This is "part 1" because I still have to scan and clean up a number of books that appeared under pen-names. As my books are still in an untidy state since the move two years ago, it may take a while to track those books down.
New English Library 0894-0, Apr 1971. Cover photo by Shepard Sherbell
---- [2nd imp.] Apr 1971; [3rd imp.] Jul 1971; [4th imp.] Sep 1971; [5th imp.] Oct 1971; [6th imp.] Jul 1972; [7th imp.] Nov 1972
New English Library 0450-01740-0 [8th imp.] Feb 1975,125pp, 30p.
"Chopper moved into position. The skinhead was still bent double. Bringing up his knee, Chopper felt with satisfaction the scrunch of broken bone as the kid's nose made contact. The kid went down, while blows from boots rained upon his body. He lay groaning, spitting out gouts of deep red blood and pieces of broken teeth.
__" 'Don't ever pull a blade on an Angel,' snapped Freaky before they left the kid. 'It's not friendly.' "
__This is the story of Chopper, of his bike, his pills, his girls and his violent bid for gang leadership. Author Peter Cave tells like never before how a greaser grows up to become a fallen Angel.
New English Library 0450-00981-5, Mar 1972, 127pp, 25p. Cover photo
---- [2nd imp.] Feb 1973; [3rd imp.] Jun 1973
New English Library 0450-02283-8 [4th imp.] Dec 1974, 127pp, 35p.
Chopper may be dead but his girl lives on.
__Mama.
__A motocycle groupie becomes queen of the Hell's Angels.
New English Library 0450-01089-9, May 1972, 127pp, 30p. Cover photo
Number three in the mind-blowing series that began with 'Chopper' and continued with 'Mama'.
__With Chopper dead and his loving Mama tucked safely up in Holloway prison, the English Angels are in big trouble.
__The leading chapters of American angeldom see the wide-open lands of Britain and prepare to move in.
__Honest citizens lock their doors when armies of Angels clash by night.
New English Library 0450-01118-6, 1972, 112pp. Cover photo
New English Library 0450-01436-3, Apr 1973, 126pp, 30p. Cover photo
---- [2nd imp.] Apr 1973.
New English Library 0450-02522-5 [3rd imp.] Mar 1975, 126pp, 35p. Cover photo
Run for your life – suedeheads are clashing with rogue Angels.
__The suedeheads have taken to buying up old American cars and riding them tooled-up and mob-handed. To the English Hell's angels, that means war.
__Against the background of a murderous personal vendetta, the conflict intensifies. Death comes to some in the mid-day heat of open battle. To otehrs it comes in the night and alone.
__Then the Glasgow Angels decide to move South. And all Hell breaks loose!!
New English Library 0450-01619-6, Nov 1973, 127pp, 30p. Cover photo
Filming the Angel's life is different and more difficult than filming a pop festival. But Gerry Shipton manages to persuade his backers that this film will hit. But only as long as he includes other speeding thrills.The Dirtiest Picture Postcard
__The speedway, the Wall of Death, open up new grounds for the Hell's Angels to show off their daredevil skills, prove their reckless courage. Dreams of stardom and the silver screen are new expeditions for them. So Gerry finds that things get out of control. Everything they touch turns sour; their mark is destruction.
New English Library 0450-2002-9, Aug 1974, 128pp, 30p. Cover photo
White Line Fever (novelisation of the film)
New English Library 0450-02210-2, Mar 1975, 128pp.
New English Library 0450-02478-4, Jul 1975, 126pp.
Everest 0903-92598-2, May 1976, 176pp.
New English Library 0450-02880-1, Aug 1976, 128pp, 50p. Cover photo
Some time after his return from America, the love bug and travel bug are biting hard and John Sheffield sets off for Europe in search of excitement, adventure and women.
__Now fully caught up in the thrills and dangers of hang-gliding, John discovers the up and coming social life that goes with it. Wild beach parties on the Riviera, romantic Latin women and the eccentric activisties of the jet set make it a trip to remember. He meets the girls who worship the hang-gliding dare-devils and, after a crashlanding in a field, he discovers that farmers' daughters are the same the world over.
__Travelling on to the ski resorts, he encounters one enterprising owner of a two-seater hang-glider who takes young girls up in the air – and proves that many things are possible 500 feet above ground...
Futura 0-8600-7472-2, Nov 1976, 160pp, 55p. Cover: photo
Codename for a terrifying game of espionage: twelve 'sleeping' Russian agents conditioned by narco-hypnosis to live for years as normal English citizens, unless they receive a torn playing card. At that point they become deadly, mindless killers, each programmed to destroy a specific human target.
