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Charles Moberly
ALLi Author Member
Location: United Kingdom (the)
Genres: Thriller, General Fiction, Psychology, Historical Fiction, Humour
Skills: Press/Media Interview, Reading/Literary Event, Self-publishing Workshop/Training, Speaking Engagement/Lecture, Writing Workshop
My novels are different from one another in style and genre. I like to push boundaries, and to address subjects rarely covered by other writers. If there is a common theme, it is tension arising from misunderstandings.
I have published four novels to date: The Scrotum Toad, a satirical comedy (Winner of A Chill with a Book Reader Award); The Corncrake, a historical novel set in 1909-10 and 1914-15, (Winner of a Chill with a Book Premier Award); Try the Leopard’s Mouth, a romantic thriller with a firm historical base (Winner of a Highly Recommended Award by The Historical Fiction Company); and Cooee Baby, a psychological novel with elements of a thriller. All four books are available in paperback and Kindle from Amazon now.
In my second novel, The Corncrake, four members of a family share the narration, which passes between them over two hundred and fifty times. This powerful technique allows the reader to enter the minds of characters as they react to events, so that love, conflicts and misunderstandings are conveyed immediately. This is only possible if the voices of the characters are so strong that they are identifiable the moment they speak.
I lived and worked in Africa for two years. Two of my novels are set in Africa.
Charles Moberly's books
Try the Leopard's Mouth
AFRICA 1970
Briony and Tom, both in their twenties, are very different characters. But opposites attract. In business, as in love, they complement each other.
They buy a farm and discover a rare drug. Tom grows it and Briony markets it. At first, they are oblivious of their responsibilities to the land and its people. But gradually they realise that they have been supporting a racist and colonialist regime.
The onset of the Rhodesian – Zimbabwean War of Independence tears at the couple’s relationship. Misunderstandings arise from their conflicting personalities and from external pressures. Events pull them apart, but also bind them together.
Try the Leopard’s Mouth is a romantic thriller set in Africa. It is also a historical novel, grounded in real events in the period 1970-80
Winner of Highly Recommended Award from The Historical Fiction Company
Cooee Baby
Why can’t anyone say what they mean? Why is my mother a Tyrannosaurus? Why did she give me such a stupid name?
Awhina doesn’t know when to stop. She’s a brilliant young scientist at Cambridge University with a good sense of humour but the social skills of a rhinoceros. She lambasts her professor because he’s a dickhead. Whoops. But he is risking the survival of humanity.
A hideous accident on the other side of the world changes everything. Captured and terrified, she displays her usual tactless defiance. If she could escape, a glamorous new career would open up for her. But does she want it?
Cooee Baby is a psychological novel with elements of a thriller. Welcome to the world of Asperger's, remote tribes, movies, and astrophysics.'
The Corncrake
Life is becoming precarious for an Anglo-German family living in England on the eve of the First World War. They have very different ideas about what they should do.
A priestly father who promotes the duty of fighting for God, King and Country. A mother who flaunts her German heritage. A son full of Nietzsche, atheism and rebelliousness. What influence can each have over the talented daughter of the family, who has ideas of her own?
Irresponsible newspapers inventing stories of German atrocities and espionage stir up hatred against the family. Will pride and their strong personalities allow them to compromise and survive?
The Corncrake is a historical novel set in 1909-10 and 1914-15. It brings to life little-known facts about ordeals far from the front line.
Winner of a Chill with a Book Premier Award
The Scrotum Toad
Tangle is a tree-hugger who is often mistaken for a glamorous witch. She is proud of her organic smallholding in the heart of Africa.
When threatened by a bullying and corrupt businessman who starts trashing the environment and the local people, who can she turn to?
Surely not that foul-mouthed Aussie TV presenter, nor those famous and fabulously wealthy international holidaymakers, who suddenly invade her precious patch. And how could an international food-eating competition, sponsored by the USA’s tin-eared goodwill ambassador, solve her problems?
Surrounded by xenophobic bickering, Tangle struggles to assert her authority, aided by some unlikely admirers.
The Scrotum Toad is an outrageous comic novel which will have the easily offended spluttering over their lattes. Nationalities, cultures and occupations are satirised shamelessly. You have been warned.
Winner of a Chill with a Book Reader Award