For almost a year the Eastern host of the Great King Xerxes had marched from victory to victory. Granted, Xerxes’ loses had been embarrassing at times. Yet he was pretty sure that unfortunate incidents like the skirmish at Thermopylae or the gross incompetence of his naval officers in Artemisium would soon be forgotten and history would hardly bother to record them; and if all else failed...

Harry Marringale, a man in his early sixties wearing a gray sweater vest and a dull expression on his wrinkled face to match it, sat alone to tea on the kitchen table of his small house in York, where he had spent the better part of his adult life. It was an old place with creaky floorboards and that musty carpet smell diffused about. A chilly February draft sipped through the eroded frames of...

There are those who tend to think that studying the texts of classical literature is a tedious task suited to reclusive savants and phlegmatic academics. When it comes to Socrates, Plato and Greek philosophy, the last thing that comes to the layman’s mind is hope for ‘an exciting read’. He’d much rather pick up a fantasy novel or, if his tastes and passions are excited...

A pale beam of moonlight was languidly creeping across the piss-soaked straw on the cell floor. Sopater regarded that waning light with eyes tearing up as if at the sight of a dear old friend. His dry lips formed the ghost of a smile. Gathering up his long tunic about him he walked to the other end of his tiny prison where a single barred window allowed him his final melancholy view of the...

The term “android” nowadays probably brings to mind the operating system of those smart-phone / tablet thingies. Whatever. To the mind of happy dwellers of the shining realm of Geekdom it instantly recalls fond memories of Lieutenant Commander Data of Star Trek, The Next Generation. And FYI, the crew of the Enterprise had tablets and smart-phone / iPad thingies decades before you...

It’s been a little while since I last updated my blog but the last couple of months have been unbelievably hectic for me. After an arduous two-year struggle with words I finally got around to finishing the fourth (and final, let’s hope!) re-write of my new historical fantasy adventure novel. If everything goes like a feel-good 90s movie script, I should be able to get it out there...