24th April: The Gambia

The Gambia became a republic on this date in 1970. Here are 10 things you may not know about it:

1. The Gambia is a very small and narrow country, the smallest on the African mainland. Its area is slightly less than that of the island of Jamaica, or roughly the same size as Yorkshire, or slightly less than twice the size of the US state of Delaware. The Gambia is less than 48.2 km (30.0 mi) wide at its widest point.
2. Its borders mirror the meandering Gambia River, and it is bordered on three sides by Senegal. The fourth side is 80km (50 miles) of Atlantic coastline.
3. The boundaries were defined in 1889 after the French gave the British control of 320 kilometres (200 miles) of the Gambia River. It took nearly fifteen years after this to determine the final borders of the Gambia, which gave the British control of approximately 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) north and south of the Gambia River.
4. At the time of writing, the president of the Gambia is Yahya Jammeh, a US-trained former army officer who took power in a bloodless coup in 1994. His full name is Alhaji Sheikh Professor Doctor Yahaya Abdul Aziz Jamus Junkung Jammeh. He claims to have come up with a cure for AIDS consisting of boiled herbs. Hundreds of Gambians have tried it and at least 68 of them are said to have been cured. Health workers remain sceptical, though, especially as Jammeh's treatment requires giving up conventional treatments for up to a year, and they say there is no proof that Jammeh's method works.
5. The slave trade is an important part of The Gambia's history. Banjul, the capital city, was founded by the British as Bathurst in 1816 as a base for suppressing the slave trade.
6. Kunte Kinte, the character in Alex Haley's Roots was from The Gambia. The Jufureh village, where the first part of the book is set, has become a pilgrimage site for many descendants of slaves.
7. Weekends in the Gambia begin on Thursdays and are three days long. President Jammeh introduced three day weekends for schools and the public sector to give the Muslim population more time to pray, socialise and tend to their fields.
8. The national Football team of The Gambia is nicknamed The Scorpions.
9. The Gambian national sport is a form of wrestling known as ‘Borreh’.
10. People cast their votes in elections in The Gambia by dropping stones in holes.

My books:

Death and Faxes

Several women have been found murdered - it looks like the work of a ruthless serial killer. Psychic medium Maggie Flynn is one of the resources DI Jamie Swan has come to value in such cases - but Maggie is dead, leaving him with only the telephone number of the woman she saw as her successor, her granddaughter, Tabitha Drake.

Tabitha, grief-stricken by Maggie's death and suffering a crisis of confidence in her ability, wants nothing to do with solving murder cases. She wants to hold on to her job and find Mr Right (not necessarily in that order); so when DI Swan first contacts her, she refuses to get involved.

The ghosts of the victims have other ideas. They are anxious for the killer to be caught and for names to be cleared - and they won't leave Tabitha alone. It isn't long before Tabitha is drawn in so deeply that her own life is on the line.

Paperback - CreateSpace or Amazon 

Or get the E-book: Amazon Kindle (Where you can use the "Look Inside" function and read the first few pages for free!)

Glastonbury Swan

Every few weeks, there is a mysterious death in Glastonbury. They seem completely unrelated - an apparent suicide, a hit and run, a drug overdose, a magic act which goes horribly wrong - but is that what the killer wants people to think?

The police are certainly convinced - but one of the victims is communicating to medium Tabitha Drake that the deaths are linked.

Who is killing all these people and why? 

This is what Tabitha has to figure out - before it is too late to save someone very dear to her.

Paperback CreateSpace or Amazon

E-book Amazon Kindle

I have plenty more stories to tell, but I don't know yet which will win the race to the end of the pipeline. If you'd like to know:

Like my Facebook Page

Read short stories and book excerpts on My writing blog

Follow me on Twitter: @JulieHowlin