Publication date: 11 Feb, 2024
You’ve read the diet books, perhaps joined a slimming club or gym, even gone online and bought weight loss drugs. Worse still, you’ve briefly lost weight and then put it back on and added more pounds.
Losing weight is very difficult.
But there is a way and you will be in charge. No dietary ‘expert telling you what to do. This is your body, your health, your choices.
Why buy and read this booklet?
Because the author researched the whole process of dieting and took charge – very effectively.
He lost thirty pounds in sixty-three days over the Christmas and New Year period. And he kept a diary which he is now sharing with you.
Buying this booklet might just be the best decision you will ever make.
Publication date: 3 May, 2023
Prepare yourself for a helta-skelta ride around the City of London.
Experience what media tycoon and fraudster Robert Maxwell was really like, up close, imagine having dinner with controversial Conservative Member of Parliament Nadine Dorries, become enraged by the secret filming of Diana, Princess of Wales, puzzle at the appearance of Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith at Woburn Abbey and wonder why Ghislaine Maxwell hoped to meet the author at a party?
‘Square Mile Tales’ is the autobiography of a man who spent over forty years in banking and corporate finance, was awarded the coveted Fellowship of the (Chartered) Institute of Bankers, who wrote the text book on Finance Houses, who co-founded ProShare Investment Clubs and brought share ownership into the lives of many and who explained it all in his best-selling book on the subject.
Tremble with fear as the author was arrested by Chinese guards at the Hong Kong/Shenzhen border, as he was rushed to hospital in Beijing into the care of Dr Wang and how he became chairman of a Japanese media company to conclude an eventful career and as shown in the picture where he is outside the offices in Tokyo.
But ‘Square Mile Tales’ is much, much more as the author recalls his fifty-four years of marriage and the economic, political and social background to the events dominating his years in the City of London.
Publication date: 1 March, 2023
The setting is the British Isles, but not the British Isles as we know them today.
The brutal impact of the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the EU, together with the ever accelerating effects of global warming, Russian aggression in Ukraine, and the Pandemic, have led to a very different environment indeed, in almost every way. Politics, geography and geology are all in flux. At that moment in time Britain had disintegrated into six independent statelets with perhaps more on the way.
But some things remain the same;- greed,murder, conspiracy, and corruption among them. When Stephanie Flack, licenced Private Eye for the independent Royal Province of Anglia is asked to track down dome missing diamonds, she soon finds the trail leading her into some very unexpected and highly dangerous places, with dead bodies appearing with alarming regularity, including, very nearly, her own.
R.M.Cartmel’s skilled characterisation, sharp description and quiet irony provide a glimpse into a future we can almost recognise. A brilliant, gentle, wry dystopian murder mystery.
Publication date: 28 April, 2021
Three people had everything. One could lose almost everything.
A new title from Tony Drury examines the complications that can arise when the lives of three people become intertwined.
Damian Hannon is a successful chartered accountant who is moving into middle age as his two children have left home and his wealth increases, or so his clinical nurse wife Cathy, believes. She is only just beginning to understand the consequences of a disastrous
property investment made by her health-conscious husband.
Along comes divorced Marie Cameron, a dental hygienist, who develops a client session into a potential relationship with Damian. Events quickly spiral out of control and, before long, a paternity issue, a potential murderer, MI5’s search for a traitor and violence on a fishing vessel in the English Channel combine to make Cathy’s fight to retain her husband an impossible task.
But Damian and Marie also face challenges: one of the three people involved is about to lose everything.
Publication date: 23 May, 2020
This is the sixth in the series of DCI Sarah Rudd novels. She is now a private operative working for Delamount Security in London. She has an on-off relationship with ex-DCI ‘Mad Max’ Hemmings.
Sarah is delegated by her boss Norman Delamount to investigate a corrupt City banker Graham de Lille Rutherford who she discovers is a paedophile.
Bizarrely, in keeping with her maverick personality, she decides to go to the Middle East to try to rescue an orphan child. The banker, however, has put a contract on her life and an IRA hitman is chasing her.
Can ex-DCI Sarah Rudd rescue Najwa, a Lebanese refugee and will ‘Mad Max’ Hemmings prevent the killer from wiping out his partner?
Publication date: 8 May, 2020
Novella Nostalgia is a selection of ten stories penned individually by a collection of critically acclaimed authors. The series is launching its first compilation book featuring novellas from B. J. Sandiford, R. M Cartmel, Oliver Richbell and the creator of the series, Tony Drury.
Publication date: 23 February, 2020
A killer flu pandemic exacerbated by a shortage of the only effective treatment has the West Coast of America in a panic. Journalist Joe Hames, flying in to save his job and cover the story has an ulterior motive: to make contact with his long-lost former girlfriend and love of his life, Cassie.
