Daisy desperately needs to get help for her friends, but she has little Toby with her, and he is tired, an he doesn't understand...
I was out of that window at once, and running, almost tumbling down the metal stairs. I needed to get back to Xunzi House at once, quickly, before my friends reached the docks and I lost them for ever.
It was properly night-time by then, of course, and very dark. Environmentally friendly street lights are, no doubt, a good thing, but they tended to make pools of orange on the pavement and road, with long, dark shadows between. There was no traffic. I ran across to the road to the place where I had left Toby.
At …
See moreThis extract is from the vey beginning of the book. We meet Giorgio, who is going to tell us his story...
There is an Old Man who lives on top of the Hill. St Catherine’s Hill, they call it, although as far as I can tell, St Catherine has never done anything to lay claim to it. She does not send police or anti-terrorist people in riot gear, to defend her hill and to turf us off. Perhaps that is because she is a saint? When the People bring us food and water, the Old Man says that they must be saints. Saints do good to other people, but property is a crime, so how …
See moreThe events of Book 1, Courting Rendition, have come to a bitter conclusion. How did it come to this? What sort of life can Karl have now?
I really just existed during the flight across the Atlantic and the drive down to Hampshire. I was very aware, as I went through security in Houston, that I was carrying a deeply subversive document, or at least a document they would consider subversive. I had never been so grateful for the electronic tag on my passport. I was one of the good guys, or so they believed, and the check was cursory. We flew overnight and I barely slept, but the plane was quiet and the service in business class unobtrusive, and I lay back with …
See moreCarrie and Tom need to escape from an England that has become fascist. They think they are safe in the home of a country vicar, but then a suspicious acquaintance turns up. There is nothing for it, but to leave the vicarage at once, while it is dark...
Creeping out twenty minutes later, without turning on any lights, reminded me of antics when I was younger: a midnight feast with my cousins, or the time when we teenagers had a silence on the hill one Sunday morning as the sun rose. I could hear Derek’s steady snoring and, once again, the click of the back door opening. Will had an old fashioned battery torch to light our way, and we stopped to put our shoes on, and followed him.
It was late, there were few lights on in the houses …
See moreAlice has been hiding in a cottage in remote central Wales, but it seems that her enemies have found her. She has to escape, now - before they arrive at her door, to arrest her. But she is miles out, in the countryside, and it is winter, and she has nobody to turn to...
When I left yesterday morning the first thing that struck me when I got outside was the feel of the air. It is hard to describe, but
when I walked down the lane to the copse in the snow the air seemed wet and blustery, as if it had a life of its own. Yesterday
morning it felt crisp and sharp. Flakes of snow were still drifting down but delicately, and I could see the lightness of clouds against
deep black in the sky. I turned left then right from the back door, so that I was on the footpath …