THE CRY OF THE BANSHEE by Allan C. Howarth is published

Added: (Wed Jan 25 2012)

Pressbox (Press Release) - This is the story of sixteen year-old Wayne Higginbotham from Yorkshire. Though Wayne may seem like an average, ordinary, adolescent schoolboy, he is in fact, adopted and is the last surviving son of the King of the Leprechauns. He has found that he has all the magical abilities of his race and can change his form at will. Furthermore, we learn that Wayne is destined to be the Slanaitheoir Mor, the savior of all mankind. Nonetheless, he still has to deal with all the usual t emptations and trials of growing up. He shape-shifts to impress the beautiful Step hanie Fleming, and in doing so, makes himself highly vulnerable. The dangerous Sacred Order Of Saint Gregory are now aware of his existence and they begin to track him down. As his most powerful enemy grows in power, a large cast of characters all begin scrambling towards Wayne for the final culmination. This is the second volume of the "Higginbotham Histories" trilogy, and the sequel to The Lament of the Leprechauns.


About the Author:

Allan C. Howarth grew up as an only child in Yorkshire in the 1960s. To escape from the boredom of only two TV channels, he would read books by H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, C.S. Lewis, John Wyndham and Isaac Asimov. Allan later developed a particular interest in historical fiction, reading works by Bernard Cornwell and Stephen Lawhead.


Excerpt from the book:

“The sound seemed to emanate from somewhere deep within the very bowels of the earth. A rolling, rumbling growl, that oozed malice and malevolence as it slowly seeped and slithered into the dark corners of the mind. A resonance that swiftly grew in volume and intensity until it became a crashing tidal wave of noise; a deafening roar that filled the ear, saturated the senses and paralysed the brain. It was, quite simply, the most frightening thing that young Wayne Higginbotham had ever heard in his life. Wayne’s breath caught in his throat as his mouth dried up, and his stomach suddenly seemed to become vacuously empty. He crouched down and closed his eyes tight as he heard the sound, just a few feet away from his hiding place.

“And just what do you think you are doing there, BOY?”

Wayne could almost hear his teeth clashing together uncontrollably, as they chattered in fear. It was difficult to believe that a human being could emit such a sound, a sound that engendered an instinctive degree of terror in others of the same species. Yet Dai Davies - the big, bald and Welsh deputy headmaster of Wormysted’s Grammar School, Shepton, Yorkshire - possessed a voice that could reduce even the very hardiest of boys to little more than quivering lumps, with just a single word.

Dai Davies: the scourge of the unkempt, the untidy and unruly pupils of Wormysted’s. The scion of the righteous, the rule-abiding, and the rugby first fifteen. Dai Davies: the very name itself had set bowels churning amongst more than one generation of Wormysted’s schoolboys.

Annoyingly, Wayne had only himself to blame for putting himself in his current predicament, at risk of incurring the full and terrible wrath of Dai Davies. All for the sake of trying to get in with the Wormysted’s ‘in crowd‘... all because he had wanted to just appear cool, for the very first time in his life.

Wayne looked up and saw Dino Giardano’s feet swiftly disappear through the window of the chemistry laboratory as he was yanked unceremoniously into the adjacent corridor.

“What were you doing in there, boy?” Dai Davies’ voice boomed. From the volume, Wayne could imagine that Dai’s face would be less than one inch from Dino’s and his breath would have seemed like the blast from one of the hot hair dryers in the changing rooms.


THE CRY OF THE BANSHEE can be ordered from New Generation Publishing at:

http://www.newgeneration-publishing.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=7&category_id=1&flypage=vmj_naru.tpl&page=shop.product_details&product_id=367&vmcchk=1&Itemid=7

and from Amazon.co.uk at:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cry-Banshee-Allan-C-Howarth/dp/1908775173/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1326758350&sr=8-6

Media Contact:

Publisher: New Generation Publishing
Contact: Daniel Cooke
E-mail: daniel@newgenerationpublishing.info
Tel.: 01933 665 340