Writing is a privilege where all stories matter, authors put an immense amount of time and effort into their work, therefore it is great that our material is read.
JOHN MYLES RIGDEN
Author
I have always wanted to write a novel but found it difficult to actually create anything that was worthwhile or was in excess of 20,000 words. However, I persevered and decided to create something more simple, so I wrote my memoirs all of which turned into a lengthy manuscript of some 160,000 words, At this point, I just couldn't stop writing. I have had a very full and interesting life due to my job working for an overseas Drilling Contractor, therefore I have many experiences to share from that side of my life but also as far back when I was a child.
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I then wrote my first novel "Route to all that is Evil" which was related to Nazi gold being stolen from Berlin to Genoa and then Montevideo before its final conclusion in Argentina where the story concludes in an explosive finale.
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The book is very busy as it runs consecutively with two different timelines. One story is being portrayed in 1940 and during WWII whilst the other story is being told in 2012, there is so much going on it is hard to explain with any clarity in a small number of words.
​After "Route to all that is Evil", my appetite to continue writing was unstoppable as I had the bug so to speak.
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I was finally on my way to being a Published Author!​
THE PHOTO ABOVE IS AT THE PARQUE NACIONAL DELTA DIAMANTE, ARGENTINA
ABOUT
Author
I was born in the small fishing town of Whitby on the east coast of Yorkshire. After my father died I was brought up with my mother and my two fantastic brothers. Despite my father's demise, we were all very fortunate in the fact that we were given a foundation to attend boarding schools in the south of England. My eldest brother Paul was able to go on to university and became a teacher before starting his own Advertising Company in Newcastle. Neil and I chose a different route and decided to go in a different direction. We both started to work in the Offshore Drilling industry in the UK and later overseas.
After working with an American company in Holland for three years, I started a new contract with Maersk Drilling in Denmark where I spent 30 years of my life working with the same company. I basically started at the bottom of the ladder and worked myself up to Operations Manager on Harsh environment Jack-Ups, Semi Submersibles, Land Rigs, Barges, and Platforms as well as being involved in Project Management and Rig Refurbishments. I also invented and patented the 'Upper Rotating Sub' which is a Downhole hydraulic drilling tool for enhanced horizontal Drilling. From a professional point of view, I have been given a charmed life, and the experiences and countries that I have enjoyed working in have been wonderful.
I am still married after 29 years and I have three boys Darren, Daniel, and Michael. After spending many years working abroad, I am now living in Argentina where we have some farming and Property Development assets. Although Argentina has some economic difficulties, it is still a pretty good place to live where the people are hard-working and generally pleasant.
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THE PHOTO ABOVE IS AT DUSK ON THE LAND RIG IN VENEZUELA
THE KAPLAN TRILOGY
The first two books in the Kaplan Trilogy collection are "AMIA" and "The Israeli", both of which relate to an Israeli operative called Aaron Ezekiel Kaplan. After being assigned to Mossad in Tel Aviv, Kaplan was then stationed in Argentina where he was involved in three terrorist attacks created by Hezbollah, the attacks were harrowing and this book is not for the faint-hearted. The main Hezbollah character is a beautiful and seductive Lebanese assassin called Mahgdi whom I have tried to depict with the book cover, she is a really dedicated but evil creature who has been referred to in the book as the "Angel of Death".
The Israeli is the sequel to AMIA where Kaplan is assigned to the Israeli Embassy in London after spending some months in a psychiatric clinic in Tel Aviv. Upon being cleared and released from the clinic his story continues in London. This novel continues with a lifetime of incidents where Kaplan is involved with more Hezbollah activity in the UK. This new Hezbollah Terrorist cell in London planned to bomb the main line rail links on the east and west coast that bring the UK rail systems to a standstill.
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Kaplan continues his thrilling and compelling journey in the novel Assassin where he is now ordered to assassinate the remaining Cali Cartel members in Colombia as well as four Israeli Mossad agents who have been corrupted by the Cartel, it is Kaplan’s brief to assassinate all four agents.
Although the operation is successful, three of the four Israeli agents escape. Kaplan is embarrassed and ends his association with Mossad and semi-retires to Athens, this is when the three agents seek him out and wreak havoc on Kaplan’s retirement plans.
Kaplan then joins a black ops group where he is assigned to infiltrate the IRA and flush out an MI5 informant who has suddenly gone missing, his journey then takes him to Mexico where things start to turn for the worse.
In the finale of the novel, Kaplan is faced with his worst possible nightmare of any assignment….
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ROUTE TO ALL THAT IS EVIL
This is a novel that is centered around WWII where Göring and Hitler were taking Nazi gold and various pieces of art from Berlin to South America in order to create the start of the Fourth Reich. The novel runs consecutively with a timeline between 1939-1945 and also 2012 where the two stories are finally entwined where they both come to an explosive finale on the River Paraná in Argentina. The novel is explosive throughout as the two timelines find their own levels of intensity.
The novel also illustrates the planning that Hitler had in his mind from an early stage where he had made plans in case Germany failed in Europe, South America was his real target. The contraband was smuggled out of Germany and leads a very intricate route where there are many individuals that fall at the hands of the Nazis during the initial theft and also during the time the contraband is being mobilised from Berlin to Argentina.
