Born in Cheshire, England, Ross McLeod studied at Stockport College and the Open university. His work, as a risk assessment engineer, took him to many parts of the world and into many interesting places, including gas exploration platforms in the North Sea, nuclear submarines and many of Scotland's and Northern England's prisons. This mind-broadening lifestyle has given him a vast and comprehensive insight into the diverse and complicated world in which we live and whether writing for children, or an older readership, as Len Cooke, his travels and experiences have given him an ability to write with authority, humour and an understanding of both his characters and his craft that is very hard to match.
Now retired from his 'usual day job', he lives 'quietly, apart from when the grandchildren (code-named the SAS) come round' with his wife, Pip the Border collie dog and Penny, the ever mischievous, Main Coon cat.
The second Charlie Braithwaite adventure in which the young hero pits his considerable wits against an evil, time-travelling sorcerer; hell-bent on helping the Nazis win the Battle of Britain. If Charlie cannot stop him then the world, as everyone knows it, will change forever; Charlie may never even be born and if he is, will he merely become a slave of an extremely cruel, dark and evil empire?
A group of holidaying children discover a plot by badger baiters to dig-out the residents of nearby Badger Wood and use them in their grotesque pastime. Naturally, they try to stop them by telling the adults. But no one seems interested, that is apart from a very, very old man who assures them that his old soldier friends will take care of the bad guys. The problem is – his friends died in 1916!
The long-awaited sequel to 'The Theft of the Crown of Bodran'.
Enraged by the loss of the stolen crown, the seriously unpleasant giant – Botan, who was so cleverly duped by Charlie and his friends when they retrieved King Bodran's treasured crown, is back, and this time, meaner than ever, he wants revenge!
'The Theft of the Crown of Bodran'
Reading age - 8-12 years
Estimated word count – 35,000
A magical adventure story featuring the English schoolboy Charlie Braithwaite as, with the friends he made in the adventure 'The Witches of Lewthan Mountain', he once again sets off to the witch infested Darklands in search of a thief and an elfin king's quite priceless, stolen crown.