Caxton Tempest at the End of the World [Paperback]

'Caxton Tempest at the End of the World' is the first in a series of novels from Ken, which are set in Victorian London.

Talking about his novel Ken said: "The book is best described as a cross between Harry Potter, Oliver Twist and Dracula. It follows the adventures of Jim Kerrigan, a young street thief who lives with a gang of other children in a doss house ruled over by a vicious bully called Marchek Mulready. The book opens as Jim discovers a mutilated corpse late one night in an old curiosity shop. The murder is only the latest in a series of strange killings, which are baffling the police. Mysterious adventurer Caxton Tempest is called on to help solve the case and Jim is plunged into his dangerous world, battling evil forces of darkness, demons, vampires and secret societies."

Ken lives in Stourbridge with his wife, two boys and a cat. He began writing this book in August 2003, but work stopped on his novel for a few months when his eldest son was born. Now Ken is already on his way to writing his second book in the series and facing the challenge of tying up several loose ends and many of the unanswered questions from the first book.

Talking about his passion for writing Ken continued "I have always been a voracious reader and into inventing stories. I still have two stories that were published in my junior school magazine from 1974!

At age 10, I found a typewriter and having just finished reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy, I decided to type it all out! Needless to say I only managed half of chapter one before giving up. At the time, if asked, I wouldn't have been able to tell you why I wanted to do that. Looking back now, I think I was trying to find out how Tolkien had written his book and where the ideas came from.

It's difficult to say where the idea for my first novel came from. I had wanted to write a Victorian adventure for some time. I had also been reading the colourful accounts of the Victorian explorers in Africa and had re-read Dracula, which is another Victorian set novel. I suppose these different elements sat in my head and stewed for a while, eventually surfacing in the novel as it is now.

It's really exciting to see my work published and I hope that people who read the book enjoy it as much I as I did writing it."

London, 1888

Orphan Jim Kerrigan and his young brother George live by their wits on the streets. But after stumbling across a mutilated corpse one night Jim finds himself thrust into the dark, dangerous world of the mysterious Caxton Tempest. Now, along with new friends Denver McCade and Johnny Chen, Jim must fight for his life against a killer intent on opening up the gates of Hell.

But other forces of evil are gathering, and Tempest finds he needs the help of an unlikely ally if he is to defeat them...

Scary, gripping and unsettling CAXTON TEMPEST AT THE END OF THE WORLD takes the reader on a journey into the sordid East End, the opium dens, the rookeries, slums and beyond into a world of magic and horror...