BRIAN NICHOLSON

Calypso

Publish Date – 30/6/2008

Published by – Trafford Publishing

ISBN – xxxxxxxx

Price – £12

Available from – Gardners – Bertrams – THE and all leading book distributors

The secret of what happened to the weapons of mass destruction – if they ever existed, died with Saddam Hussein on the gallows.  Or did it?  The United Nations teams of nuclear, biological and chemical scientists who searched for the WMDs were on a hiding to nothing, looking for something that Saddam Hussein had had ten years to hide in a landmass the same size as the United Kingdom.  All of those involved in the hiding of those weapons had been murdered – some by Saddam Hussein himself, so we are told – or had they?  One man who knew a great deal about the research and production of biological and chemical weapons had been sent to the USA just prior to the destruction of the World Trade Centre’s twin towers in September 2001.  In the 9/11 aftermath of mass arrests by the CIA, living under an alias, that man was incarcerated, along with some 600 other suspected terrorists, in Camp X-ray at Guantanamo Bay.  He was a relative of ‘Chemical Ali’ and had been the instrument of the mass gassing of the Kurdish enclave in Northern Iraq in 1988.

His real identity and his location in Camp Delta – to which all ‘illegal combatants’ were moved in Guantanamo Bay in April 2004 - were known by two parties – one wanted to achieve his release to kill him very slowly to ensure he suffered as much as the thousands of Kurds he gassed with Lewisite and Sarin.  The other wanted him released because of his knowledge of where Saddam Hussein had hidden his store of biological and chemical weapons so that they could carry out the postponed atrocity in the UK which had been planned to coincide with 9/11 in the USA.

But how is all this connected to the disappearance of charter yachts in the Caribbean, a British warship which disappears like the Mary Celeste and a Queen’s ransom of jewels and gold buried on a remote Caribbean island by Blackbeard the Pirate in the 18th Century? To answer those questions, John Gunn is sent to the Caribbean by the British Intelligence Directorate and this assignment leads to a terrifying race against time to prevent a catastrophic terrorist atrocity in London.

Fire Dragon

Published by – Trafford Publishing

ISBN – 1-4251-3358-4

Price – £12

Available from – Gardners – Bertrams – THE and all leading book distributors

The slaughter of half a million Communists by Indonesia's President in 1965 is a weeping sore for Arief Sulitsono (Alias Dr Ramano Rusman) the illegitimate son of Aidit - the Communist leader - who is determined to return Indonesia to a Communist Dictatorship. He realises that he can do nothing against the power of the USA unless he and other developing countries of NAM possess nuclear weapons. He therefore enters into a conspiracy with the North Koreans to help them avoid US interference with their nuclear weapons programme.

Fortuitously, he stumbles on the enormous treasure amassed by Admiral Yamamoto and hidden in the islands off Irian Jaya and uses this unlimited funding to build a rocket launch site on Waigeo Island on the Equator. From this rocket launch site he plans to place the North Korean nuclear warheads in geo-stationary orbit out of reach of IAEA inspection and US satellite surveillance and available to any country resisting US interference.

Rusman's plan unravels because there are other clues to Yamamoto's treasure and his launch site is being built on the most likely epicentre of a cataclysmic earthquake. This is John Gunn's fourth assignment for the British Intelligence Directorate in which he is confronted by man-eating dragons in 'the ring of fire'.

Ashanti Gold

Published by – Trafford Publishing

ISBN – 1-4251-3354-1

Price – £12

Available from – Gardners – Bertrams – THE and all leading book distributors

An investigation into the disappearance of an ineffective agent, from the now-defunct Secret Intelligence Service at the British High Commission in Accra, reveals a conspiracy to overthrow the governments of the countries in West Africa by subversion, terrorism and tribal civil war.

The cruelty and corruption of the 18th century Portugese, Dutch and British slave-traders who raped West Africa of its human and mineral resources, is easily surpassed by that of 21st Century, power-hungry, West African exiles, ruthless arms dealers, diplomats and politicians on both sides of the Atlantic who are involved in the conspiracy.

Governments can be brought down by subversion, terrorism and civil war. Terrorists need weapons which must be bought with money…lots of it. Gold is money…and in Ghana is the richest gold mine in the world at Sawaba in the Ashanti Region where nuggets as big as walnuts can be illegally panned from the Ofin River and then sold to dealers abroad…just as was done during the 18th Century slave trade.

This is John Gunn's third assignment with the British Intelligence Directorate, which he undertakes while still recovering from a gunshot wound from his previous assignment.

