Author Archives: David E. Gates

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About David E. Gates

David E. Gates has published a number of books and short-stories. He recently won the SILVER prize in the AuthorsDB 2016 Cover Contest for The Ghost of Clothes and won best HORROR Novel Logline for 2016 for The Roots of Evil. He has previously won first prize (Gold) for The Roots of Evil and third prize (Bronze) for Access Denied in the 2015 AuthorsDB Cover Contest, and has made a film about the battlefield memorials in Ypres, Belgium called Ypres – The Battlefield Tours (available at www.shelleyshow.co.uk). David has previously written film reviews for Starburst and Samhain magazines and interviewed the likes of Clive Barker, Terry Pratchett, James Herbert and many others. He has also written a number of short stories, a full-length motion picture screenplay, the screenplay to a short film and in his spare time hosts a rock radio show.

Hyde – Remembrance Service Reading

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I’m extremely honoured to announce that my poem, Hyde, is going to be read at the Remembrance Service at the Hyde War Memorial, in Werneth Low Country Park, by the representatives of the Hyde War Memorial Trust.

My poem, Hyde, recounts the memory of those who did not return from the war to the small village, just outside Manchester.

My thanks, especially, to Jane Durkin, Chair of the trust. Video to follow.

Hyde is one of twelve poems featured in my new publication, Windows of Time.

A unique and fully illustrated collection of twelve poems to educate and entertain those interested in history.

Featuring tales of fascinating and fierce women, such as Mary Ann Bevan, Susanna M. Salter, Mary Church Terrell and The Mother of Angola.

Poems telling of the cruelty of the Romans and the collaboration of two disabled men of different faiths.

The survivor of a bizarre accident, Phineas Gage, is also remembered, alongside macabre events such as The Mary Celeste and poems that honour those lost in World War I and World War II.

Presented in a metal-coil bound, with laminate front and back, A4 printed colour edition or as an eBook. Available to order here.

Out NOW – Safe Place

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Is it still a safe place, when the dead don’t leave?

Inspired by true events.

The new owner of a house experiences a series of bizarre and supernatural events, leading to the uncovering of a terrible secret from the past and a terrifying presence that must be faced to restore peace to the home.

Out now – available here.

F1 – The Movie – Review

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F1 – The Movie. Certificate 12A

Before I saw this movie, and having possibly been influenced by seeing Tom Cruise at the premiere with Brad Pitt, I expected a “Top Gun – Maverick” set in the world of Formula 1.

My expectations of a story where a “mature” expert comes back to the fold to convince a young rookie that he can achieve greatness weren’t disappointed. It’s a familiar story but what is achieved in F1 – The Movie (not quite sure why it needs the “The Movie” subtitle, as everyone would know it’s a film!) is a little different to what I initially thought the film would be.

Brad Pitt stars as Sonny Hayes, a wandering racer who seeks the thrills and spills more than the money, joining forces with a fledgling Formula 1 team, APX [Apex] GP, to save them with a limited number of races to go before the end of the season.

Damson Idris plays the rookie, Joshua Pearce, who is torn between marketing his image and winning races and who – with the help of his mother, Sarah Niles – manages to stay on the right side of arrogance and remain humble when it’s necessary.

Kerry Condon is the inevitable love-interest for Pitt, playing Kate McKenna, touted as the “first female technical director in Formula 1”, who magnificently holds her own against the huge egos and testosterone.

There are plenty of likeable characters in lesser roles, most notably the pit-stop tyre changer, Callie Cooke as Jodie and Javier Bardem as the troubled owner of the Formula 1 team and Hayes’ long-time friend.

Fans of Formula 1 will delight in spotting their heroes, of which there are several, from the 2023 and 2024 seasons during which the movie was filmed, along with familiar commentary from Martin Brundle and David Croft.

Throughout, the capture of the excitement of racing cars at 200-300 MPH, including an excellent opening set-piece at Daytona, is stunning, nail-biting stuff! Not many films make me vocalise my feelings during them, but I was forced to utter “Wow!” at one point.

The direction from Joseph Kosinski is assured and the editing by Stephen Mirrione is top-notch. This is a film that’s best seen in a movie theatre, namely because the sound, along with Hans Zimmer’s blistering soundtrack, is incredibly good. The “thump” of the sounds of the cars as they pass is something unlikely to hit you in the chest if viewed at home in the same way it does in an auditorium with a decent sound system.

