Frank Parker

Biography

Frank Parker's writing has been likened to that of Laurie Lee, Ian McEwan and Charles Dickens. Not bad for a septuagenarian who came to writing late in life.

Frank is a retired Engineer. He spent most of his working life in England where he was employed by UK based multi-national companies. He always wanted to write but has only found the freedom to do so since retiring to Ireland in October 2006.

Formerly resident in Portlaoise, he now lives with Freda, his wife since 1963, in Stradbally, Co. Laois, Ireland.

To date he has 4 e-books available on Smashwords, 2 novels and 2 collections of poems and short stories.
He writes about people facing the challenges of history: The Norman conquest of Ireland, the dramatic changes in attitudes to sex and sexuality of the 1970s.

He is currently researching and writing about the famine that struck Ireland between 1845 and 1852.

Smashwords Interview

How long have you been writing?
For as long as I can remember! But I only found the time to really get to grips with the craft when I retired from a long career as an Engineer.
Where did you grow up, and how did this influence your writing?
My mother was a London born war widow who moved to a remote country area shortly before my birth. So I grew up in the shadow of the Black Mountain range that marks the border between England and Wales. My mother's life has certainly played an important part in enabling me to create interesting female characters. My second Smashwords novel "Summer Day" is set in the place I grew up and draws heavily on my own childhood experiences.
Read more of this interview.

Books

Transgression
Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 71,570. Language: English. Published: December 10, 2015 . Categories: Fiction » Literature » Literary, Fiction » Themes & motifs » Political
A soap star, a member of the British Parliament and a forty year old secret feature in this contemporary novel exploring changes in attitudes to sex and sexuality since WWII.
Strongbow's Wife
Price: $2.99 USD. Words: 64,790. Language: English. Published: June 1, 2014 . Categories: Fiction » Historical » Medieval, Fiction » Historical » United Kingdom
The Norman occupation of Ireland told through the eyes of the woman who married their leader. We meet her first as a teenager trying to understand the politics behind her father's downfall. Then as a young wife caught up in the rivalry between her husband and the other leaders of the invading army. Finally, as a widowed mother worried about her children and the future of her native land.
Summer Day
Price: $2.99 USD. Words: 61,230. Language: British English. Published: March 31, 2012 . Categories: Fiction » Literature » Literary, Fiction » Historical » United Kingdom
(5.00 from 1 review)
July 1947. The day begins full of promise. Feel the tension rise with the heat and humidity as clouds gather. Meet the members of an isolated farming community: a young woman soon to be married; her aunts: one misses her friend in an asylum, the other caring for her disabled son. Suffer with her brother as he tries to evade his pursuers. The events of this Summer Day will change them all for ever.

Smashwords book reviews by Frank Parker

  • Don't Tell Anyone on March 11, 2013

    In a recent blog post on Indiesunlimited (http://www.indiesunlimited.com/2013/03/05/nobody-wants-to-talk-about-that/), Laurie Boris expressed concern about the appeal of the subject matter of this excellent novel. I believe her concern is unwarranted. When I started reading “Don’t Tell Anyone” I had not long finished reading Colm Toibin’s 1999 Booker nominated “The Blackwater Lightship” which centres on a young man dying of AIDs. Not many months earlier I had read Lionel Shriver’s “For What it’s Worth”. As you would expect, each of the three writers has a different approach to the subject of the impending death of a close relative suffering from a debilitating and ultimately fatal illness. What each has in common is a thorough analysis of the impact of such an event on those close to the patient. (This is the first paragraph of a longer review on Goodreads.com (http://www.indiesunlimited.com/2013/03/05/nobody-wants-to-talk-about-that/))