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Ah, summer in Istanbul, where the Bosphorus glistens, the call to prayer echoes across minarets, and an enormous blob of mucus slowly strangles the coastline like something out of a low-budget aquatic horror film.

Yes, folks, Istanbul is at war. Not with geopolitical forces or traffic congestion (though those remain undefeated), but with an enemy far gooier and far grosser, sea snot.

Let’s just pause for a moment to appreciate that name. Sea snot. It sounds like a Nickelodeon show rejected for...

Ah, cicadas.

The only insects with a built-in megaphone, a decades-long grudge, and a party schedule that makes a rock star blush.

You’ve heard them. You may have mistaken them for faulty power lines. Or perhaps your dog brought one inside and presented it like a trophy. Either way, the moment summer hits and the trees start humming like alien spacecraft, you know:

The cicadas have arrived.

And they have things to say.

Underground Introverts Turned Sky-Screaming Extroverts
The life of a cicada...

From a haunted lake to the heart of World War II espionage

Childhood in the Shadows
When readers first meet Jessie Fordham in Walking Away from Midnight, she’s just nine years old, stubborn, sharp-eyed, and deeply curious. It’s 1926, and she’s spending the summer in northern France at her parent's summer home, the eerily named Midnight Lake. What should be a peaceful visit turns into a moment of personal trauma and revelation, as Jessie stumbles upon a forgotten grave, and something much darker...

What Was the Enigma Machine?

During World War II, the German military relied on a device called the Enigma machine to encrypt their communications. Originally developed in the 1920s as a commercial encryption tool, the machine was adapted by the Nazis to secure everything from U-boat positions to military offensives.

With more than 150 quintillion possible settings, the Enigma machine was designed to be unbreakable. Every day, its internal configuration changed, meaning even if a message were...

In the shadows of Nazi-occupied France, while curfews silenced the streets and fear choked the air, a different kind of war was unfolding, one without uniforms, one fought in whispers and shadows. If you're reading The Midnight Series, you’ve already stepped into this hidden world. But behind the fiction lies a true story, stranger and braver than any novel: the birth of the Réseaux de Résistance, France’s underground intelligence networks.

Not All Resistance Carried a Gun
When most people...

Books don't write themselves. It takes a lot of thought, a degree of heroism and in some cases a fear of heights to write a fiction novel. I know, sounds crazy needing a fear of heights. But it's true, unless you've experienced a degree of fear, it's hard to write about it with any conviction. But, that's where the imagination kicks in.

Some writers like to know in advance what it is they are writing about. Others go with the flow, into the zone and beyond.

Me? I have a mixed up method of...

On the 12th August 1981, IBM's first Personal Computer was introduced, setting a mass market standard for PC architecture. The personal computer arrived like a quiet revolution. In 1982 The PC was named Machine of the Year by Time magazine. Compact, blinking, and brimming with promise, machines like the IBM PC and Apple II promised to make writing faster, more efficient, and less prone to human error. But not everyone rejoiced.

Some writers, famously creatures of habit, pushed back. Ray...

Midnight’s Secret takes the series into darker and more treacherous territory. The themes of betrayal, surveillance, and political extremism are more overt, with the introduction of the fascist group Spring Dawn, internal Secret Intelligence Service corruption, and high-stakes sabotage plots. The moral complexity of the war is given new depth, and Jessie is now portrayed not only as a capable agent but also as a symbolic figure of resistance.

The layered political subplots, involving fascist...

In Midnight’s Child, the narrative accelerates into full wartime tension. Now in 1940, Jessie Fordham steps into her role as agent Midnight, a member of Britain’s SOE, bringing her from sheltered beginnings into the heart of World War II espionage. The psychological complexity of her character matures significantly, her reflections on her father's influence, her internal conflicts, and her resilience under pressure make for a nuanced heroine.

The story expertly blends historical fact with...

Walking Away from Midnight opens the Midnight Series with a captivating blend of historical detail and emotional intimacy. Set initially in the 1920s, it introduces Jessie Fordham as a precocious and spirited child whose early experiences lay the groundwork for her transformation into a wartime operative. The novel is grounded in a rich sense of place, from the eerie Midnight Lake in the French Ardennes to the fog-draped streets of Ledbury, England, providing an atmospheric backdrop for the...