Access Denied available as an Audiobook!

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Access Denied available as an AUDIOBOOK!

Available from Amazon

Listen to the astonishing true story.

David meets Meg. They fall in love and, despite a turbulent relationship, have a child together fulfilling David’s dream to be a father.

After they separate, David has to fight the mother and Family Courts to see his daughter and also battles against the incompetence and lies of the Child Support Agency who seem hell-bent on ruining him, emotionally and financially.

A must-read for ANY parent.

For anyone who has had to deal with the CSA/CMS and the Family Courts, this is compelling reading. Thought-provoking, honest, extraordinary, revealing. A damning indictment of the Child Support Agency and Family Courts.

If the measure of a good book is it’s after burn, Access Denied is a great book.

When you’ve nothing left to lose, what else can you give?

A quite extraordinary true story.

“Thought provoking but brilliant read.” – Vanessa
“I couldn’t put it down!” – Lisa Roberts (CSA Rip-offs Support Group)
“A well told, quite extraordinary true story that stays with you.” – Jane Austin
“Amazingly jaw dropping story!” – Linda Conlon
“Captivating Story.” – Lanre Oke

Don’t buy my books in Paperback on eBay!

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I’ve discovered that several companies are listing my books for sale at vastly inflated prices on eBay.

Whilst this practice may not be illegal, it’s clear they’re either making illegal copies or purchasing the books from Amazon and then selling them on, making a huge profit on each. I have ONLY authorised Amazon to sell paperback copies of my books. Copies bought from eBay may well be counterfeit.

The ONLY places you can buy paperback copies of my book at the price I set (which is much, much lower than what these charlatans are charging) are via Amazon or via www.davidegates.com (purchasing from the the latter, the books will be autographed).

Adolescence – Review

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Netflix Series (4 Episodes – 1 hour each (approx.) – Rated 15

Adolescence tells the story of a 13-year old boy accused of murdering a classmate and the events that unfold as part of the police investigation and evaluation by a psychiatrist and the impact the accusation and events have on the members of the boy’s family and friends.

Starring Stephen Graham (Snatch, This is England), Ashley Walters (Top Boy) and newcomer Owen Cooper as the accused boy, each episode is filmed in a single take resulting in some astonishing and slick-looking filming as it follows the actors through their scenes. It’s quite remarkable how some scenes – with the aid of drones – have been pulled off and the acting, particularly from Cooper whose performance is nothing short of spectacular, is highly commendable.

I watched Adolescence without knowing anything about the incident(s) that apparently inspired the story. As a result, I didn’t get anything that the wokies are going on about it being anti-white, racist, etc., and just saw it as a moving story with incredible technical effects and brilliant performances, which lent itself to a commentary on how kids, any kids, black or white, can be so heavily influenced by social media, bullying, and “influencers”.

At the end of the day, it’s a work of fiction and people (even this God-awful Labour government) are jumping on the “documentary” aspect of it quite wrongly in my opinion. But then people nowadays seemingly have to read something into everything without just enjoying things for what they are and something that might not be deliberate on the part of the film-makers.

I watched this series and, as I said before, not once did I think about race during it. Not once did I consider it to be propaganda. It was an interesting story with great performances and incredible technical expertise in pulling off one-take per episode. Yes, there are parallels with real-life situations but you could literally take any television show, series or movie and draw a parallel with real-life events. Myself, I’d just rather see it as entertainment than worry about woke-this or woke-that.

As the copyright slogan goes, “Any resemblance to persons, either living or dead, is purely coincidental”.

Marching Powder – Review

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On the surface of it, Danny Dyer’s new film, Marching Powder, could be seen as just another in the line of football-violence themed movies such as Green Street, The Football Factory and Rise of the Footsoldier.

But what Nick Love as director does is pull off something that, when considered in a deeper context, is actually quite a revelation.

Danny Dyer plays Jack, a middle-aged drug-addicted football hooligan, who is given six weeks to mend his ways and, in turn, save his marriage. What follows is Jack’s numerous failed attempts to toe the line – sometimes due to influences from his friends – as he strives to save family life against the adrenaline rush of his habitual descent into violence alongside drugs and alcohol, in a desperate effort to avoid being jailed.