Joe tries to find Cassie, whilst also trying to get hold of information on why the death toll is higher in California than anywhere else before any of the other journalists that have descended on the city. At the pharmaceutical company where she worked, Joe finds out that Cassie is dead: she was run down by a cable car two weeks earlier. When he goes to her funeral, he is surprised to find that he has become a person of interest to the police.
Or did she die? Joe begins to suspect that all is not what it seems, and in the fog-drenched streets of San Francisco, Joe unravels the real story resulting in a finale played out at Fisherman’s Wharf. Someone was really going to die this time, and not of the flu.
Publication date: 10 October, 2019
What causes a middle-aged, rotund financial executive to reduce his excessive weight?
At a Christmas reception in December 2018 held near to the Bank of England, a perspiring, bulging City financier met a corporate lawyer and bought her a drink. By the time they had finished the bottle and discussed his nineteen stones challenge, she offered him a wager.If he lost four stones she would show him a dragon tattoo on her back.When he had shed around forty pounds he challenged an author acquaintance to turn the event into a short story.He did.Is what follows what actually happened?
Publication date: 28 February, 2019
A rising star at The Bar, barrister, Amanda Buckingham is persuaded by the Head of Hartington Chambers to take on a case that she instinctively would have preferred not to. The defence counsel, as the Trial neared its denouement, had surely done enough to cast sufficient doubt in the minds of the jury. Amanda was hurtling towards a career defining loss. There was something though that Amanda just couldn’t reconcile – something she had forgotten in the evidence that had been put before the Court which had re-opened memories of her own traumatic past. To turn an acquittal into a conviction Amanda needed to delve deep into her own personal nightmare as well as finding the key evidence before it was too late for her and Sarah.
Publication date: 28 November, 2018
A Search for the Truth
Can undergraduate Lily Jane gain an honours degree by completing a special dissertation and, in doing so, make the right choice out of two men who want to define her future?
Lily, a Gentile, is coming to the end of her university course and cannot accept that she doesn’t warrant an honours degree. Tutor Steve relents and challenges her to write a ten-thousand word analysis of Judaism in six weeks. She clashes with her partner who abhors anti-Semitism and has recently joined the Jewish Labour movement. She visits a synagogue and meets an assistant rabbi who offers to help her.Lily relishes her discovery of Judaism: understanding its history, laws, writings, festivals and the pioneering establishment of Israel. She struggles to understand the causes and consequences of anti-Semitism.As her dissertation takes shape, she becomes attached to two men who attract and encourage her. She defers making a choice until the dissertation is delivered to her tutor. Will she score high enough to be awarded an honours degree and what decision does she make? Lily is on a voyage of discovery about Judaism, life and relationships.
It might all go very wrong for her…
Publication date: 15 September, 2018
A change must be made
Permanently removing The PM is the only way
This was the conclusion drawn by a band of conspirators intent on reversing what they saw to be the devastating result of the Brexit Referendum.
With the Middle Eastern Trade Agreement being signed that night the time for decisive action had arrived.
The plan had been calculated with military precision and when its leader declared “we go tonight” the accomplices were prepared to activate the Gloriana paper and to wrestle back the United Kingdom’s place in the European Union by assassinating The Prime Minister.
Publication date: 22 January, 2018
The fourth in the Novella Nostalgia series is inspired by the Michael Douglas film ‘Falling Down’. Does Milton Grant, an evil, vindictive ex-police officer, reflect the hatred that lies within modern society?
Milton has just been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Divorced, and with an estranged daughter, he feels he has nothing to live for – and nothing to lose. He begins a self-imposed mission to ‘correct’ what he believes are some of the main faults of his fellow human beings. In his way is a fumbling old lady at the supermarket checkout, an inconsiderate driver, selfish users of mobile phones, and self-satisfied chief executive Ray, who boasts about tax avoidance.
Milton’s acts of corrections get more extreme and violent as the novella progresses. He is spiralling out of control. In the meantime, two police officers, Lucy and Dave Smith, are close to exposing Milton. In the explosive finale Lucy finds herself facing him, as he points a gun at her head. She is alone, and has no backup. Dave is four minutes away.
Will Milton kill Lucy? Or will good triumph over evil?
Publication date: 14 August, 2017
Is it possible that two people can meet on a railway station and fall in love?
Carey Ryan is the victim of an assault on Platform B of St Pancras International station in London. She is rescued by a stranger called Mark who takes her for a coffee. He rushes off to meet a rich widow but asks to see her again. Soon, they are meeting every Thursday.