__John Steed, Mike Gambit and the exquisite Purdey find themselves trapped in a web of terror and assassination as the House of Cards mysteriously begins to crumble and killer after killer is unleashed against the top men in British Intelligence. Among the targets – John Steed himself...
Everest 0905-01849-4, 1977, 237pp, 75p. Cover: photo
Charlie Pike is an old trucker, just two weeks away from retirement and a cottage in Cornwall. On his last long run, four youths in a Jaguar try to hijack his lorryload of whisky. They leave him dying by the roadside – but not before his mate, Harry Brannart, gets their number. Harry cannot catch the fast car – but he can radio its description to base, from where it is relayed to every one of Consolidated Trucking's fleet of juggernauts. And the chase is on...
__The runaway Jaguar is spotted, chased, lost, and spotted again. The word spreads in transport cafes and petrol stations, and lorries from other companies join the pack. The police, out to prevent a lynching, try to reach the Jaguar first. But, as the lust for revenge grows, the drivers become more reckless – egged on by the hypnotic voice of the strange girl who talks to them on their radios...
Futura 0-8600-7530-3 [7575-3 on cover], Sep 1977, 156pp, 65p. Cover photo
Cumbersome, colossal and deadly, they were metal robots emerging from a past everyone had believed dead: controlled by a man whose horrible mutations in a car accident had turned him into a monster, half flesh, half machine.
__This is the enemy the Avengers, Steed, Purdey and Gambit have to face when they discover that Professor Manson, Britain's leading expert on cybernetics as been forcibly abducted from one of teh most heavily guarded security establishments in the country.
Futura 0-8600-7558-3, Dec 1977, 139pp, 65p. Cover photo
Why is everyone in Security suddenly concerned about the possible outcome of a fight to the death between Gambit and John Steed?
__Who is leaking vital secrets from inside one of the most heavily guarded establishments within the Department? When the clues finally point, without a shadow of a doubt, to one man, it is Gambit who gets the order: Kill John Steed on sight. Only Purdey can clear up the web of mystery and reveal why Steed has stolen important defence secrets. And Purdey is missing.
Futura 0-7088-1368-2, Jul 1978, 287pp, 95p.
The modified MIG-25 . . . The greatest potential menace to world peace yet conceived. Codename: Foxbat.
__In speed, versatility and strike power, the Russian aircraft is years ahead of its time.
__The CIA are in trouble. To obtain a prototype is essential. To conceal their actions is vital.
__Bribed and blackmailed, inextricably caught in a web of international intrigue, a lone Soviet pilot must make the theft. Then he too became a threat...
__The facts of yesterday. The relentless tension of today. The nightmare of tomorrow...
Fontana 5053, 1979, 189pp, 85p.
Fathoms deep they lay in wait, these sea creatures man had exploited for so long. Soon their concerted might would be ranged against mankind – the slashing, tearing jaws of the great sharks, the numbing shocks of the stingrays, the fury of the killer whales and the guile of the dolphins. Man would be taught a lesson, slowly and agonisingly, and he would have only himself to blame...
Hamlyn 0600-34611-0, Mar 1980, 274pp, £1.15.
From all over the world the agents of death are gathering for the boldest, most horrifying gamble of all – Operation Krakatoa. If successful, it will change the course of history . . . and human civilisation will have to pay the price.
__Private villas with glittering swimming-pools, palm trees and fountains, multi-story luxury hotels, bars and restaurants . . . the huge holiday complex in the Spanish mountains is called New Paradise. And that's what it seems to shocked and weary travellers who arrive off the disastrous flight BE 387 from London. Some have come to relax in the sun, some to seek dreams of luxury, others to sort out the tangle of their lives. But what they find is a nightmare of sheer terror...
__A night-time explosion and suddenly the entire complex is sealed off from the outside world. By dawn an international terror group is holding the holidaymakers to ransom. And until its unthinkable demands are met, bands of innocent hostages will be executed daily.
__When the killings begin, the fate of the victims appears to be sealed. But what if they start to fight back?
Futura 0-7088-1750-5, Nov 1980, 252pp, £1.25.
The force of nature's retribition combines with man's most potent weapon of revenge – and London is the victim...
__In the future, it would remind survivors of the worst days if the Blitz. If there was a future.
__As the waters rise, State Oil and Petrochemicals face another threat – a maverick executive, Paul Heighway, who knows too much about their clandestine operations. A threat that must be removed, at any cost.
__So Paul Heighway finds himself with a hit man and a girl on rainlashed Canvey Island – a potentially devastating fire bomb in the middle of the Thames.
__And the fuse has just been lit...
Hamlyn 0600-36376-7, Jul 1981, 287pp, £1.50.
Reaching out from the teaming cities of the Far East to the icy wastes of Canada, a ruthless machine has caused the death of hundreds . . . and now it threatens international chaos.
