Les Broad: 20 books

Science fiction has no limits except those of the writer's imagination. This trio of short stories is evidence that some sci-fi writers have very strange imaginations. The first story, 'Ogod's Enigma', tells of a happy planet ruled by the vastly overweight King Ogod. But all is not well, which is...

The author has a few favourite movies, some well enough known and others rather more obscure, and this little book is a summary of some of them. Several have a science fiction theme, but then it is an area in which the author has written several books, so it's not that surprising. The book has been...

Internet e-mail scams, mostly originating in West Africa, have been one of the downsides of communicating in cyberspace, but, incredible though it may seem, people have actually responded to them. As an aside, an episode of a comedy series on Icelandic television featured a character who did just...

There are three essays in this work: a commentary on the Welsh Government's economic development strategy, another on elections to that Government and a third, unrelated, on the position of financial services providers in Britain generally. It is easy to be critical, but these essays offer constructive alternatives to the status quo drawn from years of practical, day-to-day experience.

When faced with any member of the medical profession, your author does not demonstrate that British ideal of a stiff upper lip. Oh no, as recounted here he becomes a big gibbering coward, afraid of needles. He's been sliced open, several times, stitched back up again and had those stitches taken out...

Tea, Drums And Speed is just one of a set of short stories; it tells of a 1960s pop band metamorphosing. Elsewhere, there's a story speculating on how those bizarre rumours about 'celebrities' actually start, another about what flashes through the mind in the moments before a car accident and the...

A comic tale of disaster following disaster, the story follows the attempt of Jim Tubbs to travel from the UK mainland to the Channel Island of Jersey to sell furniture. It was a simple plan – fly out, do the job he was so well paid to do, then fly back. It didn't happen that way. While Jim was...

When an old lady dies and leaves a legacy of one penny to somebody neither her only son nor the family solicitor had ever heard of the son is intrigued. So he sets out to discover the background to that unusual legacy. His discoveries throw up a fascinating, and very secret, story. Told in four separate...

Frankie Sidebottom was a (fictitious) soccer player until injury brought his career to a shuddering close. After spells as a television pundit and newspaper columnist – and appearing in a television advertisement – he became a publican. That was as successful as the rest of his post-soccer activities. You...

The author is perhaps not the most romantic of men, but despite this has, over the years, participated in his share of relationships with those of that incomprehensible breed known as woman. Sometimes they have been satisfying and of the happily-ever-after sort, of interest only to those actually...

In this series of four unique essays you'll discover the complete history of the world from the Big Bang until yesterday afternoon, why there are more Greek philosophers that Inuit and why, in the author's opinion, we should all be deeply suspicious of the motivation of 'scientists'. You'll probably...

The moon is a hostile environment in which to work, about as hostile as it's possible to imagine. The men and women who work there are highly trained, disciplined and competent. The moon, as those who work there know, is nobody's property. There are others who see the moon as an asset, beings who...

This is a trilogy that starts in a strange future where engineering of the human body – at least for the well-off – isn't just genetic. If you can afford it, and can source the right body parts, just about anything is replaceable....The second story is set in present-day England, a multi-cultural...

Sitting in a valley in the bleak moorland of northern England, Greywinton is a village that is home to just a few people. The first snow of winter comes early, but one year it brings with it some strange events: eerie glows from the hilltops, strange noises in the sky and some very odd, never before...