The warm barrels of a shotgun with cordite in the air.
Sailing on the ocean with the South wind in my hair.
Crampons dug in deeply on a rocky, slimy face.
Heaven can be found on earth if you know the right place.
The game of golf is boring, it’s anathema to me.
I’d rather be in the kitchen shelling pea after pea!.
I wish I could still play rugby and ride a horse on Camber Sands,
But that life is over. It’s now full of different kinds of plans.
Now I’m watching on the TV as a number seven wins the ball.
I’m listening for the telephone to ring with a film producer’s call.
Yes, I’ve had my moments and perhaps there are more to come,
But I’ll never again be packing down in the back row of a scrum!
© 2016, Danny Kemp. All rights reserved
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.
Less