The German Messenger – Available Now – The new heartbreaking World War 2 historical fiction novel for 2023, from the bestselling author of The German Nurse

My new novel The German Messenger is available now on eBook and audiobook! (Paperback preorder information below)

You can get it from the following links: Amazon (This link takes your to your own country), Waterstones (UK), Bookshop.org (Worldwide), Audible (Audio)

As the bombs fall, the race to save her son begins.

Liverpool, 1940. Journalist Ruth Holt is struggling in the terror of the Blitz when her young son is suddenly snatched away in broad daylight. Soon after, the kidnappers’ demands arrive. They are working with the Nazis, and she has no choice but to co-operate, or the authorities will learn that she is harbouring secrets of her own.

Ruth’s job gives her access to critical information, and if she does not share it with Britain’s enemies, her child will face the consequences. Desperate, she falsifies information, lying to everyone: her employers, her family and her lover. But as the demands increase, the knife edge she walks on grows increasingly thin. If she falls, she will never save her son.

A powerful and heartbreaking WWII historical novel for fans of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, The Nightingale and Beneath a Scarlet Sky.

Readers LOVE The German Messenger!

‘A mesmerizing historical novel that gripped me from the start… Simply marvellous.’ NetGalley reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

‘I loved this book… I finished it in one sitting.’ NetGalley reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

‘A wonderful combination of the impact of the World War II Blitz, skullduggery and friendship all thrown in together… Would recommend.’ NetGalley reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

‘I did not want to put this book down… I finished in two sittings. I loved it.’ NetGalley reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The paperback version will be published in the UK on the 30th of March 2023, US & Canada 2nd 0f May 2023, and Australia 3rd of May 2023.

Please consider preordering via the below links:

Amazon (Worldwide)

Bookshop.org (Worldwide)

Barnes and Noble (US)

Indigo (Canada)

Waterstones (UK)

Thank you, and happy reading!

The German Nurse – Available Now!

The German Nurse, the novel about the German Occupation of Guernsey is available now in eBook from all good book stores! (Amazon Worldwide)

The German Nurse Banner — The German Nurse

A powerful and heartbreaking WWII historical novel for fans of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, The Nightingale and Beneath a Scarlet Sky.

A secret past. A forbidden love. A terrifying choice.

Her past could kill you.
Guernsey, 1940. As war storms through Europe, Churchill orders the evacuation of all military personnel from the island. Boats ferry soldiers and vulnerable young children to England, leaving their parents and loved ones behind to face the invading German army on their own.

Her love could save you.
One of the few remaining policemen on the island, Jack must protect not only his friends and family, but also the woman he loves: Johanna, a Jewish nurse from Germany, whose secret faith could prove fatal to them both.

Her fate is in your hands.
When the Nazis arrive, everything changes. Jack is forced to come to terms with the pain and loss of a world re-making itself around him. And then a list of Jews on the island is drawn up, and he must make an awful choice: write down Johanna’s name and condemn her, or resist and put his family in immediate danger…

The German Nurse will be available in paperback from the 21st of January 2021 (June 2021 in North America) and is available to preorder now from all bookshops, such as www.bookshop.org and Amazon.

Cover Reveal – The German Nurse

Well, it’s been a strange year, but some good news at last! I have a new book out in November 2020:

The German Nurse

A powerful and heartbreaking WWII historical novel for fans of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, The Nightingale and Beneath a Scarlet Sky.

A secret past. A forbidden love. A terrifying choice.

It’s available to preorder now in eBook and Paperback at the following links:

Buy Now (Amazon – UK), Buy Now (Waterstones – UK), Buy Now (Amazon – US/World)

Black Library Celebration 2020

Tomorrow (29th February) is the Black Library Celebration for 2020, a global event geared towards celebrating the stories that Black Library produce in the worlds of Warhammer.

I’ve always struggled to articulate just how much Black Library means to me. For a start the worlds of Warhammer and the stories and novels the authors wrote helped me through a dark time when I was a teenager, when I first fell ill with ME/CFS and spent three years going through tests and diagnosis. It was a difficult time for a formally very active and sporty teenager. But I found reading. The Black Library novels I read, the likes of Xenos and First and Only, helped me to discover the joy of reading for the first time in my life (I’d hated everything I’d been given at school, despite getting good grades in English Literature), not to mention proving a healthy dose of escapism, and a realisation that no matter how bad things were, they were never as bad as the 41st Millennium!

So naturally I was very excited and honoured when the manager of my local Warhammer shop here in Liverpool invited me to come in and sign some books and talk to people during the Black Library Celebration in store!

This is because the Warhammer Age of Sigmar anthology Oaths and Conquests is coming out and it contains the story Ashes of Grimnir by yours truly. (You can purchase the story here if digital is your bag.)

I’ll be in store between 11.00 and 12.00 is you are in the area. You can find out more about it here.

It’s a huge privilege and honour to be given a chance to write for Black Library and an absolute dream come true. When I made the decision I wanted to be a writer (although I suspect I was always destined to write), my number one goal was to get a chance to add to the worlds of Warhammer because of what they mean to me.

Near and Far SF Competition Winner!

The Kate Nash Literary Agency held a competition in November for science fiction writers writing grounded science fiction. The competition invited people to submit the first 3,000 words of their novel as well as a synopsis to be assessed by the agency.

