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Carmel McMurdo Audsley is an Australian Author, Journalist and Editor who lives in Brisbane with her husband Iain. She has written four historical fiction novels set in Scotland from the seventeenth century through to the twentieth century. Her trilogy of novels about her ancestors who worked the land and toiled underground in the coal mines of Ayrshire, have drawn critical acclaim and emotional reactions from readers whose own families lived in similar circumstances. In 2015 she published The Undertaker set in 1858 in Edinburgh Scotland, about a young woman who inherits her father’s undertaking business. Her fifth historical novel set in Scotland and Australia, Conviction, will be published later in 2016. In a departure from her usual genre, the author was moved to write The Last Hurrah after a holiday on a cruise ship. Although the subject matter is sensitive, the author sees this novella as essentially a love story.

Far Across the Sea picks up after the death of family matriarch Mary Hamilton McMurdo, with her grandson George going down the mines in Ayrshire, despite her wishes. He's a headstrong lad (a McMurdo family trait) and ends up in the trenches in France during WWI. It was a difficult time in Scotland after the war and during the Depression years and WWII. George's son William (known in this book as Willie, and later as Bill) becomes the new hero of the story and you will laugh at some of his mischievous escapades and cheer him on through life's difficulties.Walk down the streets of Cumnock Ayshire Scotland and visit the tea room as George and Mary find ways to spend time together without incurring the wrath of her father.Visit Brisbane and Ipswich in Australia in the 1950s and experience life for a 'new chum' from 'the old country'.It's a story of fierce determination and true grit. A story that takes a young man from the coal mines of Ayrshire to life in a new land - far across the sea.

Kindle Price: $2.99

Category: Literature & Fiction

Book Name: Ours, Yours and Mines Subtitle: A family saga set in the miners' rows of Ayrshire Scotland in the mid-1800s to early 1900s Description: An historical novel based on real people and places in the period 1861 to 1913, set amidst the poverty and overcrowding in the miners' rows of Ayrshire Scotland. The author has put words into the mouths of her ancestors to create a picture of life for large mining families and how they battled sickness and disease, and barely eked out a living. The story begins with Thomas and Margaret McMurdo and their growing family and describes their simple lives crowded into a two-room dwelling in a miners' row. There are many highs and lows for the family. You will be introduced to their children, and particularly their eldest son George who (against her mother's wishes) marries 18-year-old Mary Hamilton, a carefree, educated young woman. You will read of the family's friendship with well-known union activist Keir Hardie. It's a story about the struggles of the miners and their families the men who slaved away underground facing daily dangers, and the women who worked hard bearing and raising large families and praying that their men would return unharmed from the pits. The overwhelming sadness will tug at your heartstrings and to make this story more poignant, it really happened.

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Category: Literature & Fiction; Politics & Social Sciences

Many people with Scottish ancestry will find Agricultural Labourers among their forebears, because so many people in Scotland prior to the industrial revolution were engaged in working the land in one form or another. It was a time of political upheaval, of strong influence in people's lives by the Church of Scotland and of superstition. In the 17th century in the lowlands of Scotland, farmers were still essentially serfs who were given a plot of land to build a basic cottage and tend a few crops and in return were expected to labour and go to war for the landowners. In the 18th century most people stilled lived in the countryside and made their living farming. Few, however, would have owned their properties but instead did seasonal work in return for a meagre pay and a roof over their heads. Though often regarded as just cheap labour, the Agricultural Labourers had a wealth of knowledge about the seasons and their effects on growing crops and about caring for the land, and worked their landlords' fields with experienced minds and hands. Their wives usually worked as Farm Servants in and around the farmhouse so the landlords got two workers for the price of one, or more as the children were put to work as well. By the mid-19th century and the mechanisation that the industrial revolution brought to Britain, many people had moved to towns and made their living from mining or manufacturing industries. Belief in witchcraft and faeries was commonplace and people who were believed to have 'the gift' the ability to see into the future were feared and ostracised. The first chapter of Faeries, Farms and Folk details events that took place in Dumfries in the south-west of Scotland in 1659, when the social disease of witch hunting was at its peak. The names of the accused are the real names of the people involved. Witchcraft was part of the belief system at the time, and devils, good and bad faeries, and other supernatural beings were very real to everyone.

Kindle Price: $2.99

Category: Literature & Fiction

In 1858 in Edinburgh Scotland, a 23-year-old woman named Kate Grainger inherits her father's undertaking business. It is a time when not much is expected of women, other than to be wives and mothers, and Kate wants to be neither. She wants to be a doctor but women are not allowed to enter the prestigious Edinburgh School of Medicine. She has a male friend, James, who is a doctor he is smitten with her and wants to marry her, but she has made it clear that she has no such intentions. She spends a lot of time with him looking through his medical books to learn all that she can. She has drive and ambition and a special gift. Kate can communicate with people who have passed over. She had, what her father thought, was an imaginary friend when she was a child, but her companion was the spirit of a little girl who had died in the Great Fire of Edinburgh. When Kate discovers that her first client at Grainger Undertakers has been murdered, she sets out on a journey that takes her deep into Edinburgh's underground and into the spirit world to catch a serial killer.

Kindle Price: $2.99

Category: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense; Religion & Spirituality

Bob and Anna McAllister are a retired couple living a comfortable lifestyle in Australia. When Anna's breast cancer returns and Bob's heart condition deteriorates, they are worried about dealing with the end stage of life. Their adult children all have busy lives and they don't want to be a burden to them. They have enjoyed many cruises to the South Pacific and, after much discussion, they decide to take one last cruise - have one last hurrah - and not return. Their decision not only affects them but also has a great impact on their family. It is a love story about two people who cannot bear to be without each other and a family who are so busy rushing through life that they miss the signs that they are needed.

Kindle Price: $3.49

Category: Parenting & Relationships