Carey is fighting to sort out her loveless marriage and aimless life. She employs the crazy Jonathan to teach her to write a book. He becomes her mentor as they explore the world of novella construction. Slowly, her growing love for Mark becomes intertwined with the romantic odyssey that she and Jonathan are progressing.
Then their consciences cause them both to hesitate. A brief encounter with Mark having a romantic outcome is perhaps a cinematic indulgence. That is until Jonathan intervenes and tells Carey why she holds the key to their future.
Forever on Thursdays is the third publication forming part of the Novella Nostalgia series linking iconic cinema classics with modern stories.
Publication date: 28 April, 2017
Is it possible that one person can change the opinion of eleven others in a criminal trial?
The Judge requires a unanimous verdict. It is Friday and, increasingly, there are compelling reasons why several of the jury members need to be released from service. The foreman, a local business women, struggles to hold on to her authority.
The first vote results in a count of eleven for ‘not guilty’ and one saying ‘guilty’. As the discussions proceed, and the drab, secured jury room produces additional pressures, the jurors begin to clash. This leads to an extraordinary outcome as the justice system is tested to its limits.
Twelve Troubled Jurors is the second publication forming part of the Novella Nostalgia series linking iconic cinema classics with modern stories.
Twelve Troubled Jurors is the first of five publications which form part of the Novella Nostalgia series linking iconic cinema classics with modern stories.
Publication date: 20 March, 2017
Is it possible that Audrey Hepburn was in Regent Street, London in 2016?
Perhaps not. But her memory is recreated in the desirable shape of Dr Ella van Houten who accidentally stood on Harry’s foot outside Hamleys, the world’s oldest toy shop. Ella was imagining that she was Holly Golightly, the character that Hepburn played in one of the greatest ever romantic films: Breakfast at Tiffany’s’.
This riveting novella tells how they begin a relationship which is dominated by two features: Ella’s reprise of Holly’s quirky and insecure nature and Harry’s guilt over the loss of his wife. There is also the impending death of Ella’s brother which bizarrely leads them chasing a figurine of the Mexican general Santa Anna who won the battle for ‘the Alamo’.
Their differing personalities dominate this fast moving story which takes in London, Europe and lunches with Harry. The ending produces a moment of pure cinema as Ella and Harry fight against the one obstacle which threatens their future together.
Lunch with Harry is the first of five publications which form part of the Novella Nostalgia series linking iconic cinema classics with modern stories.
Publication date: 24 February, 2017
Detective Chief Inspector Sarah Rudd is one of the bravest police officers ever to patrol the streets of the Home Counties. Her later career is told initially in the books ‘Megan’s Game’ and ‘The Deal’. In ‘Cholesterol’ she is involved in a shooting in The Mall and saves the lives of the Royal Couple for which she is awarded the Queen’s Police Medal for Gallantry. In ‘A Flash of Lightning’ she prevents the bombing of four hundred travellers in a London bound commuter train from a Jihadist attack. In ‘The Lady Who Turned’, published in 2014, DCI Sarah Rudd not only rescues her daughter Susie from a deranged kidnapper, but becomes a private investigator and fights off an East European gangster’s attempt to take control of ‘The Lady’ magazine.
Publication date: 3 February, 2016
A quiet cul-de-sac. A seemingly normal man. So, why is he holed up in his house with a shotgun?
DC Sarah Rudd knows it should be a straightforward negotiation. And with PC Robinson and his police dog Ben on hand, it should be a simple extraction. But something just doesn’t seem right to her.
Can she stop the armed response officers from moving in before things turn deadly for everyone involved?
Publication date: 13 September, 2015
It is the summer of 2015. Ex-Detective Chief Inspector Sarah Rudd, now separated and earning her living as a private investigator in London, is faced with an impossible task. She must save the life of her boss’s close friend. The challenge is that he has put a contract on his own life which cannot be stopped.
Can Sarah yet again display the ingenuity that established her as one of the bravest and most resourceful police officers ever known?
Publication date: 17 March, 2015
Police officer Sarah Rudd – the early years
On Scene and Dealing is a call sign made by a police officer to Control when arriving at an incident.
This is Part One of the early career of DCI Sarah Rudd from 1997, when she joins the Hertfordshire Constabulary, to May 2003 when she is a Detective Constable.
Each complete chapter tells of the her adventures facing knife wielding yobs, drug-crazed hostage takers, the tricks used by bullying parents and her tensions with male colleagues. She sees through an alcoholic guardian and a lying war veteran. She meets the man of her dreams and has a son. But she finds herself in a wife-swapping party and, in the last story, succumbs to the libidinous advances of a senior officer.
But Sarah Rudd is on her way to the top and nothing will prevent her from becoming one of the bravest woman police officers ever to patrol the streets of the Home Counties.
