How do you make sense out of life? Some say that you can't and it's not worth the effort; just take things as they come. Still, most of us do make some effort to find order to our lives. We think up reasons, concoct justifications or invent excuses to give our lives meaning. In this collection of short stories from Scottish writer Jim Murdoch we meet twenty people who have nothing in common apart from this gnawing need to make sense out of their lives.In one of the stories a murder...

This is an omnibus edition containing two novels: Living with the Truth and its sequel, Stranger than Fiction.Jonathan Payne is a jaded bookseller at the end of a wasted life which has been spent in a dull north England seaside town. He could be an everyman, but seems to have missed the boat somewhere. He's both distastefully pathetic and oddly sympathetic. A passive character, he has been happy to read about life without experiencing either great joy or great despair. If Death wer...

Whereas Living with the Truth was set in the drab reality that is Jonathan Payne's life, its sequel, Stranger than Fiction, is set in the drab reality that is Jonathan's afterlife. He awakes to find himself inside a landscape entirely generated by his own memories of his past which means it looks pretty much identical to the seaside town of Rigby in which he spent his entire and mostly uneventful life. That is discounting the last two days which he eked out in the company of the personific...

There are no reasons for unreasonable things. So the protagonists of this novel are told having found themselves setting out on an adventure that they really didn't plan. Like many people, Murdoch has always had a great affection for the two lead characters in Beckett's 'Waiting for Godot'. Have you ever wondered what Didi and Gogo were like when they were young and what led them to end up waiting for a man who would most likely never turn up? That's basically the premise Murdoch set out t...

Picture, if you will, Jonathan Payne, probably the last person in the world you'd expect to be the lead character in anybody's novel, a jaded bookseller nearing the end of a wasted life which has been spent in a nondescript seaside town in the north of England. Jonathan could be an everyman, but seems to have missed the boat somewhere. He's both distastefully pathetic and oddly sympathetic. A passive character, he has been happy to "doodle in the margins" of his life without experiencing e...

Shortly after a UFO crashes into the sea, a ten year old boy, Adam, and his grandfather appear in town. The children are curious and befriend the mysterious boy and end up going in search for his crashed ship. Who is Adam and where does he come from, and more important, why is he here?An adventure of strangeness, holographic projections, telepathy, remote viewing. Join Adam and his friends as they discover their inner strengths and abilities.

Patrick Ferguson (Pat) explores a stone circle known as Adam's Calendar in South Africa, a mission suggested by the Dragons he encountered in Dragon Song. Pat believes he will discover more hidden powers in his dragon ring. Fearing the unknown Pat hesitates and Bobbie, his babysitter and undisclosed love, takes the ring and tries it herself. She vanishes and finds herself in a strange land where the people are as tall as houses. Meanwhile, Pat, left behind in uncertainty, discovers a myste...

Do dragons exist? Do our dreams become part of our reality? Einarr, a young warrior, follows a riddle from his father to find the treasure of his life. Gaby, a little girl and passionate reader, makes an amazing discovery within the pages of an antique book. Pat climbs a mountain to escape overwhelming changes in his life and his sick pregnant wife.Set in three different time periods, we accompany the protagonists and their individual stories through the challenges and discoveries t...

After a vivid and strange dream Hilda searches for its meaning and that of her abusive life. The dream leads her to Arthur, an archeologist, and they fall instantly in love. But can she trust him? Past life regression sessions, dreams and visions reveal scenes, some unpleasant, from some other lifetimes. Are these her lives? Or is her imagination playing tricks? Her abusive past catches up with her again when her brothers demand money. She must decide to allow her life to take its course o...

Pat Ferguson, having read the book his Aunt Gaby discovered as a child, delves deeper into the inner experience, meeting more dragons and finding more of Einarr's story. Learn how Einarr travels further East and how the ring and pendant were made.Follow Pat and the growing "family" as they face a new danger and find dragons walking among them. Visions from the Inside play an even greater role in this sequel to Book 1, Pursuit. Much becomes clear which was left a mystery in Book 1. ...

"Behind every empire of influence lies a family bound by ambition, loyalty, and secrets too powerful to stay hidden—welcome inside the world of the Murdochs."Have you ever wondered what really happens when a single family controls some of the most influential media outlets in the world? “Dynasty: The Murdochs” pulls back the curtain on the empire built by Rupert Murdoch, revealing the power struggles, ambition, and betrayal that shaped not just a m...

A double serving of thrilling vintage spy drama featuring the tenacious Captain Jim Nicholson"These productions are pure ‘Boys Own'-style entertainment...I found them to be thoroughly engrossing, with the actors conveying earnestness throughout." - Entertainment FocusA treat from the archive: two classic dramas from the writer of Z-Cars, Robert Barr, set during the height of the Cold War.The Dark Island is...