Al Samak

Published by – Trafford Publishing

ISBN – 142511267-6

Price – £12

Available from – Gardners – Bertrams – THE and all leading book distributors

A fast-paced, intriguing and nail-biting work of fiction about the desperate search for ‘the smoking gun’ in Iraq during the summer of 2002, some nine months before the invasion in March 2003. The man with all the experience to bring you this convincing and authentic story is the writer Brian Nicholson. On the last page you must choose – is it fact or fiction?

In that summer of 2002, Vladimir Putin is struggling to protect the embryo Russian democracy amid the plotting of die-hard communists determined to return the Russian Federation to a Soviet dictatorship. Saddam Hussein is desperately negotiating with anyone or any country that will provide him with the weapons of mass destruction for which the IAEA are searching and which he hopes might frustrate the impending invasion. The intelligence agencies of the coalition intensify every measure conceivable to prevent a nuclear holocaust in the Middle East.

A decorated ex-Army Colonel with considerable experience as a Military Advisor and Defence Attaché in Hong Kong, SE Asia and Africa, Brian Nicholson draws on his wealth of military, intelligence and political experience to develop a frighteningly credible story of treachery, conspiracy revenge and violence.

Brian Nicholson takes John Gunn on his second assignment with the British Intelligence Directorate in a story of 21st Century political intrigue and financial greed. It’s a tale that started long ago in the 7th Century and then leads the reader through a maze of conspiracy, treachery and global terrorism to a nail-biting climax on the island of Al Samak in the Arabian Sea.  Influenced by the books of Frederick Forsyth and Tom Clancy, Brian has drawn on his considerable experience working alongside M16 to create a credible modern day James Bond.

Gweilo

Published by – Trafford Publishing

ISBN – 1-4251-3356-8

Price – £12

Available from – Gardners – Bertrams – THE and all leading book distributors

The theft of a birthright has been the motive for murder since Jacob usurped it from his elder brother, Esau. The birthright to the immense riches of Hong Kong would vanish at midnight on 30th June 1997 as a result of the signing of the Anglo-Sino Joint Declaration in 1984. Not only the New Territories would be handed back to China - acquired by Great Britain in the 1898 treaty - but also Hong Kong Island which was ceded to Great Britain in perpetuity after the first Opium war in 1842, thus forming the birthright of the descendants of those intrepid traders and settlers who had arrived in Hong Kong - 'a place of sweet water' - under the straining canvas of the triangular sky and moonraker topsails of their lean-hulled trading clippers. For one 'gweilo' - the derogatory word used by the Chinese for the Caucasian expatriate - being dispossessed of his inheritance and betrayed by his own country had developed into an all-consuming fury. If he and his descendants couldn't have Hong Kong, then no one would have it - least of all the Chinese.

In 1986, two years after the signing of the Joint Declaration, the reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power station exploded. The subsequent meltdown and escape of radioactive material turned the surrounding area for hundreds of square miles into a deserted wasteland of mutant plants and animals and humans riddled with cancer. The world reeled in horror and condemned the corrupt and decaying Soviet Union for its crass incompetence. But one man in Hong Kong, whose ancestor had disembarked from the first of the clippers to anchor in Victoria Harbour and whose father had died for Hong Kong, tortured to death by the Japanese occupation force in 1943, saw the Chernobyl disaster in a different light.

This is John Gunn's first assignment with the British Intelligence Directorate for which he is head-hunted from his SAS induction course because of his fluency in Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese.

About the Author

Brian Nicholson joined the Army in 1961 after a trial run at the commercial world, completing a full career with his last appointment as the Defence Attaché in Jakarta.  His award of the OBE in 1985 as a Commanding Officer was followed by the Commander-in-Chief’s Commendation for his work with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in Hong Kong to expedite the 1984 Joint Declaration on the hand over of Hong Kong to China.

As the Commander of the British Military Training Team, he was also Deputy Commandant of the Ghana Armed Forces Staff College and Military Advisor to Flt Lt Jerry Rawlings – the Head of State.  The appointment in Hong Kong provided all the background needed for both ‘GWEILO’ (white man), the first book in the series and ‘AL SAMAK’ (the fish) and his appointment in Ghana gave him the background for its successor, the third book in the series  – ‘ASHANTI GOLD’.  After learning to speak Bahasa Indonesian, he was sent to Jakarta as the Defence Attaché.  This tour and his success in solving the mystery of how one particular member of the ill-fated Operation Rimau in WW2 had died provided the material for his fourth novel ‘FIRE DRAGON’.

A ‘Yachtmaster’ skipper of offshore yachts, a talented painter and sportsman who enjoys his skiing, golf and sailing, Brian Nicholson now spends his time writing, painting, playing golf, sailing and restoring classic British sports cars.