Publication date: 22 September, 2014
Mark Niel is a poet for people who don’t like poetry
Funny, energetic and engaging, his live performances saw him burst from the Open Mic Circuit to become a Poetry Slam Champion at major poetry festivals such as Ledbury, Bristol and Wenlock. Mark has gone on to make appearances at major festivals such as Latitude and Green Man as well as regularly featuring at events, comedy clubs and theatres all over the country.
In May, 2011, Mark was appointed the first official Poet Laureate of Milton Keynes. In 2012 Mark was commissioned by BBC Radio 2 to write a poem to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and he went on to become their resident poet for “2Day” in May, 2012. Mark also works closely with the MK Dons football team, working with local schools and businesses.
Publication date: 23 June, 2014
Two women, two ways of life, and a burning desire for revenge
Joanna and Kate are the closest of friends, sharing child-care, sharing secrets, but then Kate hurts Joanna in a way she can’t forgive.
Should she seek revenge? What would be the right thing to do?
This exciting romantic short story follows Joanna through the seven days it takes for her to make her decision and transform her life.
Publication date: 5 Jan, 2015
The Lady Who Turned revolves round three impressive women, the Lady magazine, and, in the background, the renowned Mrs T, the lady who was not for turning.
Central to the story is Sarah Rudd, who finds herself and her family caught in a crisis which forces her to reconsider every aspect of her life, as a police officer and as a wife. The decisions she makes take her in unexpected and exciting directions.
Annabelle and Esther, both on the staff of the Lady magazine, also find themselves caught in a crisis – the magazine is under threat, and, in resisting its takeover by hostile forces, each woman finds herself having to go to extraordinary lengths to fight for what she values.
The criminal underworld and City financiers battle it out for dominance, and the ending comes unexpectedly at the graveside of the first woman prime minister of Great Britain, when the lady is seen at last to turn…
Publication date: 21 November, 2013
Jessica agrees with her mother; it’s time she had a baby. She’s given up looking for the right father.
City financier, Matthew, has raised £6 million to make a film. Now it’s gone missing and his neck is on the line.
Detective Chief Inspector Sarah Rudd has learned that there are terrorists planning to murder 400 people. She doesn’t know where or how and now her brilliant career is threatened.
Will DCI Rudd uncover the terrorist plot in time to save the nation? Who has taken the film money? Will Matthew find the love of his life and a new mother for his daughter? And why is The Great Train Robbery on everybody’s mind?
Publication date: 6 June, 2013
Adrian Dexter is a corporate financier struggling through the turbulence of recession in 2012. Far away from the City of London, the love of his life waits for him in Johannesburg – as does his mortal enemy and notorious South African gangster, Nigel de Groot.
When Adrian meets the beautiful Helen Greenwood and they embark on a passionate affair, he begins to feel young again. But his newfound happiness is about to be rudely interrupted.
A business merger, an unexpected pregnancy, a kidnapping, a royal ambush – suddenly Adrian’s life is spiralling out of control. Will DCI Sarah Rudd save the day by solving a killer’s cryptic clue?
And then, of course, there’s those nasty fatty deposits lurking beneath the surface…
Publication date: 17 October, 2012
The pressure is on for corporate financier Oliver Chatham. As the city languishes in recession, he is under contract to raise two million pounds for a publishing company. But it’s not only money at stake – if he is successful, Amanda Wavering, woman of his dreams and sister of the publishing house’s chief executive, will consummate their relationship; if he fails, no deal.
As if this wasn’t challenge enough, Oliver’s finance house becomes caught up in a battle of ferocious egos, as new bloods battle with the old guard for the future of the business. While old school boss Charles Harriman fights his own demons and the terrifying kidnap of his child, fearless corporate researcher Sara Flemming takes her reputation – and her life – right to the edge in her bid to expose the dodgy dealings of a Russian mafioso.
Will Oliver get what he bargained for – or will he learn the hard way that you should never mix sex and the City?
Publication date: 16 May, 2012
Megan Williams is a young widow from a small town in Wales. David Rensburg is a wealthy corporate financier from the City. Their worlds are miles apart.
But when a chance meeting on a tennis court marks the beginning of a passionate affair, Megan begins to think she may be able to love again, and feels the ice in her heart begin to thaw.
But all is not well in the City. As the recession starts to bite, tensions are running high, and David becomes increasingly unsettled by the unsavoury activities of a London broker, Martin van Dijl. And when a high profile murder case rocks the square mile, David is the number one suspect.
Megan is used to winning, but the stakes of the game have never been so high. Can she prove the innocence of the man she loves – or is she too late for her happy ending?
