Books

James Armstrong was born into a ruthlessly ambitious political and military dynasty dating back to the English Civil War. Admired for his tactical skill, courage and humanity, he served with distinction throughout the Peninsular War, rising to the rank of Major and joining Wellington’s personal staff. In the summer of 1815, as armies assemble...

The war is over for Solway’s exhausted, grief-stricken home front heroes and villains. Many, including revered union leader, Sam Bullock, have enthusiastically welcomed the Labour landslide and a new generation of MPs driving the government’s ambitious manifesto, promising cradle-to-grave care, full employment and housing renewal.

As the white...

In 1963, popular, widely respected Tory MP Norman Armstrong is a young Home Secretary in the new Douglas-Home administration. His unlikely friend, left-wing freelance lobby correspondent, Alf Burton, is right behind the new Home Secretary’s crusade against police corruption and organised crime in London’s West End, and to bring all of the Euston...

It is 1985. Months after the Brighton bombing, grief-stricken Home Secretary, Sir Norman Armstrong, has all but disappeared from public view, although he remains very much in control of his powerful government department.

Sir Norman finds himself once again at odds with his unlikely friend, influential left-wing political commentator, Alf Burton,...

Tory Chief Whip and devoted Thatcherite, Norman Armstrong, was born into a powerful political and military dynasty dating back to the English Civil War. His unlikely friend, influential left-wing political commentator, Alf Burton, is from a family of Tyneside shipyard workers, and remains haunted by bitter memories of Depression era poverty,...

In 1936 popular, charismatic MP Richard Armstrong is destined for the very top in politics, but his efforts in support of the King and Wallis Simpson, and the Jarrow Marchers, defying Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, threaten to destroy his glittering career.

Half a century on, embattled Home Secretary Sir Norman Armstrong and his unlikely friend,...

Solway is a tough industrial city somewhere on England’s North Sea coast. The Great Depression laid waste to its proud engineering and shipbuilding heritage, creating poverty on a Dickensian scale, but the onset of World War Two offered the dying city a lifeline; moribund industry was resurrected for the war effort and thousands went back to...