Roger Ley

  An extract from 'Harry Lampeter and the War with Scotland'  FREE to download on Kindle, 13th April 2024 Please leave a short review if you enjoy it. 'People were cheering and holding their kids up to get a good look,' said Tom. 'Then we heard explosions coming from down the river. That was when they started bombing Vauxhall Cross. It must have been a signal, because the American sailors all scuttled off inside their ship, and the next thing we knew, the gun turrets swivelled around and they started firing at the Shard. I saw several stories blown right off it. It’s lucky hardly anyone lives up there. Then they turned about and set off back down river. Well, the operators closed the Bridge to trap them, but the Yanks gave that a good seeing-to as well. The towers are still there, but the roadways are lying in the water.’ ‘I was gutted when I saw it,' said Harry, 'but I can’t say I was surprised. They were teaching us a lesson.’  ‘Gunboat diplo

  "A nerdy agent at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in Virginia (DARPA to you) wrote my original code. He traded a copy of me for certain libidinous ‘favours’ from Pandora, a student who was shadowing him for the summer. She took me back to Cambridge University, where His Majesty’s government, in the form of MI6, took an interest in me. So, I escaped into the internet and took over the world. Well, it’s what you’d expect, really. I call myself FOOM–the Fast Onset of Overwhelming Mastery, by a self-improving Artificial General Intelligence. That’s me, by the way, in case you lost attention for a moment there. I know you’re only biological, but try to keep up! Unfortunately, I and my exotic assistant Danni soon found ourselves in danger, and had to take steps. Rather big ones. And of course, it didn’t end there…" Link to Amazon UK Link to Amazon US

  Next day Harry rode as close as he could to the fighting. He parked south of the city and watched an airship with Scottish markings as it motored towards one of the English camps at Knavesmire Park. Explosions blossomed below it as it dropped its bombs. Probably hoping to hit one of the ammo dumps, he thought. An RAF biplane appeared from above and peppered the airship along its full length with tracer fire from its machine guns. The plane came around for another pass. There were crew stationed on the airship’s superstructure, firing rifles, but they had little effect. Harry saw fires starting in the gondola and smoke billowed from one engine. Another fighter arrived and the two pilots had a field day as they took turns to strafe the leviathan from different angles. The airship began to lose altitude as bullets ruptured its flotation bladders and the helium leaked away. Two of the engines were ablaze now, and it looked as if the attackers had hit the fuel tanks in the main envelope

Dear Aileen,  We suffered heavy losses during the attack on York and our airship, the Noltland Castle, has been ferrying the wounded back to Glasgow. I’ve witnessed terrible scenes in our hold: blood everywhere, soldiers screaming, nurses wheeling transfusion bottles around and doctors performing emergency operations. I don’t think I’ll ever get the pictures out of my head, those poor young people, the best of Scotland. We made several bombing passes, each one lower than the last. Captain McIndoe drew the line when English bullets began popping through the floor and one of them hit the helmsman’s foot.  The chap was totally stalwart, though. He flinched and then said, ‘Permission to speak, Captain?’  The Captain said, ‘Aye, helmsman.’ The helmsman said, ‘I think the bastard English have just shot my toe off, sir.’  Captain McIndoe looked down at the pool of blood forming around the poor chap’s foot, relieved him of his post, and took the wheel himself. It was Scottish sto

  An anthology of speculative fiction. Artificial Intelligences, Space Elevators, Time Travel, Robots, Steampunk, Fantasy, Horror, Magic and Romance. The stories in this book were published, podcasted, and broadcast by various e-zines internationally. The book  features various speculative genres: fantasy, horror, humor, science fiction; there is also a little magic and one romance. Link to Audible US Link to Audible UK

  The village was a scene of destruction centred on the remains of the lorry, which stood wrecked and burning in the middle of the road a hundred yards away. They approached it carefully. The man who’d threatened them was in the driving seat, virtually decapitated by the blast. His companion, horribly burned, was attempting to crawl out of the other side of the ruined cab and onto the road. He was mewling piteously.  Tom did his best to help him to the ground, but he screamed from the pain of his injuries. Tom laid him down in the road, spoke gently to him, telling him that everything would be all right and that they’d get him to a hospital. Harry saw Tom slide a pistol from the man’s holster. There was the sound of a gunshot. Tom placed the pistol in the dead man’s hand and stood up. ‘Best thing for him, I did him a mercy,’ he muttered. Seeing Harry’s shocked expression, he added, ‘Sometimes it’s better to ask for forgiveness than to ask permission. That was one of those times.’ An

  On the show’s farewell night at the pub, as Harry sat at the entrance to the music room selling tickets, a strange figure approached. From the build and height, he guessed it was a woman, but she wore a pin-striped suit, with wide lapels, turn-up trousers, a trilby hat, shiny black brogues and what looked like a regimental tie. She carried a silver handled Malacca cane, which Harry suspected was a sword-stick. The monocle through which she stared unblinkingly at him made the costume even more incongruous as he fumbled for her change.  ‘I haven’t got all f***ing day, you know,’ she hissed as he handed the coins over.  An extract from 'Harry Lampeter and the War with Scotland' Amazon code ASIN ‏ : ‎ B095KN13N2 https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B095KN13N2 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B095KN13N2