I am eleven today, yesterday I was only ten but today is my birthday and I will be eleven years of age. Soon I will be as big as my daddy and I will know all what he knows. I can’t wait for that to happen as he knows everything. He is so strong. I saw him lift this massive piece of wood that I could only move slightly if I pushed really hard.
Hang on a minute though, the other night daddy was crying and his tears woke me. I heard him say to mummy that he had killed a man in a thing called a war. He was really sad and mummy started to cry too. I don’t want to cry when I get older, perhaps there won’t be wars when I’m daddy’s age.
I will grow big and become as tall as my granddad is. He is a huge man with no hair, but he always comes with bags of food for us. He rubs his big fat hands through my hair and picks me up onto his wide shoulders, then pretends to drop me. He is fun to be around, but I think he misses Nan who died last year. He was very sad that day.
Hang on a minute, granddad is not very well so mummy said, and that’s why I haven’t seen him for a while. I overheard mummy saying to the next door neighbour that he is a shadow of what he was, and that he is not expected to live long and will be joining Nan in heaven soon.
I don’t want to kill people and I don’t want to die. I don’t want to be eleven and live a life that is only a lie.
Life is for living not fading away. Life is for living and not regretting a single day.
I DON’T WANT TO GROW-UP.
http://www-thedesolategarden-com.co.uk/
About Daniel Kemp
At the age of seventy-six, Daniel Kemp has started his second year of studying the science of Psychology at the Open University. He is a member of The Society of Authors and also a bestselling writer. However, in early September 2025, he was diagnosed with cancer. He is now in palliative care at home, being looked after by his ex-wife. When he was writing his novels, he enjoyed writing stories that appealed to those who liked challenging themselves to solve mysteries that were set out before their eyes, but they couldn't.
His introduction to the world of espionage and mystery happened at an early age when his father was employed by the War Office in Whitehall, London, at the end of WWII. However, it wasn’t until after his father died that he showed any interest in anything other than himself!
On leaving academia he took on many roles in his working life: a London police officer, mini-cab business owner, pub tenant and licensed London taxi driver, but never did he plan to become a writer. Nevertheless, after a road traffic incident left him suffering from PTSD and effectively—out of paid work for four years, he wrote and self-published his first novel —The Desolate Garden.
Within three months of publication, that book was under a paid option to become a $30 million film. The option lasted for six years until distribution became an insurmountable problem for the production company.
All ten of his novels are now published by Next Chapter Publishing Company which has added an edition titled The Heirs And Descendants Collection, which holds all four books of that series, alongside an edition titled The Lies And Consequences Collection which contains all four volumes of that series.
He is the recipient of rave reviews from a prestigious Manhattan publication and described as—the new Graham Green—by a highly placed executive of Waterstones Books, for whom he did a countrywide tour of book signing events. He has also appeared on 'live' television in the UK publicising his first novel.
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Daniel Kemp 
Neither I am/nor I