My name is Stephen Taylor and I am a writer and author. The urge to write came upon me over twenty years ago. My first love is historical fiction - as well as writing it, I am an avid reader - and I always aspire to tell compelling stories, to engage and take people away from their everyday lives. My goal is to transport readers to a place or time where different rules apply, to give them a glimpse into remarkable lives, to engross them in nail-biting thrills where good fights evil.
My Latest Book
MY LATEST BOOK
The Mystery of Rufford Abbey.
When Toby Fielding, a 21st-century historian, is sent a recently discovered chronicle of the first Abbot of Rufford Abbey, he is excited. Eagerly he translates from the Latin, but he is taken aback when he comes across a strange account of a 15-year-old girl who was hanged as a witch in the year 1152 for claiming that she had had a vision of the year 2019 when she witnessed the killing of an angel.
This story academically takes him, but then he hears of a missing woman and, unsettling for him, the facts of the disappearance seem to mirror this ancient record.
The story then crosses over to the police investigation and the struggles they incur - as the leading detective says - 'We have no forensics, no blood -no hair - no skin samples, no body, no suspects. Chuffing hell! We don't even have a bloody crime scene.'
We follow the investigation, but the historian's information is rejected as the ramblings of an attention seeking loony. The story then takes us into occultism and the Third Reich as the police strive to establish the motives for the abduction, and a connection to a serial killer emerges.
A story of medieval history, time travel, suspense, confusion and uncertainty, unexpected plot turns, and a tense crime thriller where time is running out.
Previous publications
The Secrets of Elloughton Park
Historian James Postlethwaite is told about a series of journals started in the eighteenth century belonging to Lord and Lady Carlisle of Elloughton Park in Nottinghamshire. Among the archives, he is surprised to also find the diaries of Ginny Farmer, a cinder maid.
As he reads the diaries, it becomes apparent that Ginny was involved in a long-buried scandal and he sets about discovering her fate.
The journals take him on a turbulent journey from a Bristol orphanage to the seedy underbelly of Georgian London. And as James delves deeper into Ginny's shocking testimonies, the past soon begins to chime eerily with the present. What really happened to Ginny. How did her diaries end up at Elloughton Park? And what scandalous secrets will James discover…?
Gospels
The year is 1835 - in the back alleys of London John Campbell-John is running for his life. A rogue, imposter, swindler - a man without honour, without empathy for his fellow man.
But his massive debts have now vindictively caught up with him. He has even stolen from his best friend. He has one option - to flee the country. In Venice there is a chance encounter and an unlikely friendship emerges. Robert Babcock is everything John is not
A Canopy Of Stars
A Georgian courtroom drama, an unlikely romance; 2 lives changed forever. The year is 1823, the Old Bailey, a young man is on trial for his life. His crime?
The theft of half a sheep's carcass. He is educated but a Jewish immigrant, speaks little English, just another piece of London's low life to be dispatched to the hangman. In the gallery Julia sees his plight; can she save him?
The King of Blognogpontin
The King of Blognogpotin. The Princess of Helen isn't really a princess. She is just a lonely little girl whose mother has died and Princess is what her daddy calls her to make her feel better.
But she has two magical cats that bring excitement into her life. They take her on thrilling adventures to strange lands. In this story she travels to the strange kingdom of Blog-nog-potin where everything is so grand and the people have silly names.
No Quarter Asked Given No Quarter Given
A Georgian romp of a story:characters that are not all they seem, of rousing achievements; a story of an unlikely friendship destroyed by disloyalty,and betrayal.
The year 1785.On a London street there is a chance encounter between two young men:John Campbell-John and Samuel Medina. One is a rogue and an impostor and the other a man of honour, a boxer who wants to stand up and fight the world.
In The Morning When I Leave
Heather Moore was just starting to make her way in the world in her chosen profession of archaeology, when love to her unexpectedly; powerful potent love that invaded her very being. It was as though she had been ensnared like an unsuspecting creature that had, in one moment been frolicking unconcerned in the spring sunshine, the next caught in its constricting grip, the more she resisted the tighter that grip became.
Once Upon A Thatcher Time
The year is 1970. Off the Normandy coast a fisherman is killed on board his own small fishing boat. But this is no fishing accident; this is murder, a petty squabble between criminals, this is the grubby world of smuggling and drug running.
Twenty Two years later Nick Beverley inherits, on his 25th birthday, shares in a company founded by his uncle, the dead fisherman, and his murderous partner. But in that time the company has prospered, it is respectable, a multi-million pound trading organisation. It has taken advantage of the Thatcherite principles of greed, unrestricted free market economics, the elimination of bureaucratic economic planning.