John Hardy

John Hardy was born in 1934 in Marske-by-the-Sea in North Yorkshire, England. He worked for many years as a quantity surveyor, before becoming a lecturer in building construction. Later, he practised as a natural medicine practitioner in Essex and Cumbria, including homoeopathy, acupuncture and massage, specialising in allergies.

Later, together his wife Wendy, he ran a wholefood vegetarian guesthouse on Alston Moor in the North Pennines.

For the last 24 years, he has lived in the Axarquía in Spain, a region to the north east of Málaga.

He has published a wide range of material over the years, including articles on natural medicine, a book on civil engineering measurement, and various short stories.

The first collection of short stories, 'Andalucían Mysteries', was published in 2013. This is a collection of short stories of crime, mystery and suspense set in southern Spain. Since then it has been translated into German and Spanish.

'More Andalucían Mysteries' was the second collection of short stories set in Spain, and was published in 2014. It is now also available in German and Spanish.

'Malaga Mysteries' was published in 2015 by Matador, and is an amalgamation of both of these, and is available as both a paperback and EBook.

'Twisted Tales' was the third collection. Eighteen short stories of murder, mayhem and crime, set in authentic situations of both time and location. The stories take place in Spain, England and the Middle East. They will appeal to readers of all ages who enjoy crime stories, humour and unexpected endings.

'East Side Stories' is the first book to be set entirely in England, from Hadrian’s Wall to the Thames. Again it is a collection of short stories of crime, mystery and suspense.

The 5th book, 'Sedella - the story of a Spanish village', is a new venture, as it is not a book of mystery and crime stories, but a romantic historical novel about an Andalucían village, from prehistoric times to the present day. Sedella is one of the 'pueblos blancos', white villages, of the Axarquía, a hilly region in Málaga province, and the village where John has lived since 1994. Each of the historical chapters is in two parts. The first part is a fairly factual account of the relevant time, though some of these facts may be slightly altered in time etc. to fit the story. The second part of the chapter is a story set around these historical events.

The 6th book, 'The Queen's Agent', is the first novel. It is a historical spy story set at the time of Elizabeth I during the build up of the Spanish Armada. The story is set in London, Santiago de Compostela and along the Pilgrim’s Way, as well as France and the Low Countries. The politics of the time and Walsingham’s spy network, and the hunt for a mole within it, are interwoven with the search of an illegitimate son for his father.

'Death in the Sun and other stories' is the 7th book and is once more a collection of 18 short stories and mystery.

'Driven by Conflict', published in 2018, is a collection of twenty short stories of people involved in conflicts, ranging from the domestic and parochial through to the international, such as the two World Wars. They are set mainly in Europe and the Middle East, and the protagonists are on the whole civilian and involved through no desire of their own.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ALL BOOKS AVAILABLE BY JOHN HARDY, PLEASE VISIT THE WEBSITE www.johnhardybooks.com