Leslie Wilkie

When Sam Broady discovers an old man collapsed on the road in front of his car in the middle of a snowstorm he is astounded to discover that the man is dressed only in night attire. Unable to call for help, Sam drives home with his passenger. Jimmy, as the old man is called, recovers in Sam's home.As Jimmy recovers he tells Sam of momentous news he had recently received from Australia: the body of his father, believed by his mother to have disappeared during World War 2 near Australia, had been discovered in a wartime plane wreck in the jungles of Papua New Guinea.Subsequently Jimmy employs Sam to accompany him to Lae in Papua New Guinea to visit the grave of his father. Having returned to Yorkshire, Jimmy dies a few months later and Sam decides to put together a biography for Jimmy's newly discovered family in Australia - relations who were found as a result of the funeral of his father. Based upon a diary which Jimmy has written, Sam uncovers the details of a remarkable life.

Billy Whitehurst, accountant and Sunday League footballer, is faced with a dilemma when his girlfriend of five years leaves him. Billy, named after his father's favourite Hull City centre forward, decides to resign his post and travel. He begins by flying to Malta where by chance he is employed to seek out a sticky fingered member of the banking fraternity. He then moves on to Gibraltar by working his passage on a yacht. His further adventures, amorous and otherwise, take him by cruise liner to Australia and on to Singapore. After further overseas adventures he finally settles back in his native Yorkshire with the love of his life, Janet, and her mother Rose.

When Alan Craven discovers a young Asian girl stowaway in his van he is inexorably drawn into a major police operation involving people smuggling, sexual exploitation and murder. Alan is attacked in the belief that he is an undercover police officer. His home is destroyed by an arsonist and he is hospitalised as a result. The criminal gang responsible have based their operations in a remote building on the North York Moors under the guise of a rest centre for tired businessmen. Alan is attacked a second time before those responsible are finally brought to justice.

Alan Craven makes the transition from college lecturer to international investigator purely by chance and in so doing encounters shipwreck, maritime piracy, murder, kidnap and romance. During a bizarre encounter on the North York Moors he volunteers to search for a missing woman, a woman he has known since childhood. The trail leads initially to Spain then on to Gibraltar and Malta. The story then moves on to New Zealand and Papua New Guinea before finally coming to an end back in Gibraltar.