In the summer of 1485, at the start of the reign of Henry VII, a previously unseen disease started to spread across England. It was believed that it was brought to England by French mercenaries in Henry Tudor’s army. Henry Tudor arrived in Londo...

I remember visiting the HMS Victory in Portsmouth as an English schoolboy. The Battle of Trafalgar and Lord Nelson’s heroic demise had everything to attract the interest of young English boys. So it is not surprising that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the ...

In my historical research for my upcoming novel “Remembrance Man”, I have come across several unique kinds of dwellings that existed back in 1832. I have always been interested in early North American architecture. I would often wonder how Southerner...

I’m coming, I’m coming the scourge of mankind,I float on the waters, I ride on the wind,Great hunger and squalor prepare my dread way,In the homes of the wretched my sceptre I sway,In filthy, damp alleys and courts I reign,O’er the dark stagnant pool...

In January 2019, the New Scientist in London announced that the US Army has solved the mystery around the identity of the Nazi war criminal Rudolf Hess. The article maintained that a blood sample was taken from Hess back in 1982 by US Army doctor Phi...

This week I have been working on my new book and, as usual, research is an important part of this work. The novel entitled “Remembrance Man” is about the cholera epidemic in 1832. Most of us don’t remember the great pandemics of previous centuries an...

During the parliamentary shenanigans in the UK this week, I was thinking about how Britain has always had a foothold in Europe and Europe in Britain. Brexit won’t change much of anything. Remember the ‘Pale of Calais’ back in the fourteenth cent...

For some twenty years I believed the story about Sarner’s disease which appeared in the CBC’s Ideas program back in April 1996. I was particularly interested in the cholera epidemic of 1832 which is the subject of my fourth novel in preparation. Well...

I came across another interesting historical snippet recently while revising my television scripts for “An Absolute Secret”. Does anyone remember Harry Hopkins, the adviser to President Roosevelt during the war years? The man who spent 3 ½ years livi...

I am working on the book trailer for “Shipwrecked Lives” so I will be ready to do a promotional pitch in early January. I have had to delay a lot of things in the fall due to illness and the need to shop my previous novel “An Absolute Secret” to tele...

This week I thought I would tell you a little bit about my career in filmmaking. I fell in love with making moving pictures, but I was never much of a cinephile. I have always preferred to read the book rather than see the movie. I used to go to the ...

As a writer of historical fiction, I think that writers owe it to their readers to provide some reference as to the veracity of the information he or she is providing even if it is a fictional work. I mix true stories based on facts that appear in hi...

This week we are talking about my third novel “Shipwrecked Lives” (290 pages) which is in various stages of rewriting and should be out in a few months. “Shipwrecked Lives” tells the story of the government inquiry into the sinking of the Empress of ...

An Absolute Secret is out in paperback and in four different ebook formats. Perhaps the most interesting scene in my book is the meeting between Peter Faye (real name Falk) and Anthony Blunt at the Reform Club in London in December 1943. Blunt w...

Canadians love PBS and, for reason, the public network is an extraordinary success story in the bleak world of headline news. PBS broadcast recently Ken Burn’s and Lynn Novick’s extraordinary new series “The Vietnam War”, a 10 part, 18-hour televisio...