__A refugee boat limps into Hong Kong harbour with only nineteen survivors on board...
__In Los Angeles a bizarre sexual encounter takes place in the bar of a luxury hotel...
__Two heavy-assault US Army helicopters suddenly vanish without trace...
__A beautiful girl's secret diary takes on a vital significance...
__For electronics expert Mark Hallman the mystery begins with the strange death of his American girlfriend. At the same time his old colleague Arnold Fane is entering a very private nightmare. Both men have been sucked into the vicious spider-web of a giant organisation.
__But what is the enemy they are fighting? An international charity with tainted motives . . . a worldwide drug-smuggling racket . . . or the most massive political conspiracy of all time?
Mainstream 0906-39195-4, Jul 1985, 176pp, £1.95. Cover photo
Glamorous opera singer, Eleanor Samson, returns to sing with Scottish Opera. While in Glasgow, she hopes to bring about a reconciliation with her estranged husband, John. She is furious to discover that there is a new woman in John's life, blonde ex-secretary, Kirsty King. When Kirsty's body is found in the burnt-out shell of John's boat, Eleanor Samson is the prime suspect.
__Jim Taggart, tough Glasgow detective, and his smooth young assistant, Peter Livingstone, fall out over the case. Livingstone believes Eleanor is guilty, Taggart cannot believe that a woman like Eleanor could be a murderess. Is Taggart allowing his judgement to be clouded by Eleanor's fame and beauty?
Mainstream 1851-58555-9, 1993, 207pp, £4.99. Cover photo (c) Scottish Television
When two skulls are discovered on the site of a new bypass, Jim Taggart is called in to investigate. Could one be that of a girl who disappeared without trace four years earlier? The case takes a deadly turn after poisonous snakes stolen from a pharmaceutical laboratory are used in a series of macabre murders. Taggart needs all his detective skills as he puzzles over the link between the missing girl and a tangle of corporate intrigue involving the lab's owners, in a thrilling race against time.
Mainstream 1851-58556-7, 1993, 208pp, £4.99. Cover photo (c) Scottish Television
When 12-year-old Simon witnesses the murder of his father by a caped intruder, Jim Taggart is plunged into another mystery. Simon is convinced his father's death is connected to the mysterious cottage in the woods and decides to investigate . . . His journey moves from fairytale to nightmare in this very gripping and very frightening thriller.
Mainstream 1851-58627-X, 1994, 221pp, £5.99. Cover photo (c) Scottish Television
When Cathy and Martin Adams decide to have a baby by donor insemination, Cathy's mother, Joan, blames her son-in-law for the 'unnatural' act. Bitter recriminations follow and Joan's subsequent murder would appear to be a clear-cut case. But all is not as it seems: Taggart discovers that Dr Miller of the fertility clinic has been donating his own sperm and that about 60 couples who attended the clinic are now bringing up a 'Miller' child. More creepy discoveries lead the Taggart team on a terrifying hunt for the killer before he strikes again. Forbidden Fruit is a fast-moving and controversial thriller based on the popular TV show.
Mainstream 1851-58628-8, 1994, 224pp, £5.99. Cover photo (c) Scottish Television
When Dr Janet Napier, owner of the Napier Health Farm, on trial for murdering her husband's mistress, is givena 'not-proven' verdict, Taggart is ordered to take a rest. Being Taggart, he promptly books in at the Napier Health Farm. Dr Napier cannot be tried again – but there may be more to discover. Taggart is right. Within days of his arrival, members of Dr Napier's family begin to be murdered by a killer who seems to have a deadly grudge. Does the clue lie in her past, when she destroyed the lives of a family by giving a young girl an accidental overdose of insulin? Taggart's enforced rest at the health farm puts him in just the right place to unearth the killer in another taut, well-paced thriller based on the popular ITV series.
22 Books 1898-12518-X, 1994, 283pp, £4.99. Cover photo: The Military Picture Library
In the 1990s, in the bleak, snow-capped mountain of Kazakhstan, the SAS return to settle a score which goes back almost half a century and to face a new and terrifying enemy – an enemy that is silent, deadly and invisible and that will test their endurance, and their equipment, to the limit.
__Almost fifty years earlier in 1945, even as treaties were being signed in Berlin, treachery was being planned. An SAS patrol on a routine mission was ambushed and massacred by a cynical and ruthless Russian KGB Major with an insane dream of a new and terrible form of biological warfare.
__In the post-war yeaers captured Nazi medical personnel and the cream of the USSR's scientists were established in a high-security research facility in the remote, mountainous region of Kazakhstan, close to the Mongolian border. Although the complex's inhuman experiments were devastatingly successful and although it was still funded by the KGB, by the early 1980s the virtually autonomous complex, with its well-armed security unit and fanatically independent community, was almost forgotten by the Soviet authorities.
