Bøker av Neil Mach

Surrey County is where British rock journalist Neil Mach grew up. Born the year Tommy Styeel started "Singing The Blues," the same year Sid Viscious was born, and the year the Cavern Club opened in Liverpool, Neil shares his tale in this book. He investigates the reasons behind Surrey's reputation as a haven for rock arrists. He wonders why this suburban landscape produced so many talented people. During the Golden Age of Rock 'n' Roll, some of the greatest musical artists in history, including punk rock idols, progressive rock pioneers, sensational supergroups, and even The Beatles and The Stones, lived, loved, and worked in Surrey. What exactly about Surrey was so inspiring for these artists? This is personal popular music history. Just a kid's memories. On top of that, it's a study detailing how the British 'Beverly Hills' shaped and defined the rock 'n' roll history of the 1950s, 1960s, and early 1970s.

It's 1975 and a recently promoted sergeant is tasked with gathering "dirt" on "Ruff," a London police officer. The inspector thinks that "Ruff" is one of those wicked officers who has to be eliminated from the Force, after the Commissioner has committed to remove his force of "bad apples." This "duty statement," which is entirely written in genuine 1970's Cockney slang and authentic police vocabulary, recounts a time in British history when police salaries were so low that officers could not support their families and when policemen had substandard equipment, inadequate supervision, and insufficient training. Despite rising crime rates and burgeoning populations, the Met Police was severely short-staffed. Although women still did not have equality in the service, things were about to change. Read this comic opera to find out more!

They ask Moondog to investigate when a girl jumps off a bridge after escaping from a sinister pagan ritual, pursued by the monster sent by a demon priestess. His "helper" in the new tale is Janney, a teenage librarian in a curiously old-fashioned English village. Janney has a remarkable ability: she can travel outside of her own body to connect with another in a transcendent state. Will Moondog discover the truth about what happened on the bridge? What invisible thing lives under the church? And what is going on in the old-fashioned Vale of Amity?

A bored teenager named Hopie asks Moondog for assistance. He is a Romani praeternatural detective.They call-on Moondog when other investigators hesitate. He looks into areas that are outside the realm of ordinary human experience and where there's a thin line separating the miraculous from the commonplace. Moondog is not a good team player. However, he must now join Hopie, since a variety of demonic forces are haunting the good people of Hugh-Lupus.

This thrilling action drama takes place in a fortress on the turbulent Marches of mediaeval Britain. The protagonist is a lustful young woman named Ysldora. Ysldora is the mother of the hive. The sole female castellan in the wildlands between Wales and England, this predatory and promiscuous girl was born into a position of power. In her capacity as castellan, Ysldora oversees all of the castle's people, their possessions and holdings, and their military misadventures. In this tale of subtle exploits and geopolitical betrayals, she deals with honourable knights, rogue squires, and mercenary bandits.Will her lustful warriors carry out her commands? Will corrupt officials compel her to submit? Will she maintain order using a deft combination of cunning, sexual manipulating, and ingenuity? Can she seize the initiative before her luck runs out?Can she enlarge her domain without jeopardising her source of power?

Can a person with channelled aggressive personality disorder be a good cop? Can an intensely competitive, utterly insensitive person, ever become a capable investigator? Should a person with no regard for personal boundaries, and an intolerance of weaker individuals, even be in the police service? Wouldn't such a person exploit and victimize others? Or could they be employed as an effective investigator because they wouldn't let anything get in the way of justice? Can Valerie Brading apply her 'internal brakes' once she's on a mission? Can she harness her aggression for pragmatic purposes? Does she have to go into every single event with an "I win, you lose" mentality? Will her newly posted partner soften her confrontational characteristics? The pair are allocated a child abduction case... but the clues are deceptive and their investigations are impeded by institutional failures. They work under flawed leadership, and with a pool of dysfunctional workfellows. In such circumstances, will A/DS Brading ever find the missing child? Can she bring an offender to justice? Or will the powers-that-be strip her of the temporary rank before she solves the crime?

A bored teenager seeks help from Moondog. He's a Romani detective. Moondog is called when other investigators hesitate. He inquires into things that lay beyond normal human experience, where things hang in the balance between mundane and miraculous. Moondog does not work well with others... But now he must join Hopie, because the citizens of Hugh-Lupus are tormented by a miscellany of evil.

