D. S. Hodges

Fifty-year-old council worker Brian Price didn't know he had a spare room in his head, so it came as a complete surprise when Gordlyn, a fifth-dimensional entity from Al Nur, took up residence.The Al Nurians were once similar to humans, but ascended to the fifth dimension and became energy beings. You might think this means they are enlightened. Unfortunately for Brian Price, they are not. The Al Nur race is racked by infighting and petty squabbling, and worst of all, they use earthlings to help resolve their differences. Engaging 'Daints' - Al Nurians who can cohabit within a human brain - they play chess-like games using other beings, like humans, as their pawns.Poor Brian didn't want a lodger taking up room in his head. He didn't want to be part of the hilarious rollercoaster ride his life became. He certainly didn't want to be beaten up, committed, responsible for riots and strikes, or to become an accidental hero.He just wanted life to be easy, to enjoy some true love and a little 'rumpty tumpty'. But his life was not that simple. The Al Nur had other plans for him, and all he could do was hold on to his hat and try not to lose his sanity 'Laugh-out-loud funny.' L.J. Holgate

This is the story of an English Jewess who married a German Jewish architect only to be thrown into Holzminden Internment camp during the Great War. After the war, they settled down to married life, but their happiness was cut short with the rise of Fascism. Mirium watched in horror as her family disintegrated during Kristallnacht, or 'The Night of Broken Glass'. It turned her. It warped her and it blackened her heart. Although not part of the Blaise Hall Series, it explores what terrible acts made her the way she was.

In 1921 the coal mine at Mount Mulligan blew up. A coal dust explosion. All 75 men inside the mine were killed. It was Queensland's largest coal mining disaster.John Kungarra stood in a cave looking out over the Mount Mulligan township. He felt the earth convulse beneath him and watched as fire and smoke roared out of the mine. A wave of terrible loss washed over him. He shook his thick, grey-black hair. He had told those white fellas to stop taking coal or they would wake Iku, the spirit of the mountain. They had scoffed at him, their faces turned to greed. They kept taking, kept waking Iku. Celia Muffet stood in the playground with her best friend, Ellie. Two explosions and the ground shook like a birthday jelly. Celia swooned, floating to the ground like a feather on the wind. She had seen a hundred lights blink out. Only two were left, shivering in the darkness. Celia was a special child, but did not know it. She needed someone to show her how special she was. That was John Kungarra.James Watson, Mount Mulligan mines superintending engineer was ill with the Spanish flu. He had dragged himself to work to check the footings at the mines new coking chimney. He would then go back to bed. He felt the ground jar beneath him before he heard the explosions. He knew immediately what it was. A folding dread engulfed him. He had seen this before. The mine had blown up. He heaved himself out of the footings and raced toward the ropeway. There would be no rest for him now.