Poems and short stories

During the lock down I have been collecting together all the poems and short stories I have written mainly during my creative writing classes.

These are the three volumes I have self published so far.

Poems and the sea are written about my connection to the sea from the twelve years I spent as an officer in the British Merchant Navy and visits to the sea subsequently having moved as far away from the sea as is possible in the UK.

The Cigar and other stories are from my time at sea many of which formed the basis of my book Tales from the sea.

The Golden Age and other Poems is a collection of poems about life.

Purchase from Amazon.

Eddie Gubbins thrillers

Three thrillers as Ken Flood tries to help his brother.

Brotherly Love where Ken is asked by his brother to deliver a package to London. He finds he is pursued by people he did not know, Even worse he comes to regard anybody as an enemy except those friends who willingly try to help him. He does not know where to turn or where to hide. He as an academic is usually sure of what he is undertaking but now he is out of his depth. Should he help his brother or turn him into the authorities? That is If he knew who the authorities are. 

A Legacy From Mary is a situation where Ken gets involved again with his brother Norman when one of his research students is killed. A mugging gone wrong, the police told him. Then his friend Mary is killed in a car crash. A tragic accident, the police tell everybody. The one common factor is a country called Mengambi. Ken is asked to go there and organise a training programme. During his stay he tries to find out the connection and finds himself threatened with being killed.

For The Love Of Pauline where Ken’s daughter dies of a drugs overdose or so it is alleged. For once Ken in trying to find out who supplied the drugs which killed his daughter, asks his brother a Norman to help. This leads them into the dirty world of high crime where the top criminals think they are immune from prosecution. Threatened with being killed, Norman and Ken still seek to find out who runs the organisation.

Available from Amazon as paper backs and Kindle for downloading as ebook.

The environment

Once more the world is starting to think about the environment and the danger of climate change. This has been especially true during the lockdown in the Uk because the amount of traffic had fallen both on the roads and in the air. People are hearing birds song in towns and cities clearly. 

The commentators are still it seems reluctant to mention the elephant in the room. A great deal of the problem stems from the increase in population world wide. There are too many people now and there is an increase. One only has to look at refugee camps where crammed into tents are families with six or seven children. More people means more travel,, more cars and more energy used. All this pushes global warming and pollution to greater heights. Religious leaders like the Pope do not help by denying women family planning. They encourage bigger families.

More people more land needed to grow food, more trees cut down. More land needed to build houses for people to live in. More people more roads and bigger airports. There are technical ways to mitigate the effects of pollution, electric vehicles, electric heating of homes, cleaner energy. 

What should happen is that some of the aid budgets from international organisations should be channeled into helping women family plan and reduce the size of families. The Pope should be educated in 5he need for leadership in this. God gave us the ability to enjoy sex without creating babies. 

Let us hope some influential people take up this theme and start a movement.