Twelve Shades of Black
A series of interviews with black people living under apartheid in the townships around Johannesburg. The author was interested less in their politics than in their day to day lives. The patience of a black priest whose flock takes religion with a pinch of witchcraft; the witch doctor who loves big cars and charges her clients for charms on HP; the millionaire business man who is prevented from owning his house – and the poet who lets go his suppressed anger. Awarded a runner-up prize for the South African Literary award.
Published by Lume Books UK and available on Amazon in paperback or on Kindle
A Wrong to Sweeten
Ireland in the 1880s. The O’Brien family of Crag Liath in County Clare are proud of their great estate and their descent from Brian Boru, the last High King of Ireland. But theirs is also a family divided by envy and fraternal resentment. Tom, the elder brother, lives only for today while Dermot obsessively loves the estate that can never be his. Two Limerick schoolfriends, Milliora and Rosaleen, have their ambitions, too. But when their lives are entwined with the O’Brien brothers, they find that envy can darken to madness – and to murder.
Published by Lume Books UK and available on Amazon in paperback or on Kindle
A Heritage of Wrong
Pregnant by her revolutionary lover, Cathal O’Mahoney, Rosaleen O’Brien deserted her husband and twin sons and fled to America where their daughter, Aoibheal, was born. Returning to Ireland with her new family seven years later she finds her children have mixed emotions. Daniel, the more compassionate of the twins, is excited by his mother’s return while his brother Eugene harbours deep resentment against her – and against his little half-sister. As the rancour deepens, Kate Keegan, Daniel’s childhood friend, finds herself entangled in a web of loyalty and deception.
Published by Lume Books UK and available on Amazon in paperback or on Kindle
The Moon is Red in April
Ireland 1744 and a young Catholic, Richard O’Shaughnessy, embarks on a perilous journey to escape the harsh Penal laws and fight in France for the Irish brigade at the battle of Fontenoy. Undaunted by her boyfriend’s departure, fiery Ellen Nagle sinks her savings into a trip to Paris to find him. But their reunion is not as Ellen has planned. In France she encounters a rival for Richard’s affections while he, wounded in war, is more concerned with the founding of a cognac dynastry than with the women who care about him.
Published by Lume Books UK and available on Amazon in paperback or on Kindle
Ulick’s Daughter
Based on a true story of the 19th century. Ulick John de Burgh, 14th Earl of Clanricarde and British ambassador to Russia, was one of Ireland’s most ruthless landlords. After his death his second son, Hubert, who inherits his father’s vast estates in County Galway, is determined to evict any non-paying tenants – including his father’s mistress and Eva, his illegitmate daughter. Eva is determined not only to seek revenge but to claim her rightful legacy and place in society. Her efforts will take her to a life of glittering wealth and the world of Russian high society.
Published by Lume Books UK and available on Amazon in paperback or on Kindle
The Image of Laura
From 1930s Berlin to contemporary London nothing has escaped Laura Conway’s trusty Leica camera. Now Laura is 75 and the art world is celebrating her birthday with a retrospective exhibition of her work. Her journalist grand-daughter, Cassie, has discovered the perfect present – she’s tracked down the very handcrafted desk which Laura was forced to leave behind when she fled Berlin at the onset of the Second World war. But when the desk is presented at the exhbition Laura panics. For its discovery threatens to reveal the lies she has told about her life and the false image of herself which she has carefully created.
Published by Lume Books UK and available on Amazon in paperback or on Kindle
Seeking Clemency
A story of tragedy, anger and repressed memory. An empty house. A secret room. The key to a tragic Irish past. Married and living in England, Caroline Tremain has succeeded in turning her strange Irish childhood into a string of dinner party anecdotes with which to amuse her friends. But when she receives a phone call from Marie-Rose Keane, her grandmother’s former housekeeper, to say that her Aunt Constance has died, Caroline is delighted – convinced that she has inherited the family home, Carrigrua, the gracious Georgian house on the shore of Lough Derg in County Clare. She is in for a terrible shock – and a painful journey of self-discovery.
Published by Lume Books UK and available on Amazon in paperback or on Kindle