Showing results by author "Ian Shimwell" in All Categories

Say hello to Little Titch, the small engine with a big heart. Little Titch feels very small next to his good friend, the kind and very big engine, Gideon. But when Gideon forgets something important, it's up to the littlest of little engines to save the day....

Gideon is a big, kind engine with a huge crane arm. But when he meets an even bigger engine, Massive Mandy, she is always very rude to him. With the help of his friends, can Gideon somehow find the softer side of the bad-tempered engine?

Minnie Millie is the station cleaner who likes to look after her engine friends. But her friends, Little Titch and Gideon, want to know just who is it who controls all the Mainland engines. To find out, they must go all the way to the Big City, where the biggest surprise of all is waiting for them....

A new recruit is assigned to be Hitler's personal bodyguard.

Who is Old Tom? A sad and lonely fusspot? Or a forgotten figure whose bewildering deductive abilities hint at something more? Does he ever leave his armchair? Why is he only ever seen or heard by engaging local newspaper reporter Trench? And what surprising secret are the Mayflower Court Flats really hiding?

Rust Bucket is an old engine who lives on a lost railway. Little Titch wakes up on an old, rusty railway track. He doesn't know where he is or how he even came to be there. Back home, Gideon and Minnie Millie desperately search for their friend. Can they ever find the lost little engine?

Toc Toc is a clockwork engine who holds the secret to the tick and the tock. Little Titch, Gideon, and Minnie Millie come to the Clockwork Village with a cog, spindle, and wheel to fix the Great Clock. But what lies behind the towering clock face? And why, for a clockwork village, is there neither a tick nor a tock?

The sequel to HG Wells' celebrated comic novel, The History of Mr. Polly. Time has moved on for Mr. Polly. Over 10 years have passed since the tragic loss of his beloved Nancy - "Nan" as he lovingly called her. Polly thinks he should now leave the Potwell Inn to allow Nan's daughter to rightfully inherit her home and fully live her own life.

Little Titch and Gideon snuggle up for a bedtime story. And Minnie Millie tells her engines a story of a clockwork engine coming to life and of a clockmaker trying to make the Great Clock work in time before the Clockwork Village itself runs out of its tick and its tock.

Attending a medical conference, Watson returns to Baker Street to find a much older Holmes, withdrawn and very retired. Remarkably, Watson's visit coincides with another: Lil, a girl from the notorious and appalling Old Nichol Rookery housing slum, is unaware the great detective has retired. She brings with her a firsthand sighting of a strange, glowing "ghoul" which frightened her half to death in the dark ginnels of the Rookery. So, will Holmes and Watson, for one very last time, investigate a ghoul who does not like to be seen...?

Lord and Lady Cranleigh come to Baker Street with an intriguing mystery for Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson. Their debutante stepdaughter suddenly disappeared 10 years ago seemingly without a trace. They consult the detecting pair to finally discover what has actually happened to her. Arriving at Cranleigh Hall, Holmes and Watson meet the Cranleigh family and slowly begin to form their suspicions. What secrets are they hiding? Can they piece together events from 10 years ago? Will a Cranleigh killing imminently take place?

One murder. Three suspects. Each has their own very different story to tell of an ill-fated stay at the Saunderson family remote country residence, Three Sisters. But, will it be left to the final report of Inspector Mackenzie to shed any light on this most baffling of crimes?

With Holmes incapacitated, Watson reluctantly agrees to let the argumentative Inspector Lestrade accompany him on a Scottish fishing holiday. But soon after arriving at Ye Clootie's Claw Inn, Watson and Lestrade discover the fearsome Legend of Loch Logarth seems to be very much on the prowl. Is the Clootie creature terrorizing the village of Logarth? And will Watson and Lestrade ever agree on anything?

Requested by a frightened Lady Elisabeth Montague, Holmes and Watson travel all the way to the Montague home, situated on a remote desolate island, to investigate her somewhat fanciful fears. Are the family in mortal danger? And why have the Montagues, once the darlings of London society, now shut themselves away from civilization in this bleak, god-forsaken retreat?

An unprecedented crime wave is remorselessly sweeping across the city of London. How have the criminals achieved so much recent remarkable success? Inspector Lestrade does not know which way to turn. Holmes and Watson follow a series of tantalizing clues leading them closer to the darkness....

In fog-enshrouded Victorian London, Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson soon become entangled in a deadly web of intrigue and cryptic clues. Who is the silver-caned shadowy stranger? Is Euclid's College lecturer John Kindred really in danger? And what is the connection to the fabled and priceless emerald, the Egyptian Sepulchre?

1985, one year on, and Winston is diligently erasing and rewriting history in his position at the Ministry of Truth. Winston loves Big Brother and wants to forget he ever thought about plotting against the Party. But, at the Chestnut Tree Café, at a chance encounter, Julia seems to leave Winston a cryptic message to meet...

For over a thousand years, The Fellowship have prepared for one purpose, and one purpose only. They believe the wrath of the ancient Gods will cause a cataclysmic event in...Stokeham.

Little Titch, Gideon, and Minnie Millie discover that the mainland will, very soon, run out of coal. So, the three friends go on an exciting adventure through the tick and the tock of the Clockwork Village and search for the Lost Railway to try to find the lost coal before they run out of steam. Can Little Titch and friends be so bold and find that coal?

Can a deadly and ferocious tiger really be stalking the fog-enshrouded streets of Edwardian London? Holmes and Watson decide to visit the local travelling Circus and are especially interested when a performing and very agile tiger bursts into the ring....