30. June 2026
June 2026. Endings, New Starts, and an Empty Space at Home
June felt tremendously long. It was a month of real highs, some frustration, and one loss that overshadowed everything else.
Alix finished her GCSEs, which is a tremendous achievement after everything she has put into them. She has worked incredibly hard and faced more obstacles along the way than most people will ever know. She has surpassed them and achieved more than we could have hoped for.
Now comes the wait for results day, followed by prom and the chance to finally enjoy the summer without revision hanging over her. Whatever the results say, the effort and resilience are already something to be proud of.
The World Cup
The World Cup also kicked off this month.
Apart from a strong second half against Croatia, England have not really started the tournament well. I am pleased that we made it through, but there are much tougher challenges ahead and, especially with our defence, I am not convinced we will go all the way.
I hope I am wrong.
For me, the squad does not feel balanced in the right areas, particularly at full-back and centre-half. We are also struggling to unlock teams that sit deep and defend properly.
I understand that the modern game favours wingers cutting inside, but we rarely seem to get to the byline or put crosses into genuinely dangerous areas. Against stubborn defences, everything becomes flat and predictable. We keep possession, move the ball around, and then seem surprised when there is no space left.
Tournament football is about finding a way through, even when it is not pretty. At the moment, I am not sure we have found that way often enough.
Courtney’s day at Hippoland
Courtney had a very different kind of day out at Flamingo Land, the real-life location that became Hippoland in Protegimus.
She has always wanted to experience being a zookeeper, so I bought her the experience for Christmas. Unfortunately, we managed to book it for one of the hottest days of the year.
Some jobs are not improved by extreme heat. Cleaning up after rhinos is probably near the top of that list, especially when the rhino in question has sprayed an entire side of its enclosure.
Courtney seemed to love and hate the experience in equal measure. She came away with some brilliant memories and a few moments she would probably rather forget. She fed hippos, worked around the animals and got a proper look at the less glamorous side of zoo keeping.
I also had my legs thoroughly licked by about seven lemurs, which was not something I had expected to add to the month.
Bella
Then came the most devastating news.
During the England game against Panama, our family cat Bella was hit by a car only yards from the house.
She was just three years old.
Bella was a beautiful tabby cat. Placid, loving and completely at home around us. She enriched all our lives, and I loved the time I spent with her. She was one of those animals whose presence becomes part of the rhythm of the house without you even noticing it happening.
Now the house feels quieter.
We thought we would grow old with her. We imagined years of her being there, moving between rooms, taking up space, demanding attention and becoming part of every ordinary day.
That has been taken away from us.
It is difficult to explain the grief that comes with losing a pet to anyone who has never really connected with one. They are not simply animals that live in your house. They become part of the family, part of your routines and part of the way home feels.
We all miss her terribly.
Make Safe
On the writing front, Make Safe is released on the 1st July.
It is a court martial drama and should, obviously, be at the top of everyone’s reading list. The feedback so far has been positive, and the people who have read it seem to have enjoyed the different direction.
Because the story sits heavily within the military justice system, I have added a glossary to the back of the book to explain some of the terms, ranks and language for readers who have not served.
I have also retrospectively added the same kind of glossary to The Presumption of Silence. Military language can feel perfectly normal when you have lived inside it, but that does not mean every reader should be expected to understand it without help.
Experiments and unfinished ideas
I also tried my hand at a graphic novel.
I am nowhere near happy with it, so it has been shelved for now. The intention was to explain some of Knox’s early history, particularly what happened to his father and how that shaped him.
I still like the idea of Knox receiving a letter from his mother that explains some of that history. That may work better than trying to force the story into a format I am not yet comfortable with.
I may return to the graphic novel one day, but it needs more work and probably more skill than I currently have in that area.
Lance Jack and the wider Knox story
I have now written sixteen chapters of Lance Jack, the book about Knox’s first posting, and that is progressing well.
The younger version of Knox is interesting to write because he is not yet the man readers know. Some of the instincts are there, but they are less controlled. He is still learning the job, learning himself and finding out what he is prepared to do when the rules and the reality in front of him do not match.
I also have two other projects moving in the background, both of which revisit ideas I have worked on before.
The first involves the Holy Grail and the Spear of Destiny. I have a much larger idea now, one that could potentially become a series of books, which could include a book that I shelves a while ago. My Pendragon Chronicles book. I removed it from Kindle Direct Publishing (the site I upload all my books to) not long after it came out because I was unhappy with how it turned out. At the time, it was partly an exercise in learning how KDP worked.
Looking back at it now, I think there may still be something worth recovering.
I have new ideas for the story and I am considering bringing the Pendragon material together with the Grail and Spear concept. It would mean a significant rewrite rather than a light edit, but that might be the only way to make it into what I originally wanted it to be.
A rerelease may happen at some point, but only if I can rebuild it properly.
A Study in Scarlet
I have also returned to my modern rewrite of A Study in Scarlet.
I rewrote the Sherlock Holmes story a few months ago and had already updated the setting, the methods and the investigation. I am now considering rebuilding it around Knox and the world I have already created.
Originally, the next veteran Knox novel was going to be The Satanic Mills. There is a similar atmosphere running through both stories, and I am beginning to wonder whether the ideas can be brought together.
They may become one book. They may run alongside each other. Or one may provide the structure that the other has been missing.
I do not know yet, but there is enough overlap to make it worth exploring.
In Closing
June was a month of endings and beginnings.
Alix finished her GCSEs and reached the end of something she has worked towards for years. Courtney finally got her zookeeper experience. Make Safe reached publication, Lance Jack continued to grow, and several older ideas began to show signs of life again.
But the month will always be remembered for Bella.
There were achievements, plans and moments worth celebrating, but grief has a way of quietening everything around it.
She was loved. She is missed. The house is not the same without her.
Exemplo Ducemus.