New Editions
From the Foam of the Sea my first novel published in 2007 and not available for several years is now out in a new edition published by Amazon with their Kdp service https://kdp.amazon.com . Something I have been meaning to do for a long time and proved to be fairly straightforward. A classic adventure story about ancient antiquities, greed and betrayal with supernatural under currents set largely on the island of Cyprus. When first published the story was compared to the work of Desmond Bagley and Alistair MacLean.
The idea based around real events, that inspired me, took place on Cyprus during the 1950’s EOKA troubles, in particular an account of a forest fire during the ‘Lucky Alphonse’ operation of 1956 in the Troodos Mountains, which trapped and killed dozens of British soldiers. At the time there was a court of inquiry that came to no firm conclusion other than an accident or the terrorists started it. The later 1974 Turkish invasion also features which yours truly experienced firsthand. As one reviewer put it about From the Foam of the Sea the Past spawns a ripping yarn.
In 2015 my non-fiction book The British and Cyprus: An Outpost of Empire to Sovereign Bases, 1878-1974 was published by The History Press www.thehistorypress.co.uk, which includes what happened with ‘Lucky Alphonse’ and in 2021 was reprinted.
The second novel is my best seller Room 39 & The Cornish Legacy published ten years ago in 2013. The book that first introduced Rob Nicolson, the reluctant MI5 agent to the world, set in 1984 against the background of the Miners Strike.
‘A reluctant heir, Rob Nicolson former Royal Marine Commando, arrives in Cornwall to claim the legacy of “Kantara” his late aunt’s bungalow. A letter and diaries from his dead aunt takes him back to World War II espionage. He begins to investigate and sets in motion a chain of violent events that involve Naval Intelligence, MI5 and the IRA.
On the shores of a Californian lake the story reaches its bleak and stunning conclusion.’
Two other Rob Nicolson adventures have followed, Nicolson’s Gold 2017 and Operation Flamenco 2019, all these books are available on my own website at www.marksimmonsauthor.co.uk A fourth Rob Nicolson book Roundabout is due out later this year.
