The Spiral Staircase Other Novellas

Differing themes and voices, some classic, some contemporary, others though mysterious, planted firmly in reality. All used to depict an assortment of psychological suspense thrillers, coming of age sagas and modern satires.

The moving story of her own search for God by the highly-acclaimed author of the bestselling A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam; The Battle for God: A History of Fundamentalism; and Islam: A Short History. In 1969, after seven years as a Roman Catholic nun -- hoping, but ultimately failing, to find God -- Armstrong left her convent. She knew almost nothing of the changed world she was entering, and she was tormented by panic attacks and inexplicable seizures. Her struggle against despair was fueled by a string of discouragements -- failed spirituality, doctorate and jobs, fruitless dealings with psychiatrists -- but finally, in 1976, she was diagnosed with epilepsy and given proper treatment. She then began the writing career that would become her true calling, and as she focused on the sacred texts of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, her own true inner story began to emerge. She would come to experience brief moments of transcendence through her work -- the profound fulfillment that she had not found in the long hours of prayer as a young nun. Powerfully engaging, often heart-breaking, but lit with bursts of humour, The Spiral Staircase is an extraordinary history of self.

The summer occupants of "Sunnyside" find the dead body of Arnold Armstrong, the son of the owner, on the circular staircase. Following the murder a bank failure is announced. Around these two events is woven a plot of absorbing interest.

Ten bite-sized tales of terror. ‘What does the cat do?’ ‘Lures kids back to her house.’ ‘Why?’ ‘Have you ever read Hansel and Gretel, my boy?’ My skin prickled with delighted chills of revulsion. ‘You mean Maud Mouser eats kids?’ Gran nodded, her eyes alight with dark mischief.

Pipedream meets reality along Route 66. Charged up with expectation, Henry Collins, a man with a subconscious Magnum fixation, and his band of argonauts explore the beat generation trail. Searching for the ghosts of Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, they rub shoulders with next generation beats in roadhouses and speakeasies, and survivors from the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. Recognising their romantic visions of beatdom are tainted with fallacy and paradox, after six weeks on Route 66 travelling from Chicago to LA and returning to the Windy City on a northerly route, they exit the world of intellectual and down and out beats, flushed with an appreciation that no counterculture, no matter how seductive, approaches perfection.

Set against the turbulence leading to the Arab Spring, Glyn Sumner and his comrades have unexpected encounters in Tunis, profoundly affecting their futures. On sojourn, Sumner and the crew of the schooner Poseidon voyage around the Med. Finding solace away from the ever-imposing regulations and sterility of Blighty, they experience transcendence and seminal life in North African ports. Tunis brings bewildering confrontations for the crew with Saleh, an Ethiopian asylum seeker suspected of crime and terrorist involvement, and Chief of Police Colonel Nassar, responsible for homeland security. Off Sicily, Poseidon’s crew witnesses an asylum seeker sea rescue by the coast guard. They wonder if Saleh is aboard, or whether he is shaking hands with Neptune. Glyn ponders if the dark side also beckons them, visions of a European dystopia on the horizon.

Roger Fraser is convinced he is cursed by unforeseen situations constantly bringing his integrity into disrepute, especially in social situations. His family thinks he is gaff prone, but if they could see him in the business arena, they would find Roger is an unassailable trouble-shooter, trampling on Essex boy traders, and solving delicate problems with aplomb. Join the Fraser family and their assorted band of odd-ball friends and work colleagues, as our hero steers his way through some tricky situations, but nonetheless, always seems to get the rough end of the pineapple and ends up licking his wounds in the doghouse.

Roger Fraser continues to battle the vexing absurdities of modernism, his aim to stay out of the doghouse by adopting meditation as an antidote to combat his hang-ups. When it comes to neutralising uppity officials and slaying implacable harridans masquerading as mewling princesses, Roger has no equal in the world of high-finance and within his wife Charlotte’s social set. He survives a no-nonsense outward bound course instructor, boldly engages status quo doyens including an intractable hanging judge and a very persistent spook, avoids being mugged by lazoonland trailer trash, and subdues an autocratic drama teacher. On a lighter note, Roger dodges the clutches of jailbait schoolgirls, is bedeviled by an overzealous impresario and battles intransigent shrews amongst a plethora of highly contentious and hilarious incidents, but despite his new found remedy, inevitably he winds up in the doghouse, wondering where it all went wrong.