Marching Powder is not for the faint of heart. It’s violent in parts – though this seems restrained compared to other movies of this ilk (possibly deliberate so as to not overshadow the wider context of the film’s numerous points) – and coarse. Be prepared for significant and repeated strong language. However…  

 It’s utterly refreshing to see something so unabashedly non-PC, non-woke, using language that we are repeatedly told is “not appropriate” these days. One scene in particular highlights the ludicrousness of worrying about what someone is saying, rather than attending to the emergency at hand. The film also presents modern-day problems like impoliteness and assumptions in respect of race and education – primarily from Generation Z – as something that grates upon the forty-five-plus demographics who were bought up in a world where saying “please” and “thankyou” were norms.

At times it’s laugh-out-loud funny and the performances, particularly from Stephanie Leonidas as Jack’s long-suffering wife, and Arty Dyer, Danny’s real-life son, who plays his son JJ, are particularly outstanding.

Certificate 18. Running Time: 96 Minutes.

The Horror of The Hebrides

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The Horror of The Hebrides – An Unbelievable Omonolidee True Story!

Way back in 1985, I, along with a friend, embarked on a camping/hiking olidee, walking across the Outer Hebrides to visit some stone circles. What ensued was a series of incredible and unbelievable events which beggared belief and led to why I never went camping ever again.

From the Hebrides, to the top of Ben Nevis, onwards to Alton Towers and various points in-between, enjoy this unique and unbelievable journey with David E. Gates.

Available as an eBook and autographed printed version from David E. Gates Book Store

Halloween Freebie – FREE SHORT STORY – Dark Dreams

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As it’s Halloween, here’s a FREE short story for you to download. ONLY available until MIDNIGHT!

Dark Dreams was inspired by a true story.

Dark Dreams – David E. GatesDownload

For more Short Stories, check out the following from my bookstore:

Review: Joker: Folie à Deux

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When Joker was released in 2019, detailing how Arthur Fleck, an aspiring comedian who takes a downward spiral after repeated bullying, came to be “Joker”, it was to critical and audience acclaim and was considered by many to be the best film of that year.

Phoenix’s performance as Arthur Fleck in Joker was incredible, both in the depth of the character and what he becomes. Todd Phillips had created a real and believable anti-hero in his direction and even slipped in some controversial pieces – notably the extreme violence that occurs and the use of a Gary Glitter song whilst Joker “celebrates” – which led to an indelible impression upon myself and those I know that watched it.

So, having seen the trailers for Joker: Folie à Deux, I was looking forward to seeing more of Joker wreaking his own brand of havoc on Gotham and a deeper understanding of the mental illness of Arthur Fleck as he battles with Joker’s dominance.

Unfortunately, Joker: Folie à Deux simply doesn’t deliver anywhere near the expectation that I had following the build-up to it. Joker thrives on chaos, but there’s little chaos that he’s instrumental in constructing and, when there is chaos, he is not much more than a bystander to that which occurs. There are brief sparks, for instance during one scene in the courtroom when Arthur’s fantasy world creeps in leading to intense bursts of violence, but these are few and far between.

With Lady Gaga cast as “Lee Quinzel”, Joker: Folie à Deux is more of a tale of how Harley Quinn came to be rather than an extension of the original Joker and a deeper exploration of the character Joaquin Phoenix so beautifully encapsulates. In Joker: Folie à Deux, the titular character is a shadow – the irony of the opening animated sequence not being lost on me – of his former self.

I expected some showtime pieces, as Arthur’s delusions and fantasies wind with Gaga’s love for Joker in some quite beautiful set pieces which are pure cinema, but nothing prepared me for the onslaught of song after song after song. This made Joker: Folie à Deux more suited to being named “Joker: The Musical”. I’m not a lover of musicals, in general, but the trailers didn’t lead me to believe that was what I’d be watching.

It felt fragmented, a vehicle for Gaga’s Harley Quinn, and without anywhere near the impact that the first Joker movie so famously had. The lack of consequence, particularly for the prison guards – one of which is splendidly played by Brendan Gleeson – who enjoy their torture of Arthur and other prisoners a little too much, left me feeling the movie lacked morality. The denouement left me confused and disappointed. Even after the credits rolled, I remained seated and patiently waited for something more to explain or rectify that confusion but, alas, none was forthcoming.

Copyright © 2024 – David E. Gates