- AUTHOR & EDUCATOR -
Mark Whitworth
EVERYDAY I WRITE THE BOOK
As a teacher, you will always learn more than you teach, I suppose I should have known that process would continue as an author. My cranium is going to burst soon with all the information and skills I am trying to fit within what was already quite a big head! Shortly, I have my third published book on sale; Hang the Teacher Out to Dry was the first, the second was the novel, Chinese Whispers I - Sisters, and the third is Chinese Whispers II - Mothers.
Of course, I will not be hanging up my boots or even my writing quill, for in the pipeline are two additions to the Chinese Whispers series, the earthy prequel, Ancestors, set a millennium before Sisters and Mothers, and the unsettling Philosophers, which propels us forward to the sixth century BCE, in the late Spring and Autumn Period (770-475 BCE).
Details of all these books, from Publicaciones Ili Pika, (Ili Pika Publications) may be found below, with links to purchase sites and accompanying advice. All my books may be purchased as hard cover, paperback, or e-book.
SISTERS - Chinese Whispers I – Ancient China: 1926 to 1905 BCE. The era of the Lóngshān city-states is ending. Environmental issues have come to a head, exacerbated by the farming of marginal lands, overhunting, and massive flooding to the south, contributing to mass migrations. The power-hungry Lóngshān rulers overturn social norms, dividing their people as they preside over pain, misery, and despair.
The Xià, supported by the mysterious Sisterhood, set in motion an epoch-defining plan to overturn the and replace them with an equalitarian society. As the Xià establish their base in the Yellow River valley, friction with the Lóngshān grows, eventually culminating in a violent confrontation, the war to end all wars.
The story commences in the city-state of Táosì, in Shǎnxī, where the local warlord attempts to retain his throne. His capture, torture, and imprisonment of Hòutú, one of the Sisterhood’s representatives, have temporarily bought him time but not a great deal of comfort.
It is a time of disasters, both natural and of human origin; a background against which love and friendship struggle but do their best to survive against all the odds. At the customary parley before the final battle, the Lóngshān elite, to their immense confusion, are faced only by Xià females.
This book may be found at Amazon UK, and Amazon USA, but also from Amazon outlets in the European Union, Japan, India, Mexico, Brazil, Canada, and Australia.
MOTHERS - Chinese Whispers II – Ancient China: 1905 to 1986 BCE. The first Chinese empire is established centred on Èrlǐtou. Newly fertile and irrigated lands are opened up for agriculture, as the entire Yellow River basin gradually falls under Xià control. However, much of it is badly damaged, some have been savagely treated by the conflict. Pockets of Lóngshān warlords continue to strike fear into the populace, and the deposed elite begin to hitch their wagons to the new empire, instead of fighting against it, seeking to get their feet under the table and pervert it from within.
The Sisterhood has moved on to its next long-term plan. Not all their members are comfortable with the changes. Gradually, a dissident feminist cabal is formed. The new group encourages the education of children who are trained in the arts of bureaucracy: a nascent civil service, one designed to run the state.
In Èrlǐtou, individual desire for raw political power is supercharged by the new capitalism. Will the life and loves of the common man and woman survive this brutal onslaught.
This book may be found at Amazon UK, and Amazon USA, but also from Amazon outlets in the European Union, Japan, India, Mexico, Brazil, Canada, and Australia.
HANG THE TEACHER OUT TO DRY - This was the first of my books, and unlike the others, it is not a novel. Hang the Teacher Out to Dry is my attempt to understand the thirty years I spent in the teaching profession, in the UK, Tanzania, China, Qatar, Bangladesh, and Malawi.
In a brazen attempt to look cool, the tales were set against the background of my final year in teaching, a year that both saw Covid strike the world and my patience strike the system. The fundamentally repetitive world of the classroom is reflected, as month by month I looked back on particular themes, some of which were unchanged from 1991 to 2020.
Retiring from teaching meant no more marking, no more planning lessons, no more writing curriculum and no more alarm calls at 5.30 am. However, I will always miss the students, who kept me sane during the thirty years of my teaching career, protecting me from the insanity of those adults who operate within education.
There are stories that will broaden your smile, make you laugh out loud, or cringe in desperation behind the sofa. This book is dedicated to the students who filled my classrooms and the cleaners who cleaned them.
This book may be found at Amazon UK, and Amazon USA, but also from Amazon outlets in the European Union, Japan, India, Mexico, Brazil, Canada, and Australia.
ANCESTORS - Chinese Whispers – The Prequel – A thousand years before the birthing of the Chinese nation (as featured in Sisters and Mothers) their ancestors move into the middle lands from the far north. As conditions around Lake Baikal become increasingly inhospitable, a big freeze descending, the Angaraxi tribe considered their future and find it doom-laden. The options of freezing to death, dying from starvation, or being killed by someone unwilling to share food, were extremely unattractive to a people who were fond of a free and easy life.
The only option was to move, but there were choices; to head South you could head East, or West. To migrate required planning: planning on a scale that required leaders, planning on a scale that necessitated fundamental societal change. Tribal members were asked to temporarily sacrifice their freedoms; the question hanging over them was if they would ever be returned.
The choice of East or West was to have unexpected consequences, particularly for the female members of the tribe. In establishing new cultures in warmer climes, how much of their previous values would prevail, or would the rigours of the journey change the Angaraxi forever?
This book is due to be released during 2025.
PHILOSOPHERS - Chinese Whispers III – Set some thirteen hundred years later than Sisters and Mothers. The Chinese dynasties: the Xia and Shang, had come and gone, with the Zhou hanging on, more as a concept than a ruling force; this was the Spring and Autumn period. Small statelets tumble in disputes, and division dominates any ideal of unification. Each statelet searches to stabilise governance with bureaucratic solutions from the wandering and mercenary philosophers, descendants of the Sisterhood’s scheme from years before.
But the Sisterhood has failed; women have become mere chattels, of little or no significance, hardly considered human. Philosopher’s voices boom from courtyard to courtyard, reinforcing misogynistic sentiment, whilst the cultural shift all but silences women. In the Forty (a development of the Sisterhood), a few brave females keep the flame burning and push back against subjugation and the idea that they are only belongings.
The story follows Confucius (Kong Qiu) as he sets about establishing himself on what could be regarded as a world stage. Possible contemporaries, such as Lao Zi, Sun Tzu, and further afield, Siddhārtha Gautama, vie with each other to bend the ears of the men with the power. Confucius changed China and possibly the world; who was he, who was bending his ear, did he even like women, and could he sing?
This book is due to be released during 2025.