A Year in the Life - revisiting the 1980s!
I am thrilled to announce a new spin-off series of ten books starting in 2024, each examining a different year of the 1980s. Unlike The Time Bubble books, which are best read in order, this will be an anthology series, each featuring different characters and different aspects of 1980s life. Readers will be able to enjoy these without having read any of the others or any of The Time Bubble books.
Each book in the series will follow the same basic premise - a middle-aged person from the 2020s gets to spend a year in the 1980s when they were young. During their year, they will confront issues in their own life and explore the culture of the era, as well as being tasked with looking after the timeline.
For more details, see below...
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1980: A Year in the Life of Keith Diamond.
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​Relive the 1980s in this rip-roaring time travel adventure from bestselling author, Jason Ayres.
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As the 2020s dawn, Keith Diamond, the self-styled ‘Diamond Geezer’, works as a shock jock presenter at controversial radio station, ChatFM. When the station comes under new management, Keith finds himself surplus to requirements. His future employment prospects look bleak until a stranger gives him a bracelet that catapults him forty years back in time to when he was a young journalist starting out at one of the tabloids. Soaking up the culture, Keith immerses himself in the music scene, going to see legendary bands like The Clash, Blondie, Madness, and The Specials, but soon there are more important tasks at hand.
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Working in Fleet Street, Keith finds himself thrust into the news stories of the day. These range from the hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper to the death of John Lennon, plus the world’s obsession with “Who Shot JR?” From a personal perspective, 1980 is a pivotal year on which both his and many of his friends’ destinies depend. Can he rectify past mistakes, avert disasters, and reshape his own future and that of others?
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Join Keith, as he revisits the culture and events of 1980, in this humorous and thought-provoking time travel story.
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1981: A Year in the Life of Nick Taylor.
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Fancy a trip back in time to 1981? Then join Nick Taylor as he gets the opportunity of a lifetime – to relive a whole year of his life.
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1981 wasn’t a year Nick remembered fondly. His mother was killed in a plane crash, his father ran off with the babysitter, and he was sent to possibly the most horrible school in the world. 2020 ends on a similar note when that babysitter, now his stepmother, can’t be bothered to tell him his father is dying until it is too late and then promptly disinherits him.
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Then Nick meets television star Keith Diamond who gives him a bracelet with the power to send him back in time. Arriving in 1981, before the events that shaped his annus horribilis, he realises he now has the power to change the timeline. There’s just one problem – no one takes any notice of you when you’re only ten.
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Join Nick, as he relives the experience of growing up in the 1980s, in this humorous and thought-provoking time travel story.
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1982: A Year in the Life of Wendy Wood.
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Meet Wendy Wood. The popstar that never was…
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In 1982, Wendy Wood was poised on the brink of stardom. Lead singer with talented local band, Velvet Temptation, she was a rising star of the Oxford music scene. Tipped for fame by the music press, success seemed inevitable.
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But conflict within the band, a series of betrayals and infidelities, and an unwelcome run of bad luck all played a part in shattering her dreams.
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Forty years later, her health failing, Wendy’s only comfort is in karaoke nights, where every song is a poignant reminder of what might have been.
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Then, out of the blue, she’s handed the means to return to the past. Determined to rewrite her destiny, Wendy is steadfast in her pursuit of the fame that once slipped through her fingers.
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Join Wendy as she immerses herself in the vibrant music scene of 1982, navigating the complexities of love, ambition, and second chances in this thought-provoking time travel story.
The Ronnie and Bernard Adventures
The Ronnie and Bernard books came about from a conversation I had with my good friend, the actor, Michael Livesley. Along with him and another actor friend, Paul Carmichael, we created the characters of Ronnie and Bernard, initially intended to be played by Paul and Michael in a proposed film.
The film didn’t happen (not yet, anyway) but I felt the idea had huge potential, so I took the script and expanded it into the first novel, The Crooked Line. It’s not intended to be a serious sci-fi story, more a tongue-in-cheek tribute to countless pieces of 1970s culture, everything from Carry-on films to Scooby Doo.
The sequel builds on the first story and is based around a pantomime in a haunted theatre in a fictional seaside resort in the mid-1970s. Once it again it features over-the-top performances from the two larger-than-life leads in their latest comedic adventure.
I have an idea for a third Ronnie & Bernard book set on the Costa Del Crime in the late 1970s but this is on the backburner for the moment while I work on my other series - but I hope it will see the light of day at some point.
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The Crooked Line
[The Ronnie and Bernard Adventures - Book 1]
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From the author of the bestselling Time Bubble series comes a nostalgic new series set in the 1970s.
More light-hearted and comedic than The Time Bubble books, The Ronnie and Bernard adventures take a tongue-in-cheek look at the era, fondly recalling some of the tropes and stereotypes of the time.
In 1972, Ronnie and Bernard are the stars of an afternoon soap opera on ITV. Ronnie is a hard-drinking, politically incorrect dinosaur with attitudes that were outdated fifty years ago. Bernard is a tortured soul trying to get over a broken marriage who rose to fame as a stand-up comedian on the working men’s club circuit. His star is in the ascendancy, whilst Ronnie’s, despite his grandiose claims, is very much on the wane.
When Bernard learns that his uncle has died, he and Ronnie travel to the will reading. They discover that all Bernard needs to do to inherit the entire estate is to spend the night in a country house. Thus begins an epic adventure involving mysterious apparitions from the past, an ancient stone circle, and a chamber beneath the house that leads to both the past and the future.
The Crooked Line is the first in a series of humorous novels set in the 1970s, with mild supernatural and science fiction elements. Anyone with fond memories of the films, television, and culture of the era will find plenty to delight them here.
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The Haunted Theatre
[The Ronnie and Bernard Adventures - Book 2]
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After their long-running soap opera is axed by the network, actors Ronnie and Bernard face differing fortunes in their quest to further their careers. Bernard is much in demand, going straight off to film a new series of his sitcom. Ronnie, on the other hand, has a career that looks washed-up. When about the only offer on the table is to be the new Bungle in Rainbow, things are starting to look bleak.
When millionaire holiday camp owner, Bobby Burton, offers Bernard the starring role in his Christmas panto, he jumps at the chance, bringing Ronnie along for the ride. Together, they travel to the up-and-coming holiday resort of Skegmouth.
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After a weekend of mishaps and misunderstandings, largely due to Ronnie’s indiscretions, the pair finally make it to The Grand Theatre on the end of the pier. Rumours abound about the strange nature of the theatre, in particular regarding the mysterious disappearance of a music hall star back in 1906.
Ronnie and Bernard soon discover that the theatre is indeed not what it seems when they become trapped in time, with seemingly no means of escape.
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The Haunted Theatre is the second in a series of humorous novels set in the 1970s, with mild supernatural and science fiction elements. Anyone with fond memories of the films, television, and culture of the era will find plenty to delight them here.
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