Had The Adventure. Didn’t Need The Kombi.

I had the adventure.

I didn’t know what hit me.

I was gobsmacked, alone, boke, with not even a Kombi to save me.

I didn’t need it anyhow.

Because, somehow, I had the adventure.

After I went bankrupt.

I’ve written the book to tell you everything that happened.

History.

Romance.

A mystery.

And the paranormal that seemed to have my back as I ventured fourth..

Having lost everything.

Like I was being taken care of because what knew had to be told.

So here’s the thing.

I had uncovered an historical mystery.

A very true story where some lovely people were hurt.

Lovely people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

In Regency times.

The late 1700s in Georgian England.

The time when the King was going mad.

When those on or near the throne of England feared for their safety.

Even from losing their head.

This is the hidden story.

Because of what they knew and where they were sitting in or close to Royal circles.

There was strong anti-Catholic sentiment.

The Gordon riots.

Evidence of a secret marriage burned.

And more.

I know all this.

I’ve told it as I uncovered the hidden facts and the trail of where it might have been.

All of this as I struggled with bankruptcy and losing everything.

I encountered twists and turns in every moment.

And paranormal clues that followed my trip everywhere.

Across five countries.

Retracing their steps as I went.

Encountering romantic stopovers.

Meeting interesting people.

Having the adventure of my life.

May I share it with you.

At every stop I take you with me as the adventure unfolds.

I want it to be your adventure too.

Just read the reviews here.

Or buy the book here.

Enjoy the journey with me.

Love and peace,

Neil the Smith

I’ve written a true story about a Royal Prince who was smuggled to Australia 250 years ago.

There was a cover-up 250 years ago.

A secret marriage.

The Prince of Wales to Maria Fitzherbert.

Was it a legal marriage?

The Pope said yes.

I think a child was born after the marriage.

Or maybe two.

There were questions in Parliament.

The Prince of Wales denied everything.

To save his neck.

Not to mention the fate of his bride.

A Roman Catholic.

Who were unpopular at the time.

There were riots.

And the Crown.

A cover-up for sure.

Then, children.

What to do.

A new penal settlement was being established in Australia.

Called New South Wales then.

Inmates incarcerated in London’s gaols and hulks on the Thames were being sent out often for petty crimes.

They were being sent to the other side of the world.

With no hope of ever returning home.

What if unwanted Royal children could go too.

Smuggled on the First Fleets that sailed from 1787 to 1791.

My book has evidence that children may have been onboard without names.

The all-female convict ship ‘Mary Anne‘ was one.

That’s her on the cover of my book.

Now here’s the thing.

Was a British Royal sent to Australia anonymously.

As a mere child.

And where is he or she.

What became of him or her.

Maybe I know.

Buy the book and read for yourself.

“It’s got everything it needs to be a blockbuster,” said Writer’s Digest.

It’s a “fun and entertaining” book, said another reviewer.

Certainly not dull and boring history.

More autobiographical with unexpected twists and turns.

Buy your copy here.

Love and peace.

Neil the Smith.

What Is In This Small Old Book of Lost Royal Secrets?

I found this old limited edition small book of lost Royal secrets in my local country library.

I couldn’t believe my luck.

There it was in front of me among all the other quite ordinary library books.

But it was smaller that the rest.

This old book must have been sitting there for 40 years.

Unloved and unwanted.

The title seemed uninviting.

Who would ever have even picked it up, I thought.

‘The Chaplain: Being Some Further Account of the Days of Bobby Knopwood.’

Who was Bobby Knopwood?

I knew.

But who else would know?

Would you?

Probably not.

He was the Reverend Robert Knopwood, the first chaplain of Tasmania.

I knew from the research I’d been doing for my book and so, for me, it was a rare find.

And that’s how it turned out to be.

Here was the perfect story to introduce my historical romantic paranormal true mystery I had started.

What a find.

I’ll use an extract for my Introduction, I thought.

It’ll set the scene for the bigger picture I had to tell.

Just what I’d been looking for.

Now my book is done and you can buy it here.

In just a few paragraphs the author, Mabel Hookey, related her story of a local Doctor and his wife who were sent from England to the antipodes, Van Diemens Land (Tasmania), on condition that they never returned to England and they never divulged their secret that kept them from returning.

They were believed to receive a mysterious secret regular pension provided they stayed in the new homeland in the early days of the new penal colony.

Why?

There were rumours that he was physician to the King and she was Lady in Waiting to the Queen.

What was their secret?

Nobody ever knew.

Even the author didn’t know.

I know.

The little limited edition book has since disappeared from the library, from the shelves, the catalogue, every record.

Read my book and learn their secret here.

Neil.

PS. Visit my book gallery here.

Ghost Busts 200 Year-Old Royal Cover-Up.

Was granny really a ghost on a mission?

Did she live 200 years ago as a wife of the Prince of Wales?

Was her story desperately covered up in the interests of the politics of the day?

And of saving the Prince of Wales’ head?

Read the full story in my book ‘Man Steps Off Planet’ (click here).

At a time of serious anti-Catholic sentiment, of the Gordon riots, even the memory of her deceased late husband who died from injuries he suffered in the riots, was the cover-up in the greater interests of the country, the Parliament . . . and the throne?

