Stern Magazine, the Black Scorpion: "we will aim at everything - even if it is not moving" Surrey Life magazine: "George S Boughton was an oil engineer in Nigeria during the 1967 to 1970 Biafran War and what emerges from this intense, emotional memoir is a withering indictment of governing elites and the destructive consequences of their out-of-control behaviour. Around a million people starved to death or were killed in the fighting; yet the news vacuum meant that Boughton and other expat workers were often in the dark about the true extent of what was going on. Black Gold Black Scorpion is a fascinating, first-hand account of how a nation at war with itself became a magnet for cold war politics as it sank into moral darkness". Recounted are the lives of a young oil engineer, his wife and newborn child, during the War, when they inadvertently lived through one of the worst episodes of African history. Working in an industry that has gone on to pollute massively with oil, theirs is a different story of Africa, oil and aid. The author describes the political elites and those, like Ojukwu and Adekunle, who fought them - having himself been captured and detained, one to one, by the mythically ruthless Black Scorpion; this, the strangest of events, enabling him to observe at close range the disintegration of a powerful personality. More especially, the author's and his family's interaction with the people of the area, the people of Igboland, serves to underline how most of Africa continues to be let down by the pillars of the modern world - political elites, capitalists, the media and warring world powers.

GBP1 of each sale is pledged to making the twelve-part series Noah's Ark, commencing 11 January 2021 on Sky TV, as well as the series' You are Noah Tie-In books. Captured is a chance moment of mayhem. Flooding from two strong storms created a dam across an otherwise peaceful river, just before a pandemic swept across the world to isolate this spot along with the author. But, also captured along with manmade environmental destruction, is the transformation that took place from busy contrail skies to blue and verdant water scenes... and a pair of geese that made this their home. Then kayakers tackle the obstacle, boaters try to remove it, a swan performs... and a fox attacks...

Set in the 2060's, Mass Extinction has continued unabated. Action over climate change, environmental and wildlife conservation, let alone overpopulation and continued fossil fuel dependence, have utterly failed to stem the losses. Dwindling natural resources, shrinking standards in overcrowded cities, has constantly swelled economic migrations. To the point that populating 'Planet B' is urgently underway. An international team of researchers is assigned to live and work in newly built Near Earth Territories - each vessel greatly more spacious than the largest ocean liners, which they dwarf. Except, on Earth, an unforeseen escalation in natural disasters is plunging territories into anarchy and territorial wars. The researchers must find answers and least qualified among the scientists is Sashia, a paraplegic who surprisingly becomes a rock on which they all depend. Doctors Mei Sai Ling and Steve Nord form the scientific team's backbone, headed by Professor Mark Madison and assisted by FayWell, the enigmatic Artificial Intelligence to the fleet. Tending their medical needs is Doctor O'Malley. Their mission is to discover the cause of the natural disasters, to avert this Mass Extinction becoming as apocalyptic as the end Cretaceous event. News coverage is increasingly grim with refugees fleeing disasters caught up in battles between new styled warlords and United Nation Security Council forces. Those actions extend to space, where the Territories fleet, escorted by the biggest and best US Navy battle-carrier, becomes a primary target. Our species is outgrowing the home planet. The Territories fleet is predominantly manned by designer-babies now in young adulthood. Designed to reside permanently in space, they are the beginning of a new branch of the human species, transformed into extraterrestrial beings. As for the Earth: It's not too late. Time to let nature revive and evolve on its own...

George S Boughton's action adventure is - space travel to space cities; also environmental, climate change, earthquakes and oil pollution; as well as the reality of dinosaur extinctions

Also, see www.deepstorm.org

Members of an elite young research team, Drs Mei Sai Ling and Steve Nord are defined by their spirit and determination as well as by their remarkable science see the Glossary]. The UN Security Council's response to catastrophic natural disasters, which have lead to global chaos and war, is to send the scientists out to the Near Earth Territories - vast man-made settlements in space - to observe geophysical developments.

Initially an enigma for inclusion in the genetically honed team of 'fimans', paraplegic Sashia Dubchek results from a pre-birth experiment that went wrong, and yet is also selected as a 'best of breed' following the gruelling InviHundred games - an event aimed at evaluating the highest level of mental prowess and genetically engineered capacities to fit the way of life in the Territories. Lively, curiously intuitive and daring, Sashia moves instinctively to the forefront of the drama that unfolds.

Throughout battles that even reach the Territories, the team grapples with understanding the true dynamics of the changing Earth. Until, finally, aided by an imaginative technique for glimpsing the demise of the dinosaurs, they succeed in developing revolutionary new concepts in the Earth Sciences. Revealed, for the first time, free of mankind's industrial influences, is the relentless and often violent impact that the Earth's planetary ageing has on environments. Subtly different perspectives - on earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, climates, evolution and (with a surprising twist) even oil exploration - gradually unfold before the fimans and best of all you, the reader.

Reviews:
"An interesting and imaginative concept, well-written, researched and conceived." M Pargeter (Pargeter Designs) 28 Dec 2012

The Science:
We are, today, witnessing the world transforming - experiencing extreme weather, earthquakes and tsunamis as well as upheavals in crowded and oppressed nations. DeepStorm OutTack follows the relevant issues and the young scientists who aim to learn from the distant past as they attempt to build a better future for the Earth and new Near Earth Territories. The Glossary, includes terms ranging from: Fimans, reconneers and genecrafting to the InviHundred games, terraforming and artificial intelligence Spaceports, lighter than air materials and thermoports to the Near Earth Territories Cosmic weather and climate change to climate creep, polar warming and an Einsteinian gravitational wave dubbed DeepStorm Continental drift and rafts to the Deccan Traps, flood basalt eruption hotspots, the Armstrong Effect and geoshifts Gaia to Greenpeace and kerogen (oil) The Late-Cretaceous Beringia, Tethys Sea and a variety of dinosaurs and other reptiles to mass extinction, heathland, birds and positioning natural correction alongside natural selection in evolutionary terms Genres/Categories: Action Adventure (USA) Hard Sci-Fi (USA) Space Opera Earth Sciences Natural History (USA) Natural World (UK) The Environment (UK) Space Science (UK)