Supporting #NHS Charities Together

Along with other authors, Mark P Henderson, Stuart Aken, Melodie Trudeaux, Sue Knight and John D Scotcher, I have joined an initiative to use book royalties to support NHS Charities Together during the current emergency.

The project comprises twelve books, including Cruel and Unusual PunNishments by Mark P Henderson, Blood Red Dust by Stuart Aken, Falling into Crime by Penny Grubb, Horse of a Different Colour by Melodie Trudeaux, The Boy in Winter's Grasp by John D Scotcher, Till They Dropped and Waiting for Gordo by Sue Knight.

The project was retired medic, Mark P Henderson’s idea. He told his publisher Fantastic Books Publishing that he wanted to donate the author royalties from one of his books to the NHS. Fantastic Books offered to bring other authors on board and to put some of their charity anthologies into the pot.


The anthologies chosen by Fantastic Books contain contributions from all four of these authors and also include the anthology that won the 2019 CWA Short Story Dagger.

In line with Fantastic Books Publishing’s current policy to cut down on the physical transport of goods, you are encouraged to buy ebooks.






See more detail, book previews and the full line up HERE.

The Dark Side of the Modern Student

Chasing an Amazon link for someone who wanted a copy of Preparing for Higher Education Study, I couldn’t help noticing the “Customers who bought this item also bought” section. I know that the book has sold a good few copies, yet only one book sits in this section. Why might that be?

1. Students don’t buy books from Amazon – unlikely.

2. Students buy textbooks one at a time, thus their other purchases don’t show up in this section – maybe, but who knows? I certainly don’t know how Amazon’s background processes work, but I rather hope this is the answer.

3. Reason no 3 requires exploration of the link between those wanting a higher education and their choice of reading matter.

Preparing for Higher Education Study … The Dummies’ Guide toSerial Killing. OK, let’s just not go there and assume the solitary book-buying habits behind reason no 2.