__Until, that is, sketchy reports of an accident – possibly a plague or leak of a mutated virus from a biological experiment – filtered through to American intelligence. A Russian army team sent in to investigate disappeared without trace. The Chinese, terrified that their territory might be threatened by the leak, turned to Britain, an unlikely ally, for help.
__Only one group of men was deemed capable of discovering the truth behind the underground facility – the legendary Special Air Service – the SAS!
22 Books 1898-12531-7, 1995, 278pp, £4.99. Cover photo: The Military Picture Library
Terrorist bombs in town and city streets, an ever-rising tide of crime and a teenage drug problem that was rapidly escalating out of control . . . this was the ugly face of Great Britain in 1995.
__The conventional police forces were already stretched beyond their limit – and now a new threat was looming. A fanatical right-wing movement that in recent months had wreaked murder and chaos in mainland Europe was spreading its evil tentacles into the UK. Using terrorism and crime to fund its undercover activities, and a frightening new drug to spur on its growing army of bullyboys to unprecedented extremes of violence, it threatened to turn the streets of Britain's towns and inner cities into battlegrounds of anarchic brutality.
__In desperation, the civil authorities turned to the only group of men who might be able to confront – and beat – these fanatics on their own terms: the legendary Special Air Service – the SAS!
__Guided by a maverick undercover drug cop, the SAS team were pitted against an enemy as ruthless and deadly as any the regiment had faced in its chequered and splendid history.
__The SAS were at war, and that war was just outside the window – a war on the streets.
22 Books 1898-12540-6, 1995, 280pp, £4.99. Cover photo: The Military Picture Library
From start to finish, there was something about this mission that wasn't quite right, Lieutenant-Colonel Martin thought.
Not that there was anything wrong with the basic concept – apart from its being extremely hazardous. In fact, there was a delicious irony in the idea of putting some crude, hastily-built wind-powered craft up against the most sophisticated and hi-tech surveillance the Russian Navy possessed.
In Cold War parlance, the British government liked to think of it as a counter-intelligence mission – but the Russians were more likely to see it as an act of international piracy. So the entire operation had to be cloaked in secrecy, and only the men of the legendary Special Boat Squadron were considered capable of getting away with it.
But things were beginning to go wrong. Suddenly the secret base on the Greek island of Samos wasn't so secret any more, and a cover operation set up as camouflage quickly turned out to be even more dangerous than the mission itself.
And the clock was already ticking – on a deadly time bomb which could blast the volatile Middle East into all-out war. To rescue the situation, all the tactical prowess and monumental daring of the SBS would be required – and there would be no second chances.
BBC/Penguin 0140-25710-1, May 1996, 249pp, £4.99. Cover photo (c) BBC Worldwide Ltd.
September 1939 – war breaks and two very different families are drawn together by an ill-starred marriage of convenience.
Harry Slater and Mary Hamilton share political beliefs but were born on opposite sides of the social spectrum. The announcement of their marriage surprises everyone, not least Harry's childhood sweetheart Kaye. On their disastrous wedding day, Mary's secret comes to light, the Slaters and Hamiltons clash and the police pay an unexpected call...
As hostilities commence at home and abroad, family feuds also bubble to the surface. The Slater family is divided as eldest son Tom is released from prison, Clifford runs off to sea and a starving young woman appears in their air-raid shelter. The Hamiltons struggle as the harsh imperatives of wartime bite into their comfortable existence and their cosy assumptions collapse around them.
Sometimes funny, sometimes moving, No Bananas is a compelling story of courage and survival amidst the tragedy and chaos of wartime Britain.
Headline 0747-26001-X, Jun 1998, 278pp, £5.99. Cover photo (c) BBC
When a mysterious craft crashes in war-torn London, an Army bomb-disposal officer, Charles Terrell, is called to the scene. Is the craft really a Nazi secret weapon and who – or what – is flying it?.
To Terrell it is obvious that neither the craft nor its pilot are of this earth and he is determined to find out more. When the wounded alien is detained in a sanatorium, Terrell gets the chance to communicate with it. A band grows between them that takes him to a distant world where he learns the secrets of the ECHOs. When Terrell returns to Earth – some 50 years later – he hopes against hope that what he has learned can save humanity from an alien power of limitless strength which threatens to destroy it.
I saw a copy of "West Coast Wildcatting" online somewhere (I don't think it was here) and fell in love with it - by chance, sometime later, I spotted it in the window display (!) at Oxfam in Leicester. It's not at all like you'd expect but it's funny, smutty and rude. Very enjoyable (and he goes on about hang-gliding in that too).
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