Richard Carter:
Born and raised in Morden, Surrey, Richard is a former Information Technology professional and IT college lecturer who now lives in South Devon. Although he could have retired in 2024, Richard decided to carry on working as a Project Mentor for a local community interest company; providing the community with digital assistance and aiding the long-term unemployed into employment. Largely influenced by his mother and grandfather, who is characterised in ‘Shrouded Memories’ as Warrant Office John Batchelor, as a boy he developed an avid interest in aviation and the Second World War. During his teenage years he joined the Air Cadets and, later in life, he served in the Corps as an adult; leaving in 2009 having reached the rank of Flight Lieutenant.
Between 2011 and 2021 he could be heard, together with his wife, Hils, broadcasting live on community radio. Initially on Radio St Austell Bay (now Chaos Radio), and subsequently on International Sounds and Mearns FM, their regular ‘Swing to Country’ show attracted listeners from as far afield as America and Finland.
He was inspired to begin writing ‘Shrouded Memories’ while leading a group of Air Cadets on an adventure training exercise on Bodmin Moor, Cornwall in 1995. They were due to camp out on the disused Davidstow Airfield and, as they approached and looked down on the airfield from the direction of Buttern Hill, he wondered what would happen if they found ourselves walking back through time and onto the airfield when it was in its heyday. After devising the main characters, and drafting a basic storyline and the first 1000 or so words of the first chapter, the novel lay dormant for 17 years until he was encouraged to finish it by his wife.
The Monolith Series:
The Monolith Series is a dual-timeline historical, speculative mystery trilogy about friendship, identity and second chances that begins when a group of modern Air Training Corp adult staff and cadets become entangled with the Second World War and then spend decades living with the consequences.
However, there is far more to the trilogy than that. Characters theorise about fate, providence and inevitability. Some find forgotten identities and some peace and fulfilment but, beneath it all, one steadfast question remains: How did all of this happen in the first place?
The trilogy follows the principle that time itself cannot be changed because, no matter what a time traveller does, there action has always been embedded in their past. Additionally, a consistent theme appears throughout: When someone is missing it doesn't mean they are no longer around; it simply means they are out there, somewhere, waiting to be found.
All works are currently unpublished and Richard is seeking representation.
Copyright © Richard Carter 2026. All rights reserved.
In 1995, Air Cadet Squadron Commander Alan Richards discovers a wartime grave bearing the name of fellow Squadron staff member Tony Matthews, a man who is very much alive. Weeks later, Alan, Tony and seven Air Cadets disappear without trace. As police searches draw a blank, an elderly woman named Sarah Walker comes forward claiming to know exactly what happened to them. Her story is extraordinary, and seemingly impossible. Yet as investigators begin uncovering wartime records that match details she could never have known, they find themselves drawn into a mystery stretching back more than half a century. Through Sarah's account emerges a hidden history of friendship, sacrifice and loss set against the backdrop of the Second World War. But even after decades, questions remain unanswered. What became of the missing cadets? How does Sarah know so much about them, and what secret has she spent the intervening years keeping from everyone around her? As past and present begin to collide, long-buried truths emerge from the shadows, leading to a revelation that will finally reunite friends separated by war, time and a lifetime of regret.
Having travelled from 1995 to just prior to the outbreak of the Second World War, Rebecca Stevens possesses something no intelligence service should ever have: knowledge of the future. Recruited into British Intelligence, she quickly proves herself capable of far more than translation and analysis. Sent deep into Nazi Germany and later into occupied France, Rebecca becomes a highly effective undercover agent, operating under the codename Hortense while helping to train resistance operatives behind enemy lines. But foreknowledge is both a gift and a burden. Rebecca knows that millions will perish in the Holocaust, that brave agents will be betrayed, and that some of those she loves most are destined never to return home. Determined to save as many lives as she can, she risks everything to challenge military plans, outwit the enemy and warn those in danger. Yet every success comes at a cost, and she begins to question whether history can truly be changed. As war tears apart the fragile future she has built, Rebecca faces impossible choices about duty, loyalty and sacrifice. Surrounded by deception, hunted by enemies and haunted by loss, she must decide not only who she can trust, but who she is prepared to become. For when the war finally ends, the greatest challenge of all may be finding a way to live with the consequences of surviving it.
On Boxing Day 1944, a V2 rocket destroys part of North London and changes a young woman's life forever. When she awakens in hospital, she remembers nothing. Not her name. Not her family. Not even who she is. For more than fifty years, Polly King builds a new life in London and Cornwall while carrying the ache of an unanswered question: what happened before the explosion? Then, in 1995, long-buried memories begin to surface. Faces she had forgotten, half-remembered places, a mysterious young woman named Becky Stevens, and a newsagent's shop in Holloway Road. As Polly follows the trail of her lost past, she uncovers a story of friendship, sacrifice and secrets stretching back to the Second World War. But the truth is far stranger than she could ever imagine. Because somewhere, someone had been waiting nearly sixty years for Sarah Day to come home.