As Spielberg's brilliant film The Post tells us, the state hides and commits crimes in the name of national security. Some cases we know about, some we don't. EBOLOWA will open your eyes!

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36439035-ebolowa

FIRST OF ALL, best wishes to everyone for 2018 with the fervent hope we can salvage something from the mess of Brexit.  There is no obvious overlap with EBOLOWA but, for anyone who has not read it, the book features a time when de Gaulle's trick of by-passing the National Assemby with referendums cast a long shadow over France.  Can I urge you to read it?  Please do, and please post a review on Amazon…

State-owned EDF is the nuclear power world-leader, but in the early 1970s French energy was oil-produced and in total crisis thanks to the OPEC embargo.  Word on the street and in the French media was "we don't have oil, but we have ideas", like to go NUCLEAR.  EBOLOWA, currently awaiting last detail ISBN number, covers what that meant for remote corners of the French Empire like Cameroon and…

hello everyone, I just wanted to give you a glimpse of the cover MARK ECOB has designed for Ebolowa ---- still short of a tweak or two and revising the blurb but pretty much there.  I really like it and reckon it gives a sense of what the book's about whilst catching your eye if it's stacked upright in a bookshop ---  I tried it out on my iPad and leaving that around, roughly the same size as a paperback…

After 35 years and no likelihood of a civil partnership got married to Su on Saturday, after bubbles and sunshine trek with family fo swim at Bee Sands  - fabulous weekend ending up in Babbacombe harbour overlooking bay.

            The Second Edit is done.  Over 100K words carefully sifted and commented on.  A great job (many thanks Sadie) and a much better book, so it’s time well spent.  Sorry if it feels forever but it turns out Unbound cuts no corners (proof of pudding and all that).  Now for the copy-editing and then the proof reading.  The publishing date is in sight (August-September) and launch parties…

Hats Off to Val McDermid

            Her Guardian review of Paula Hawkins’ new thriller pulls off an unusual feat - - a critical analysis of the book without summarizing the plot.  Even better, she makes the point that successful thrillers are rare because the trick of withholding and releasing information is so tough to get right.  The device of the unreliable narrator (Gone Girl, Girl on the…

Hello every one of Ebolowa's generous supporters and other interested readers!  I'm logging in to say that I have just completed the first edit with Unbound's very thorough and perceptive editor.  The book is even better!  And the NEWS is too - - - UNbound will be producing a PAPERBACK edition of the book which will be available at all good shops a week or so after the DIGITAL issue.  This is absolutely…

This was Jean Luc Godard talking about making movies, but to judge from the profusion of 'girl' in the title he could just as well have been talking about thrillers.  At the last count there were girls "Gone", "On a Train", "With a Dragon Tattoo", "Crow", "With a Clock for a Heart" and (a stunner) "In a Plain Brown Wrapper" - - and for Gun you can read "at risk" or "in jeopardy", essentials if a thriller…

Happy news, EBOLOWA made the target last night (with one more pledge winging its way from France) so this is a VERY BIG thanks to all you wonderful supporters.  Crowd funding for a book isn't the smoothest process and I am very grateful to you all on two counts: getting the money together, really fantastic, but also for taking the sting out of it.  I hope you will take a moment over Christmas to raise…

Dear, dear supporters, first another huge hearfelt thanks for getting EBOLOWA this close to publication - - we are just short of £250 at the worst time of the year for spare cash BUT IF there's anyone out there that you know with a nose for a convincing thriller please drop them the link and enthuse a second over the prospect in store for them in 2017 (the other prospects being not so good) - - -…

Every day seems to bring us a new film, book or TV series based on “real life”, whether a serial killer of husbands, the last woman to hang in England, or the British government’s cynical pursuit of jet power after the war.  The claim adds lustre and credibility and it seems that something about the ‘truth’ appeals to a deep human need.  I once gave James Baldwin’s Another Country (New York in the…

I was always tempted (counted chickens a hundred times) and so now it's hard for me not to raise a glass in a pre-Christmas toast to all you great supporters of Ebolowa - - the current numbers of you and the percentage of the target are neck-and-neck in the final straight to make 100 - - fantastic!  Just over £250 to go and the project is launched.  I cannot thank you enough!  In keeping with Ebolowa…