I submitted the SF novel that I have been writing for my PhD and guess what?

I won!

It’s an absolutely amazing feeling that after all that hard work I was chosen as the winner of the competition from amongst the many entries they no doubt received.

Screenshot 2020-02-07 at 10.41.54

More information about the competition can be found here: https://katenashlit.co.uk/sf-comp/

My Next HQDigital Novel

I’m pleased to announce that I have signed a contract with HQDigital/HarperCollins to write another historical fiction:

Screenshot 2019-11-18 at 12.32.37

As it says in the image the book is set during the Occupation of Guernsey during the Second World War. There’s lots of research involved in this one, and once again there are some really heartfelt, characterful stories to tell.

It’s due for publication late 2020, and I hope you’ll all preorder a copy when it’s available.

The Warp’s Curse – A Blackstone Fortress Short Story (Black Library)

Hey all,

My second short story for Black Library came out today. The Warp’s Curse is a story set in Games Workshop’s Warhammer Quest Blackstone Fortress Setting. Set in Escalation, the forthcoming expansion for Blackstone Fortress, it tells the story of four explorers setting off into an ever changing fortress.

Here’s the info: (Copyright Games Workshop Limited 2019)

The Warp’s Curse

A Warhammer Quest story

A Primaris Psyker, a Ministorum priest and an aeldari walk into the Blackstone Fortress… Will any of them emerge, or will their rivalries destroy them before even the defences of the Fortress can?

READ IT BECAUSE
Enjoy a combination of very different heroes, each with their own reasons for venturing into the alien horrors of the Blackstone Fortress, in a labyrinthine and darkly satisfying tale.

THE STORY
Venturing into the Blackstone Fortress makes for strange allies… For Primaris Psyker Aradia Madellan, an uneasy pact with Ministorum Priest Taddeus the Purifier and his zealot Pious Vorne is bad enough – both would happily see her burn for her witchery, after all. But adding in the strange aeldari ranger, Amallyn Shadowguide, makes the situation fraught with peril – and that’s before they face the dangers of the Fortress itself on their quest to penetrate its deepest workings…

Blackstone Fortress is not only a great game, but a rich and intriguing setting. It was a huge honour and privilege for me to have the opportunity to write these characters – including the brand new character and model Aradia Madellan – and see what they got up to in the depths of the Blackstone Fortress.

You can get it here:

Black Library (Worldwide): Click here

Amazon (UK): Click here

Amazon (US): Click here

Tales from the Hollow Earth – Workhouse Games

Hello and welcome!

I have another bit of news to share with you today. I am going to have a story published in Tales from the Hollow Earth by Workhouse Games in support of their The Awful Orphanage board game.

The anthology, featuring a number of excellent authors and myself, has been successfully Kickstarted. You can find out more about it here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/workhousegames/tales-from-the-hollow-earth-the-awful-orphanage/

I believe you can also become a late backer, but best to get in touch with Workhouse Games themselves.

You can also read the article they published about my story in the collection here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/workhousegames/tales-from-the-hollow-earth-the-awful-orphanage/posts/2534607

Ashes of Grimnir – A Warhammer Age of Sigmar Short Story

Hello all,

I wrote a thing, someone liked the thing and published the thing. That thing was Ashes of Grimnir a short story set in Games Workshop’s Warhammer Age of Sigmar universe.

Ashes of Grimnir

A Warhammer Age of Sigmar story

After a mighty vision, Runesmiter Thorrok and his fellows set out in search of ur-gold, the coveted remnants of their ancestor god. But danger beckons…

READ IT BECAUSE
There’s little that’s more iconic when it comes to Fyreslayers than the quest for ur-gold – and this tale of twisted destinies and treacherous visions turns that into something special indeed.

THE STORY
Runesmiter Thorrok of the Ealring Lodge has had a vision. A vision of the ancestor-god Grimnir, father of the Fyreslayers. And a vision of that long-lost hero from the Age of Myth can mean only one thing: ur-gold awaits… Thorrok and his comrades seek this mighty prize, believed to be the shattered remnants of Grimnir himself, cast across the Realms for his children to gather. But can they overcome the manifold dangers that stand between them and their goal?

Those of you that know me will know that this is a dream come true. For a long time I’ve wanted to write a story for Black Library (Games Workshop’s publishing arm) set in the Warhammer universes, and now that’s finally happened. I started pitching to BL about 7 years ago (ignoring the one terrible story I sent Games Workshop when I was a kid), which just goes to show that a healthy dose of perseverance and professionalism can go a long way. I hope to get the opportunity to write more stories for them, and buying a copy of this will certainly encourage them to ask me to.

You can get it here:

Black Library (Worldwide): Click here

Amazon (UK): Click here

Amazon (US): Click here

Goodbye for Now!

Goodbye for Now has now been out for one week in ebook and audiobook! It still doesn’t quite feel real, but thank you to everyone who has bought it so far, and those who have left reviews.

There have been some great reviews coming in, but it would really mean a lot of me if you could leave a review – they make a huge difference to whether a book sells. There’s also something to do with algorithms, which I don’t quite understand, but I do enough to know that in this situation more is more.

You can pick up your copy here: https://t.co/Sg5mNMH1pW

It has also been on a Blog Tour this week, which you can see here:

Thanks again!