What must it be like to live without the physical and intellectual equipment needed to navigate through the contours of this cut-throat and aggressive society? What must it be like to be born without a voice? What must it be like to be born without a 'properly behaving' mind? What must it be like to be born kind into a world that's crammed with unkindness? Blayz is not wise in the ways of this world. Some might define him as simple-minded. A better description would be unsophisticated. Blayz is easily impressed. And sometimes he can be silly. But that's because he lacks pretence. It's why unkind folk describe him as a noodle head. At the centre of this unsentimental family-based serio-comedy is a sweet, hidden boy. Blayz is the boy who never grew up. Discover how Blayz strengthens his defences in a world that is endlessly foreign to him. Learn how Blayz operates. How he is never subdued, never repressed. But will his spiritual light fade? To understand how Blayz endures, we must go through his tribulations with him, and recognise his opponents who will linger in the shadows, hoping to rob this guileless boy of his innocence. Can Blayz stay brilliantly-bright in a world filled with gloom, resentment, and rivalry? Or will Blayz be brought down by those who refuse to recognize differences in their fellow beings? For example, is his best friend, Stella, trustworthy? Or is she a temptress? Why does Aunt Lena loathe him so much? And who will feed his feverish mind if they close the Community Centre? Who will run the disco when his dad becomes sick and bedridden? Why are the police involved? Will the authorities push Blayz into care? Or will his soul-light burn away the hate of this world

Can machinery corrupt a person's soul? Is it possible to break loose from the trap-cycle of mechanical objectification? Will an individual gain a truer sense of self if he or she evades the lure of technological interdependence? After escaping the Staines parish poorhouse, Stormbuckler rescues one of Asher-John Lindwürm's most essential workers from certain death. After the episode, the American maverick-inventor industrialist and self-made steamillionaire Lindwürm, a new guy in town, rewards Stormbuckler by affording him a position in his corporation's drawing department at a recently opened locomobile manufactory. The job comes with a suit of clothes and a generous salary. Meanwhile, parlour-housemaid Mayotte is likewise looking to improve her lot. She leaves a life of servitude (domestic employment) to join the enterprising (but unorthodox) American inventor's machine-plant as his clerical assistant. Stormbuckler and Mayotte discover that outward appearances are deceptive at the American millionaire's manufactory. For a start, people have been disappearing. And Lindwürm engages a gang of ferocious armed thugs who protect his ultrasecret ambitions. Lindwürm also employs an evil second-in-command who has schemes of his own and a very malevolent disposition. What mystery links the unfolding events? What frightful monstrosity is being constructed in Lindwürm's sinister steam shed 7? What mystery has the ministry agent uncovered about Lindwürm's enterprises? Why does a tribal chief show up in town? Will Stormbuckler help Mayotte? Are he and Mayotte somehow connected? Does the tribal chief have something to do with their connectedness? Will the teenagers escape the menace of a gung-ho technological revolution? Or will they yield to mechatronic modernization? How many more will succumb if Lindwürm an his main henchman, Lassiter, turn their avaricious daydreams into diabolical and dangerous reality?

Over 100 topics to spark your fantasy creativity. This is a book of concepts and thoughts. It has been created to help strengthen your artistic potential by presenting you with a platform of intriguing fantasy viewpoints. This manual explains how to construct a bildungsroman, enlarge a paracosm, and prepare for the paranormal, while supercharging your protagonist with dynamic potential. Neil is an encouraging teacher, and he goes where others hesitate to tread! Read his guidance on how to create wonders, build monsters, impart grief and terror, and how to establish atmosphere. There are also chapters on animism, divinity, and the paranormal. And lots more! It's time to discover how to utilise your inventive imagination, and Neil is here to provide you with the tools you'll need. There are over 350 pages - jam-packed with resources - and organised into chapters that are not only uncomplicated to use but also fun to read. This book is the ideal writing tool for any aspiring fiction author who wishes to launch into a career as fantasy novelist!

What does an old man do when he finds a baby washed on the shore? What does he do when a single young woman blarneys her way into his life? The intrusion, the baby & woman, causes all kinds of disturbances in the symmetry of his daily routine. The old man begins to feel lost in a society that he no longer recognizes and that seems populated by angry people who cannot hide their prejudices.