Writing Award 2022

Shannon’s landed her dream promotion as Quarry Manager. It means she's back home after 13 years, since her twin sister died aged 18 in an accident, something Shannon thinks she caused. She’s spent nearly half her life feeling guilty. It’s time to dig up the past and discover some shocking truths.

When Valxina finally achieves her dreams, she expects safety and protection after a life of poverty. But Valxina soon discovers that her new existence isn’t what she thought. Keepers are vanishing in the dead of night—including Valxina’s superior, Sera.

When a teenage girl moves in with the family she never knew she had, she must figure out if her new creepy mansion home is haunted or if her ghostly visions are just another symptom of her mental illness.

A body falls from the sky. A plane falls from the sky. Thus commences a chain of events that involves the intelligence agencies of four countries. A conspiracy against America, instigated by Mexico and Canada has to be thwarted. A hijacked super-plane and an assassination is part of the plan.

A bright, sensitive boy named Colby Blue becomes alienated after losing his parents, devises a way to escape by constructing a tower towards space made from stacks of books that reach the stratosphere and makes contact with benevolent beings from across the Galaxy intent on helping humanity evolve.

A dreadlocked amateur marksman catapulted out of his own doomed reality pretends to be a bodyguard for a teen pop star. When her circle of friends is suspected of murder, he discovers his worth by working to clear all their names and surviving the treacherous, glittery world of the rich and famous.

Although the Biblical story of Noah's Ark has been retold hundreds of times, this version tells the story through the eyes of the dove sent by Noah to find land after the flood. Asha, an ordinary dove with a damaged wing, overcomes self doubt to bring hope to the people and animals in the ark.

Jasiri, a brave young boy is devastated when he finds out his parents want a divorce. He thinks that by touching a fallen meteorite, his wish to patch them up can come true. Jasiri and his friend fall into a trap door and enter a world of plastic where they have to face the plastic monster.

Ocean Bound Women (WSPC 2022) is an intriguing first-hand narrative of circumnavigating the globe in the 1880s. Based on family documents stored in a seaman's chest, this book provides a scholarly account of the history of the Swedish sailing-ship Atlantic (1876–1911) and her crew.

Kala is a story about love, loyalty and the importance of being proud of where you come from. It's a tale that will raise eyebrows. Its starts in Uganda, via England, only to end in Jamaica

When the baby she'd prayed for is taken – revenge is all she has left. Jess, infertile after a crash, inherits £10m. Dan sets out to wed her, eyes fixed on her fortune. Now all Jess wants is a baby. Surrogate Marti seems perfect until she seduces Dan, they keep baby Luke – and the money.

Former cage fighter turned safecracker and jewel thief Harry Chance has five days to locate £40m in stolen gold or his abducted 17-year-old daughter's dismembered body will be delivered by courier.

These stories are suffused with many disparate elements from my own experience - as a migrant, as a worker in Her Majesty’s Prisons, as a misfit, at odds with even her own background; they deal with the agonizing impossibility of ever going “home” , the anguish of belonging nowhere.