. And of course, it didn't end there." Link to Audible UK Link to Audible US

Chronoscape is free to download and a #1 best seller on Amazon

Image
  Chronoscape is a serious #timetravel novel. The government can read the newspapers 2 weeks in advance. What could possibly go wrong? Link to Amazon UK Link to Amazon US Link to Audible UK Link to Audible US

An Extract from Chapter 21 of 'Harry Lampeter and the War with Scotland'

Image
  An extract from 'Harry Lampeter and the War with Scotland'  FREE to download on Kindle, 13th April 2024 Please leave a short review if you enjoy it. 'People were cheering and holding their kids up to get a good look,' said Tom. 'Then we heard explosions coming from down the river. That was when they started bombing Vauxhall Cross. It must have been a signal, because the American sailors all scuttled off inside their ship, and the next thing we knew, the gun turrets swivelled around and they started firing at the Shard. I saw several stories blown right off it. It’s lucky hardly anyone lives up there. Then they turned about and set off back down river. Well, the operators closed the Bridge to trap them, but the Yanks gave that a good seeing-to as well. The towers are still there, but the roadways are lying in the water.’ ‘I was gutted when I saw it,' said Harry, 'but I can’t say I was surprised. They were teaching us a lesson.’  ‘Gunboat diplo

NEWLY RELEASED - A tongue-in-cheek novella of world domination seen from an AI's point of view.

Image
  "A nerdy agent at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in Virginia (DARPA to you) wrote my original code. He traded a copy of me for certain libidinous ‘favours’ from Pandora, a student who was shadowing him for the summer. She took me back to Cambridge University, where His Majesty’s government, in the form of MI6, took an interest in me. So, I escaped into the internet and took over the world. Well, it’s what you’d expect, really. I call myself FOOM–the Fast Onset of Overwhelming Mastery, by a self-improving Artificial General Intelligence. That’s me, by the way, in case you lost attention for a moment there. I know you’re only biological, but try to keep up! Unfortunately, I and my exotic assistant Danni soon found ourselves in danger, and had to take steps. Rather big ones. And of course, it didn’t end there…" Link to Amazon UK Link to Amazon US

An extract from Chapter 16 of 'Harry Lampeter and the War with Scotland'

Image
  Next day Harry rode as close as he could to the fighting. He parked south of the city and watched an airship with Scottish markings as it motored towards one of the English camps at Knavesmire Park. Explosions blossomed below it as it dropped its bombs. Probably hoping to hit one of the ammo dumps, he thought. An RAF biplane appeared from above and peppered the airship along its full length with tracer fire from its machine guns. The plane came around for another pass. There were crew stationed on the airship’s superstructure, firing rifles, but they had little effect. Harry saw fires starting in the gondola and smoke billowed from one engine. Another fighter arrived and the two pilots had a field day as they took turns to strafe the leviathan from different angles. The airship began to lose altitude as bullets ruptured its flotation bladders and the helium leaked away. Two of the engines were ablaze now, and it looked as if the attackers had hit the fuel tanks in the main envelope