Mike Carter – författare

A broken heart and a moment of drunken bravado inspires middle-aged, and typically rather cautious, journalist Mike Carter to take off on a life-changing six month motorcycle trip around Europe. Never mind that he hadn't been on two wheels since an inglorious three-month teenage chapter involving a Lambretta, four crashes and an 18-month ban for drink-driving, a plan had begun to loosely form...And so, having completed a six day residential motorcycle course and hastily re-mortgaged his flat, Mike sets off alone, resolving to go wherever the road takes him and enjoy the adventure of heading off into the unknown. He ends up travelling almost 20,000 miles and reaching the four extremes of Europe: the Arctic Circle in the north, the Mediterranean coast in the south, the Portuguese Atlantic to the west and the Iraqi border of Turkey in the east.But really it's a journey inwards, as, on the way, Mike finds his post-divorce scars starting to heal and attempts to discover what he, as a man in his forties who hasn't quite found his place in the world, should be doing. Self-deprecating, poetic and utterly engaging, his is a heroic journey taken for the rest of us too scared to leave our 9 to 5 office-bound existence.

What would happen if you were cycling to the office and just kept on pedalling?Needing a change, Mike Carter did just that. Following the Thames to the sea he embarked on an epic 5,000 mile ride around the entire British coastline - the equivalent of London to Calcutta.He encountered drunken priests, drag queens and gnome sanctuaries. He met fellow travellers and people building for a different type of future. He also found a spirit of unbelievable kindness and generosity that convinced him that Britain is anything but broken. This is the inspiring and very funny tale of the five months Mike spent cycling the byways of the nation.

What would happen if you were cycling to the office and just kept on pedalling?Needing a change, Mike Carter did just that. Following the Thames to the sea he embarked on an epic 5,000 mile ride around the entire British coastline - the equivalent of London to Calcutta.He encountered drunken priests, drag queens and gnome sanctuaries. He met fellow travellers and people building for a different type of future. He also found a spirit of unbelievable kindness and generosity that convinced him that Britain is anything but broken. This is the inspiring and very funny tale of the five months Mike spent cycling the byways of the nation.

A broken heart and a moment of drunken bravado inspires middle-aged, and typically rather cautious, journalist Mike Carter to take off on a life-changing six month motorcycle trip around Europe. Never mind that he hadn't been on two wheels since an inglorious three-month teenage chapter involving a Lambretta, four crashes and an 18-month ban for drink-driving, a plan had begun to loosely form...And so, having completed a six day residential motorcycle course and hastily re-mortgaged his flat, Mike sets off alone, resolving to go wherever the road takes him and enjoy the adventure of heading off into the unknown. He ends up travelling almost 20,000 miles and reaching the four extremes of Europe: the Arctic Circle in the north, the Mediterranean coast in the south, the Portuguese Atlantic to the west and the Iraqi border of Turkey in the east.But really it's a journey inwards, as, on the way, Mike finds his post-divorce scars starting to heal and attempts to discover what he, as a man in his forties who hasn't quite found his place in the world, should be doing. Self-deprecating, poetic and utterly engaging, his is a heroic journey taken for the rest of us too scared to leave our 9 to 5 office-bound existence.

It is said that we fear that which we do not understand.That we cloak those fears with doubt, and that over time,they become fairy tales and nightmares.But what would happen if our fears became a reality?And so it came to pass.~~~~For some speak in hushed tones of the dark ones.They say they wait and watch from the shadows.DCI Crawford knew the truth,for he had faced those very demons and survived.Now only months away from retirement,he is assigned one last case.A series of strange and inexplicable murders.And as the killer weaves a trail of deception,an old adversary returns to orchestrate a new reign of terrorfrom the shadows.

Midnight will greet you with whispersThat invade your memoryAnd haunt your dreamsFor soon the time draws near when the world will know the truthAnd then the dark lords will once again walk the landWhat went before was merely a beginning~~~DCI Crawford threw the piece of paper to the groundThree years he had waited pursued by a demon that had no faceNow as he prepares to retirea new wave of terror hits the streets of Londonand with the discovery of each victim his own past comes back to haunt himas evil is finally unmasked.

