[Where available, these are scripts, not recordings.]

ANNA'S BOY, a search for childhood, 1996-2003.

Autobiography of my formative years to age fourteen.

When Anna dies, her seven-year-old son is fostered with relations. Nurtured by the love of a caring mother, he must now adjust to psychological & physical abuse.

Extracts (amusing or absurd) are from time to time available as Current Freebies.

THE FIRST WHISTLEBLOWER, documentary novel, 2007.

“A hospital is the conscience of a civilisation.”
M. Tenon, French visitor to Greenwich Hospital, c 1800.

1780. As Governor of Greenwich Hospital (a hospice for wounded sailors) Captain Thomas Baillie has protested against the blatant corruption which demeans & half-starves the veterans he is tasked to care for.

The trail of graft leads back to the Lord of the Admiralty himself, sinecures & swindles whereby the Earl of Sandwich bribes voters of the rotten borough of Huntingdon. Unashamedly, Sandwich permits placemen to defraud & milk the disabled sailors' sixpenny insurance & so bolster his parliamentary privilege & power.

When Baillie brings the scandal to light, like most whistle blowers he is belied & victimised. He is dismissed from the very office his protest has been fulfilling, is humiliated in a House of Lords siding with its own, & reduced to penury.

Finally a change of administration recognises Baillie for the hero he is.

This piece began as an audio-story but got out of hand.

'A documentary novel' because heavily indebted to Thomas Baillie's own (largely forgotten) writings & to Hansard.

I've tried to tell Baillie's heroic protest as close to his voice as I can mimick. Inevitably there are gaps in the record, mostly the details that humanise history. Filling them as near to the surviving traces as I'm able, my 'document' necessarily impinges on 'novel'.

I intend to offer extracts as occasional Freebies.

As an audio-story, the piece is eight hours long. I've not so far had time (or heart) to undertake a recording.

A LITTLE NAKED MUSIC, novel, 2011-12.

Inspired by true events, a novel about the longings, fears & courage of a military wife in the Second World War.

Years later, Gerry (aka the war poet Geraint Powell) wants his children to understand why he has been a weird (if loving) Dad, but can't face to tell it himself, tasks his Swiss wife Ida to tell it for him. Thus it is Ida who recalls (in her engaging English) their wartime panics, joys & separations.

A strong story which would make a marvellous film, warm, loving & dangerous.

The Farm, Thursday.

Dear Stanley,

Thank you (& Celia) for helping clear up after the wake. We must try & see more of each other. Enclosed a fat, astonishing envelope in Mummy's curly hand.

I've been sorting out her things & found the aforesaid envelope addressed to you & me.

I took the liberty of opening it, & once I started to read could hardly stop. You may find Mummy's Germanic writing problematic (or as she writes 'proplematic'!) but she says a lot about that time she was looking for Daddy & how she found you (don't be embarrassed at the detail, we all love you) & I hadn't realised just what a sexy pair they once were & what a fearful adventure it all was. The account of Daddy's War is almost unbearable, horrific! & would be heart-breaking but for Mummy's courage to see it through. I see now why they didn't or couldn't choose to talk about it. I remember we as kids used to find them both a laugh. Dad's dark glasses & his hesitation over nothing much. Mum's eternal fuss about is the 'Koffee' freshly ground. All those mushrooms! But not when you know. There was more behind it than they ever let on. Remember that time you were up the ladder in the barn, & Dad went all weak-knee'd & soppy? Well, read this! Anyway, I'm sending it on by registered post, 'cos I don't want it lost. Stanleee! Don't lose it. I know you don't read a lot. Don't just let Ceelie read it for you. This explains so much!

Love to Ceelie & my favourite nephew.

As ever, Gwendoline xx.

PS: I think we have a buyer for the farm. G. x

For reasons of length, the above are only available as HARD COPY. Please apply to Alan via his e-mail on this website. Prices on application.

Also available as HARD COPY:

The Transfiguration of Father Europe (1968).

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