Has she returned to state her case for justice?

And legal rights and, as she would claim, a legitimate right to her place in history?

Okay, it’s merely conjecture, but read ‘Dr Desailly’s Secret’ and ‘Florence & The Ghost’ and you may wonder about what really happened 200 years ago.

A time when the Prince of Wales and the wife of a secret marriage, were living in dangerous times.

A time when even the fact that the Royal heir might have married a Catholic as well as against the wishes of the King, George III.

In a letter to the Prince of Wales, Whig politician and leader of the opposition Charles James Fox:

“warned that her situation as well as that of the Prince would be perilous if they went through a ceremony of marriage.”

But they did.

And not only that.

At first she refused all suggestion of marriage.

Then she changed her mind.

Could it be that she was having his child?

And was this child legitimate?

In the chapter ‘The Secret Marriage’ I present the evidence that there was a child.

There were rumours on the couple’s two summers in Brighton.

“It is said she is with child,” wrote a Mrs Talbot.

Could this have been the secret reason for their extended holidays in the seaside resort of Brighton?

Was this a good reason for the distraction of the building of the Royal Pavilion there.

The Pope declared the secret marriage valid.

Read my evidence in ‘The Secret Marriage’ in my book of revelations ‘Man Steps Off Planet’.

Writer’s Digest thinks it’s a blockbuster and “an amazing story”.

At the time all of the evidence was destroyed.

This hasn’t stopped speculation as to whether there were children and, more to the point, where are they?

What happened to them.

I very much doubt, however, if anyone found the evidence I have offered in my book.

This was the time of the historic First Fleets to Australia of mostly convicts sent to start a new colony in the antipodes.

Read the full story in my book ‘Man Steps Off Planet’ (click here).

What a perfect opportunity to disappear an unwanted child and an embarrassment to the Prince of Wales.

I have considered, for example, the fortunate timing of a child with the migration to the end of the earth on one of the First Fleets.

On the same morning that the first ships of the First Fleet sailed for Botany Bay (Australia) on 13 May 1787 carrying 737 convicts, the Prince of Wales was discussing his debts with the Prime Minister, William Pitt.

It’s interesting to note that the Second Fleet two-and-a-half years later carried 22 children and one free person.

It’s impossible to identify who the children were.

This can be found in the chapter ‘The Mystery of the Mary Ann’.

But then we also have three secret messages which point to an interesting man, an unsung hero from that time, with many clues to his identity as a possible child of this Royal couple.

His name is Lieutenant James Simmons.

For a time of great significance to us he was Acting Commander of the brig ‘Lady Nelson‘.

Read the chapters ‘The Lady Nelson’, ‘The Lieutenant Without a Past’, and ‘The Sailor King’.

With this ship he sailed the waters around south-eastern Australia founding Hobart and Launceston in Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania).

He developed a close friendship with the colony’s first Chaplain, the Reverend Robert Knopwood.

He fostered friendly relations between the Governor of New South Wales and New Zealand when others before him provoked disaster.

All is revealed in ‘Chief Ti-Pahi & The Maori Episode’.

It’s an interesting read.

One reviewer called it “fun and entertaining”.

I hope you will too.

To order your copy click here.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Neil Walter John Smith started his career as an advertising copywriter working on creative accounts like Volkswagen, Herbert Adams and Clark’s Shoes. He won an award for Adams meat pies commercials in the Best TV Campaign for the year. For 10 years he worked freelance as a one-man creative director for some of Melbourne’s hottest creative shops. He then moved to the country to work as an author of non-fiction books. Today he lives in a small picturesque fishing village across the bay from the city of Melbourne close to his 2 beautiful daughters and 3 adorable granddaughters.

To follow my blog scroll down and click the Follow button.

Illustration by nicobou at Deviantart

How a Ghost From The Past Led Me To Investigate a True Royal Mystery.

I didn’t see it coming.

“I always thought it strange my Granny Fitz never ate at the dinner table,” Florence told me, “You see, she was dead.”

Seems that Florence’s dear childhood friend Granny Fitz was probably a ghost.

What do you think?

I’d called in to visit my mother on my way home from the city late one afternoon when I l lived in Melbourne and worked from home as a freelance advertising copywriter.

I thought I was making a social visit to learn the latest gossip about the family but I was in for a shock.

As Florence greeted me at the door, eyes watering and cheeks flushed, she looked like she’d seen a ghost.

I think she had.

She’d been researching the family tree.

So when she came to check the birth and death details of her childhood companion at the Melbourne Cemetery she got rather more than she expected.

According to the information on the gravestone her Granny Fitz had died seventeen years before Florence was born.

Interesting.

What royal secret did Granny Fitz bring beyond the grave with her?

Where did my investigations lead, what major historical characters were revealed from this simple fact?

And what unexpected historical territory did I enter when I started to follow the trail that Granny, or Mrs Fitz, left for me?

Read this amazing mystery for your self in my book ‘Man Steps Off Planet’.

Best wishes,

Neil

PS. Illustrated above is the present day replica of the historic tall ship ‘HMS Lady Nelson’ of which one of our characters was Acting Commander.