My Poet Tree reflects my personal journey through life expressed in verse From the consequences of war in Painted In Red to the emotional turmoil of lost love in Crippled Smiles. We cross a landscape where the frailty of age is captured in Of Our Lives. Then we pause for a moment to consider the guilt or innocence in This Cell My Prison, before moving on to the fragile state of this planet in I Challenge The Day.there are many twists and emotions that are examined throughout the book an example being We Wear It Well. Occasionally we stop to smile as in Theres An Elephant In My Garden. Before dipping in to memories of childhood as revisited in Theres A Secret In My Cupboard. Then we leave behind the absurdity of imagined horror in Reaper; to slip into self-awareness in Made Of Stone. Along the way we will relive the terror of an ocean storm in The Sinking Of The Santa Fe. Then move to a poem titled Thats My Life, an attempt to understand the things that motivate the way we are. Included is a tribute to a great poet in An Ode To Edgar Allan Poe. So I welcome you to join me, and share the experiences and memories that is My Poet Tree

Odyssey: "a long and eventful or adventurous journey or experience."In this book, the author explores many themes through the medium of poetry, touching upon events that cross the paths of some of us in our everyday lives. There are journeys into love and heartache; happiness and sorrow; history revisited, from the horrors of medieval battles to the trenches of the Somme. Nature and the environment are also featured, reminding us of the diversity and beauty of this planet upon which we live,and sometimes, of our fight to preserve it for future generations. Finally, there is darkness and light, a journey into a nightmare landscape where demons and shadows dwell.So sit back and immerse yourself in a world of versebecome part of the journey on this odyssey.

Do not embrace the shadows for they are all consuming and devour the soul leaving in their wake nothing but a great well of loneliness from which we all drink from time to time

-Richard Casteel, 1887

And so it begins. From the cobbled alleyways of Whitechapel to a fishing village on the Cornish coast. A series of brutal murders is committed, where the only clues to the killers identity are a copper coin and a poppy found at each crime scene. DCI Crawford assigned to the case soon establishes a link between a series of unsolved murders in 1888.

Four suspects, a deserted manor house, and shadows.

'This important, disturbing and frequently heartbreaking book should be read by every politician in Westminster.' Adrian Tempany, Observer'In a few weeks' time, it would be thirty-five years to the day since those men and women had walked 340 miles to try to save their communities and their culture, and thirty-five years since I had turned down Pete's invitation to join them. I called work and booked some time off. Then I bought a one-way train ticket to Liverpool.'In 1981, Mike Carter's dad, Pete, organised the People's March for Jobs, which saw 300 people walk from Liverpool to London to protest as the Thatcher government's policies devastated industrial Britain and sent unemployment skyrocketing. Just before the 2016 EU referendum, Mike set off to walk the same route in a quest to better understand his dad and his country.As he walked, Mike found many echoes of the early eighties: a working class overlooked and ignored by Westminster politicans; communities hollowed out but fiercely resistant; anger and despair co-existing with hope and determination for change. And he also found that he and Pete shared more in common than he might have thought.All Together Now? maps the intricate, overlapping path of one man's journey and that of an entire country. It is a book about belonging, about whether to stay or go, and about the need to write new stories for our communities and ourselves.

'This important, disturbing and frequently heartbreaking book should be read by every politician in Westminster.' Adrian Tempany, Observer'In a few weeks' time, it would be thirty-five years to the day since those men and women had walked 340 miles to try to save their communities and their culture, and thirty-five years since I had turned down Pete's invitation to join them. I called work and booked some time off. Then I bought a one-way train ticket to Liverpool.'In 1981, Mike Carter's dad, Pete, organised the People's March for Jobs, which saw 300 people walk from Liverpool to London to protest as the Thatcher government's policies devastated industrial Britain and sent unemployment skyrocketing. Just before the 2016 EU referendum, Mike set off to walk the same route in a quest to better understand his dad and his country.As he walked, Mike found many echoes of the early eighties: a working class overlooked and ignored by Westminster politicans; communities hollowed out but fiercely resistant; anger and despair co-existing with hope and determination for change. And he also found that he and Pete shared more in common than he might have thought.All Together Now? maps the intricate, overlapping path of one man's journey and that of an entire country. It is a book about belonging, about whether to stay or go, and about the need to write new stories for our communities and ourselves.