No Step Back: One Man's Life on a Very Different Beat

by Alan Lloyd

A hard hitting account of a beat copper’s life on the streets of Swansea in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, based on the author’s own experience. Fresh from his time in the Royal Marines and a secondment to Bletchley Park, Probabtioner Constable Frank Dix is determined to make a career for himself in the Swansea Borough police and nothing will stop him.. NO STEP BACK. “Gene Hunt from Life on Mars is a softie compared to Frank Dix.” “Full of humour and grit, this is a police memoir with a difference.” “They don’t make policemen like Frank Dix anymore, more’s the pity.” Is this fact or fiction? Alan Lloyd, with the masterful assistance of accomplished writer Nigel Williams, tells a tale of life in the Swansea police in days of old, when the town was a tough seaport. As both Alan and Nigel are former police officers, this book is lent more than a hint of realism - fact or fiction? I will leave you to decide, but one thing is for sure, this is a book you will struggle to put down until the very end. NO STEP BACK was the inspiration for the Frank Dix series of crime thrillers by Nigel C. HARD PLACEA COLD PLACENigel C. Williams is a lecturer in fine art, having served as a police officer in both the Metropolitan Police from 1981-1984 and South Wales from 1984-1995.During his service he was a VIP and Special Escort Group armed, advanced driver.In 1995, he was struck by a stolen vehicle and fractured his spine.He studied fine art at Swansea whilst he recovered from his injury and achieved a first class honours degree. He then gained a teaching qualification at Cardiff University and a master's degree.He has written and published 14 novels to date, including the Terry McGuire series of crime thrillers as co-writer with Arthur Cole, published by Wordcatcher Publishers.

312 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 11, 2015

About the author

Alan Richard Lloyd is an English writer born in 1927. He is most famous for his Kine Saga fantasy books for teenagers. He has also written adult fiction and non-fiction, most notably on the history of the British monarchy. His adult work is published under the name Alan Lloyd whilst children's work is published under A.R. Lloyd.

Lloyd was born in London, and studied drawing and painting at the Kingston School of Art before being called up to the army in 1945. He started his writing career at the Jersey Evening Post and worked as a freelance journalist before becoming a full time writer in 1962. His first book, published by Longmans in 1964 was The Drums of Kumasi a non fiction account of the Ashanti Wars. This was followed in 1966 by The Year of the Conqueror (published as The Making of the King 1066 in the USA), a study of the events and people leading up to the Norman invasion of England in 1066. Further non-fiction work followed on the history of Spain, George III, King John and the Zulu War. His first fiction work, The Eighteenth Concubine was published in 1972, and Kine, the first of his Kine Saga novels was published in 1982.

Reviews

[Jan Baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a hard hitting tale of a member of the South Wales Police Force in the last century. It adapted by author Nigel Williams from a draft written by Alan Lloyd MBE. The voice of the author is maintained throughout the novel and the snapshots of his life are insightful and at times amusing. The character of Frank Dix is one which I"m sure can be carried forward into Nigel Williams's novels with no loss of identity and I look forward to reading them.