Cassidy-Stoddart
Professional Writer and English Language Instructor
Sean's publications are available to order as paperbacks & ebooks. His work for young adults is written under his nom de plume: Sean Stoddart.
'The moving finger writes; and, having writ, moves on: nor all thy piety nor wit shall lure it back to cancel half a line, nor all thy tears wash out a word of it'. (Omar Khayyám)
Blood Red Poppy
One French boy's brave struggle to save his family and his village at the time of the Nazi's occupation of France in June 1940.
Fourteen-year-old Lucas Le Fort, tells the story of his eventual shift from innocent schoolboy living in the beautiful French hamlet of Champs de Pavot (Poppy fields) into the ranks of the French Resistance.
First introduced into the secretive world of the Resistance by his schoolmaster, Monsieur Tomas, (also a seasoned member of the Resistance), Lucas plays his part in 'Operation Blood Red Poppy', which brings him to the attention of the Nazi's secret police, the Gestapo, who lay a trap for him.
When a very senior member of Hitler's inner sanctum is successfully targeted by the Resistance, Hitler gives the order for Champs de Pavot to be obliterated, its inhabitants executed and the village wiped from the face of the earth. Lucas with the assistance of a very important ally in London has only hours to save himself, his family, his friends and his village from annihilation. The race is on.
Ripples & Reflections
Before blogs became popular, Sean would record a series of thoughts, emotions and reactions to events going on in the world around him in 2003, which he uploaded each day to his website at the time, when he was writing professionally. It is a work in five parts and provides the reader with a glimpse of some of the events at the time and always laced with Sean's traditional display of sardonic humour. Part one: highlights some of the entries that proved popular among readers. Part two contains extracts from some of Sean's other works. Part three: A Highland Journey is a short account of his journey through the Highlands and Islands of Scotland in 1977, collecting music and interviews for BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour & Weekend magazine programme. Part four showcases some of the speeches made by him to secondary-aged students on a variety of subjects and part five is dedicated to two of his closest friends, Gordon Valentine and Norman Le Fort. When both men passed, their families asked Sean to deliver the Eulogies in his own inimitable style. Two funerals at which the laughter outweighed the sadness!!
Lust Orders!
The year 2000. The location, the Kentish village of Raveswood, where recently divorced journalist, Gerry Coster, rents a cottage next to the Kings Arms pub where landlord, Leo Chapman, is at war with the village. Leo, a man whose capacity for social carnage knows no bounds, sets about corrupting the seemingly incorruptible, with a daring, illegal project that sets out to ensnare Gerry.
To complicate matters for the residents of this quintessentially English village the government, without any consultation has purchased the imposing manor house at the centre of the village in which to house migrants from Kosovo.
As the story unfolds, the reader will experience a range of human emotions, liberally laced throughout with a measure of good humour, while a cast of enigmatic characters accompanies the reader to the story’s devastating finale.
Jenner
Jenner, is a light-hearted play for secondary-aged students, offering fifteen roles of varying complexity, celebrating the work, in the eighteenth-century, of Edward Jenner, the pioneer of vaccination, credited with the eradication of smallpox.
Jenner was premiered at Buckswood School, Hastings, in June 2017, under the direction of the accomplished actor and director Riggs O'Hara, to mark the first anniversary of the opening of the school's Great Hall.
And Finally...
Each Sunday evening, over many years, families of Sean's students, together with his colleagues in education, received a weekly newsletter from him, at the end of which was a section entitled 'And Finally...'
It was Sean's take on some aspect of educational practice, or some item he had spotted in the news or heard on radio that he thought might be of interest to his readers. His decision to include some of these snippets of news/gossip/information in a book occurred when the newsletters elicited many favourable comments from families - and many of their friends - all of whom, he was informed, looked forward to reading the 'And Finally...' section each week.
On one occasion, he received an email from an East Sussex fire station where the firemen on duty on Sunday evening would read the latest 'And finally...', presumably shared by a fire officer parent!
Barnardo
This play, stretching over nineteen scenes, seeks to highlight the charitable works of Thomas Barnardo and his commitment to house and care for destitute children in Victorian London. The reader is introduced to five mudlarks, who live by scavenging on the shores of the River Thames. The play is supported by a host of eccentric characters.
The play was first performed to celebrate the opening of the Great Hall at Buckswood School, Hastings, in 2016 and was directed by the acclaimed actor and director, Riggs O'Hara.
The Road to Casablanca
and Beyond
As winner of the Hildersley Stevens Travel Scholarship, while a student aged 22, Sean travelled to Morocco, where he remained for a month studying and capturing on tape some of the folk music he encountered, music that was later to be aired on BBC Radio 4, Radio One's Newsbeat, Radio London and LBC. This work is a snapshot of his daily diary during that month, culminating in the true account of an almost impossible five-hundred-mile race against time through Morocco and Spain. BBC producer, Peter Estall (producer of Women's Hour and Wogan) on the strength of that successful event, put Sean forward for training by the corporation as a freelance radio journalist.
Archie Anderson
and the Kingdom of Nightmares
Aspiring teenage dancer, ARCHIE ANDERSON, is troubled, so confides in his close friend, MEL, the no-nonsense football captain of the academy’s girls’ football team. Archie discloses that he is fearful of his family’s imminent move from London to a remote country house with a troubled past. His sleep is disturbed each night by the vision of an enigmatic, elderly grandee, TIDEMORPH, who resides in an ancient Romany caravan in the forest behind the Old Vicarage, the family’s new home. Tidemorph is a reality and issues a warning to Archie about a curse placed on it and its inhabitants by the evil Ratchakan. Tidemorph explains to Archie that he has just twenty-fours in which to slay Ratchakan, save the lives of his family and three friends, and rid his new home of the dreadful curse that affects it.
A Full Moon Upon the Duomo
This book tells the story of a remarkable year in my life when, without applying for the post, I was flown to the enchanting city of Florence, Tuscany, where I held the reins for a year as Principal of the International Junior School of Florence, to cover for the newly appointed American principal who had fallen ill and had to return to the U.S.
It was a year - 2005 - 2006, during which I formed a friendship with the family of Hollywood icon, the late Audrey Hepburn, and it marked the beginning of a friendship with Audrey's son, Sean Hepburn-Ferrer.
This is a book for the lover of Tuscany.
CURRENTLY BEING UPDATED
WILL BE AVAILABLE SOON
YOU CAN STILL READ A SHORT EXTRACT...
The Successful Publican
There are very few, if any, books on the market that take the prospective publican by the hand and lead them along the path of choosing a public house and entering the licenced trade.
The Successful Publican is full of invaluable tips and information written by a man, me, who ran a successful country pub in the beautiful village of Barham, Kent. The Duke of Cumberland remains a classic example of the English village inn. This is not so much a trade book as it is a narrative that gently removes the rose-tinted specs from the aspiring publican to reveal the realities of running a profitable business in one of the toughest industries in the country. The reader is taken from the point at which I made the decision to enter the licenced trade to day of completion and beyond. Yes, it was tough, but what an experience!