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It is a really dynamic and dramatic high octane story where the lives of many are entwined in this journey, I have also tried to include various parts of history to bring the book into the correct light.
THE LAST ANGLOS SAXON
This is a historic novel dated from 1066 A.D. and revolves around probably the most important period in English history. The story relates to a Swedish boy who was building Viking Longboats for the Jaal when he decided to try his luck with the crews and leave Sweden for England and Wessex.
The longboat that he was sailing on sank off the south coast of Wessex during a storm, he somehow survived this disaster where others did not. After the storm, he met a local Wessex girl where they were married and had a son by the name of Sigurd. The story continues where Sigurd becomes an infamous warrior amongst men and fought alongside Harald Godwinson who eventually became the King of England. Sigurd was so highly recognised that he became the head of the Kings personal stealth army. At the "Battle of Stamford Bridge" Harald Godwinson defeated the great Giant Norwegian King Harold Hardrader and his men. Immediately after that battle, the English army was forced to head south to meet William the Duke of Normandy who had landed on the south coast at Hastings. Miraculously the English army failed at that final Saxon battle where Norman rule was now being established under this new Norman King, William.
Sigurd's son Alfred was at the battle of Hastings with his father where he saw his father slain by a Norman Nobleman. Alfred fled to France and was captured during an attempt to assassinate William. Alfred was then imprisoned by the new Norman King, he was in prison for the best part of 20 years.
Unbeknown to Alfred, his younger brother Æthelred, told his mother that he would make it his life's mission to flee to Normandy and free his brother Alfred from the prison and the hands of William.
The story then takes on the intense efforts by Æthelred to free his brother with the help of a French girl called Juliette. The book is full of Saxon action, romance and coincidence, if you like history, this is a novel that will suit you.
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When researching this book, I was amazed at the limited amounts of historical information that was available, this was a really important era of English history but the historical facts were few. We still look towards the Bayeux Tapestry for information. I also find it hard to believe that Harald Godwinson who was notably the finest military architect of that era could make what I believe to be a basic error in fighting the Norman army at Hastings so soon after Stamford Bridge, had Harald waited a few days or a week, England would still have been Saxon and not Norman!
VOICES FROM WITHIN
This is a novel relating to a young boy who was living in the small fishing town of Whitby on the east coast of Yorkshire. Sam lost his father at sea when he was only a young boy, and his mother then needed to turn to prostitution to make ends meet. During the time that Sam's mother was entertaining her guests, Sam was in the room next door hearing all that was taking place. On this particular night, Sam's mother was seeing a local rich farmer from Ruswarp when he started to abuse her. After the fight, Sam decided to take things into his own hands.
A similar situation occurred a few years later after his mother stopped her activities as a prostitute where she had a normal boyfriend. Donny was a typical Essex boy but once drunk he became quite abusive. One night he took to beating Sam's mother and Sam once again entered into the fray. Sam was twelve at this point.
After some years of near normality, Sam was hoodwinked into marrying a girl from the south of England, when Sam found out that his new wife was indulging in out-of-marriage enterprises, he gave her his signature end.
Sam changed at that point when he was guided by the strange voices from inside of his head, he then followed the advice from the voices and went on a killing spree up and down the country where he murdered a further five men in cold blood. Each of his victims was married with children and had been associating with prostitutes.
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All the time these murders were taking place, no one knew who was performing these acts, eventually, Sam was found out by his one and only error.
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A gripping story of a serial killer who was obviously out of his mind and followed instructions from these so-called voices from inside his head.
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Once again, the story has some very good coincidences that appear in the investigation.
Codename Cerberus
Lena Annelies Eichart, was born in Essen to a German father and an English mother, after leaving Germany, she was assigned to Bletchley Park in the communications division before being recruited by SOE in London.
Her new name was Heidi Meyer, and her codename was Cerberus, she was assigned to carry out missions in France as a wireless operator, on her first mission in Bletterans, her contact had been picked up by the Germans and imprisoned, she was left alone at the drop site with no help from the Résistance.
During her time in Bletterans, she orchestrated an elaborate prison break to extract a French Résistance fighter and also a Polish female agent called Annika.
She then continued her training onboard HMS Ultimatum at Portsmouth docks, after a week with the submarine crew, she was assigned to a task in Hamburg Germany to gather information on a new super-sub known as the SU-21. She then infiltrated the German hierarchy of officers and bled them of the design and building procedures of the submarine, all information was passed back to London, eventually she was captured and tortured, and was sentenced to death by the German firing squad, but what happened to Cerberus?
Codename Osprey
Lena Annelies Eichart, continues her plight to cause as much damage as possible to the Nazi war machines. On this assignment, she has once again been given various codenames for each of her infiltrations into Germany and Berlin.
She was assigned to carry out missions in the heart of the Third Reich and Berlin itself, a dangerous and staggering assignment considering her past reputation with Ribbentrop and the Gestapo, but she was on a mission and that was all that mattered, her own safety has always been secondary.
Her mission was to become Amelia Hildegard Reichstadt who was from a family in Hamburg, the mission was to infiltrate Tempelhof airport and collect information on the new jet powered engine, the Messerscmidt ME-262 and the Horten Ho-229 Wing aeroplane that was so far advanced it was a frightening thought for the Allies