Novels

The Incomers (Hollyburn Series)

Praise for The Incomers

“The Incomers is a comment on the universality of prejudice as well as an emotive work of fiction.”

The Herald

“The Incomers is a graceful, searching tale of a stranger in a strange land. Its emotional resonance and narrative sweep fascinate to the end.”

Alan Bissett, author of Boyracers, Death of a Ladies Man, The Moira Monologues and Pack Men.

“Graceful, delicate stuff that masterfully builds as it goes, painting a picture of a time, place and people that is never less than engrossing.”

The Daily Record

Paperback copies of The Incomers can be purchased here from Amazon for the new price of £6.99, (Kindle £1.99).

If you would like a signed, limited edition (£10.00 including P&P – UK customers only) you can order one here by messaging me on the contact page.

Before Now: Memoir of a Toerag (Hollyburn Series)

“Ah suppose there’s loads eh stories that ah could stert wi. Lucky escapes ah suppose ye could cry thum. The story eh how ma maw ruined oor lives by draggin us away fae ma da an aw the calamity that followed. But ah cannae tell that just yet.”

Sam and Gavin Smart’s worlds shatter when their maw rips them from the family home on Mother’s Day 1990.

Six years later, Gavin is confined to a room in his granny’s house after breaking a leg. All he wants is to pass his driving theory test and escape the room, instead he writes his memoir of the last six turbulent years. As the memoir progresses more than one person’s story emerges and Gavin realises things have to change.

This coming-of-age story, told entirely in the Fife dialect, is filled with comedy, high pranks and a heavy dose of unintended pathos.

Moira McPartlin’s Before Now exposes the challenges faced by a single parent family in a small mining community in the wake of mass pit closures.

‘A brilliant depiction of family, the highs and lows of growing up, and a wonderful narrator who feels like a friend. I flew through it.’
Ross Sayers, author of Daisy on the Outer Line

Available from Amazon in Paperback or Ebook through the link below.

Before Now: Memoir of a Toerag

If you would like a signed, limited edition (£10.00 including P&P – UK customers only) you can order one here by messaging me on the contact page.

Ways of the Doomed (Book #1 The Sun Song Trilogy)

It’s the year 2089 and everything is altered. The revolutions of the early 21st century have created a world divided – between the Privileged few and the Native (Celtic) underclass. Sorlie is enjoying a typical carefree Privileged teenage life until it is smashed apart by the cruel death of his parents and he is spirited away to live with his ice-cold grandfather at a mysterious island penal colony. Sorlie’s discovery that the captives are being genetically altered to remove all trace of their Native origins triggers a chain of shocking events that reveal his grandfather’s terrible secrets and, ultimately, the truth about himself.

 

Wants of the Silent (Book #2 Sun Song Trilogy)

This second thrilling volume of the Sun Song trilogy takes Sorlie to the floodlands of southern Esperaneo to discover that family, love and resilience can triumph against even the harshest regime. Escaping from the penal colony on Black Rock, Sorlie joins his grandmother Vanora’s revolutionary army, expecting to find freedom. Instead he finds murder and mayhem. With her army in disarray and her network of supporters disappearing, Vanora chooses Sorlie to become her warrior. When Vanora is kidnapped, Sorlie becomes injured and marooned in the strange reservation of Steadie where old people and specials are hidden and protected from The State. But these outcasts are not the only secrets Steadie keeps. Why is Sorlie kept drugged for over a week? What are their links to The Blue Pearl Society? Why are they so wary of the Noiri black marketeers? And who is The Prince everyone is whispering about? The Sun Song trilogy explores life in a futuristic, post-apocalyptic Britain where society’s norms have broken down and life has to be lived differently.

 

Star of Hope (Book #3 Sun Song Trilogy)

 

This third and final exciting volume of The Sun Song Trilogy finds Sorlie and Ishbel working together in one last attempt to save Esperaneo. As The Prince’s health deteriorates he hands over leadership of the Star of Hope’s mission to Sorlie and Ishbel. But what is the Star of Hope? All they know is that it will free the native race from slavery. On mainland Esperaneo Major, Ishbel travels north through a hostile artic forest while Sorlie, Reinya and Dawdle head for the southern dry lands. On the way both parties battle extreme weather and betrayal, but it is only when the two missions meet that the frightening truth of their world is revealed. And one final betrayal decides the fate of the mission and their fight for freedom. The Sun Song trilogy explores life in a futuristic, post-apocalyptic Britain where society’s norms have broken down and life has to be lived differently.

 

The Incomers 1st Edition

Mission-raised Ellie Amadi expects to live a dream life when she and her son Nat leave home in West Africa to join her white, estate factor, husband James in the Fife mining village of Hollyburn. In 1966 Fife, mixed marriages are unusual, never mind interracial ones, and Ellie soon witnesses the villagers’ ignorance of outsiders. Ellie struggles to adapt to her new life and rebels against her husband’s pressure on her to conform. When she is accused of neglecting her baby, and subjected to an allegation of witchcraft, Ellie questions her ability to go on living among white faces. The story draws on deep parallels between the cultures of West Africa and Scotland. Each chapter ends with a vernacular ‘party line’ telephone conversation between two village women, tracking the initial animosity towards Ellie and gradually, a grudging acceptance of her. When Nat is abducted by the school bully and nearly drowns, Ellie is stunned by the hostility she receives from an African male doctor. It is only then she realises that prejudice of incomers exists everywhere, and acceptance grows if nurtured by familiarity. This novel cleverly explores historical racial prejudice in Scotland and may raise some difficult cultural issues, perhaps still applicable 45 years later.