A Mature Resolution of Themes
The Brittle Sky excels in bringing narrative closure with emotional and philosophical resonance. Maggie’s transformation into a protector of the downtrodden during the Depression era adds gravitas.

Introduction of Jackson Hale
A compelling addition. A war-weary pilot whose gentle personality contrasts well with past male figures. His growing bond with Maggie and Ava feels authentic and provides a hopeful note.

Broader Historical Context
The expansion into global...

Emotional Depth & Character Complexity
Magda/Maggie’s dissociative identity disorder is handled with sensitivity and psychological intrigue. The shifting between personas is not only a plot device but also adds a deeper emotional layer, particularly in the scenes involving her daughter Ava and the rediscovery of her identity.

Continuity with Book 1
The novel builds logically from the events of The Brittle Sea, especially in Magda’s continued manipulation by Turner. The transition feels...

"Book Appraisal: The Brittle Sea. An evocative historical drama that brilliantly merges emotional depth with sweeping historical events. From the icy decks of the Titanic to the gritty streets of 1930s New York"

Book Appraisal: The Brittle Sea

Genre: Historical Fiction / Romance / Suspense

Setting: Early 20th Century. Ukraine, North Atlantic, Canada, New York

Author: Tom Kane

A Riveting Tale of Love, Loss, and Reinvention

The Brittle Sea is an evocative historical drama that brilliantly merges...

It's All About Bee-haviour
When we think of play in animals, puppies and kittens usually spring to mind. Most of us would picture a puppy chasing a ball in the grass or kitten playing with a ball of wool. What if I told you Bumble Bees also like to play. I'll bet you would be hard pressed to picture a bee chasing a ball or playing with a ball of string. Well, that's exactly the behavior that has been observed. No, not playing with a ball of wool, yes, playing with balls is what some bees do....

Miami, USA: Studies have shown dozens of structures, like luxury condos and hotels, that are sinking. In areas like Sunny Isles Beach and Miami Beach, some properties have sunk by 2 to 8 centimeters. But it isn't just sinking cities in America.

The ground beneath many of the world’s most iconic and densely populated coastal cities is a threat to their continued existence. Sinking cities are a worldwide phenomenon, and sometimes they're sinking faster than sea levels are rising. Subsidence,...

Let’s get one thing straight from the get go, you, dear reader, are a walking miracle. Not because you’ve climbed Everest, invented gluten-free breadsticks, or remembered all your passwords without resetting them. You're a miracle because statistically, you shouldn't even be here.

Let's rewind the cosmic lottery machine.

First off, your ancestors had to survive saber-toothed tigers, plagues, famine, wars, and the 1970s. Every single one of your forebears had to not only live through this chaos...

“Speak into My Shell-Like Ear”
Language is full of curious expressions that charm us with their imagery, and one such phrase is “shell-like ear.” It’s a term often used with a touch of humor or endearment, typically when someone invites another to share a secret or say something softly. “Whisper that into my shell-like ear.” But where does this odd-sounding phrase come from? And why a shell?

What Does “Shell-Like Ear” Mean?
At its core, the phrase “shell-like ear” is a poetic or whimsical way to...

I know, it sounds a bit of a bizarre statement, How to Read a Book, but there is a published book named as such, by an American philosopher, Mortimer J. Adler. It was published in 1940, and a revised edition published in 1972, co-authored by Adler along with writer and editor Charles Van Doren. Van Doren's name may be familiar to some. Van Doren was involved in a television quiz show scandal in the 1950s. He later testified before the US Congress that he had been given the correct answers by...

It was only last year, in May 2024, that I wrote and published Walking Away from Midnight. And then came up with the brilliant (crazy) idea for a series of nine books based on my WW2 SOE (Special Operations Executive) heroine, Jessie Fordham, known as agent Midnight. Just over a year later, and I've just published book three in The Midnight Series, Midnight's Secret.

I'm getting good reviews for all three published books, which means I have to keep up the quality of the stories and writing in...

In 1590, early modern English was less than 100 years old. It just so happens that at the time, one William Shakespeare was writing his sonnets and plays in English. But there were no dictionaries he could use to look up a word, so instead, he made up his own words.

At the time virtually all written documents were written in Latin. But because Shakespeare wrote in English, words he invented were included in his plays, and luckily not lost to us. His contribution of a whopping 1,700 words to...