Here is a synopsis of my first book, Out of Time, from the Time Travel Diaries of James Urquhart and Elizabeth Bicester
Prologue
It’s 2015 and the Martians are about to invade Earth. They have hacked into the Earth’s social media companies and absorbed them into the media site ComsMesh to manipulate the human race and weaken its defences. Up to now no one on Earth suspects a thing.
Then, one of ComsMesh staff finds the 2015 diary of a James Urquhart, and the 1873 diary of Elizabeth Bicester bound together in a copper chest and concludes they are actually time travellers. He flags this up to his director as he believes such technology in the wrong hands could reveal his Company’s plans to socially engineer the world.
Part I: A Game of Cricket
James Urquart, scientist, living in 2015 stumbles unknowingly into the 1870’s and meets Elizabeth Bicester, lady of leisure (his words) and daughter of the Squire of Hamgreen Lodge at a cricket match. They are met by Elizabeth’s cousin Henry who claims he has seen James before, and insists he is an imposter.
James & Elizabeth form an affectionate relationship which continues for sometime, visiting each others period until their time travels inexplicably stops.
James tries to find out why with help from his sister Jill. They discover an 1870’s photograph of Hamgreen cricketer, Mr Batalia, holding a modern cricket bat at Hamgreen and conclude he must be from the future. They find in 2015 he is working as a scientist at Manchester University and has made a time machine.
They travel to Manchester to meet to meet him. Batalia tells James he has met him before with Henry in 1871 at Urquart Castle on Loch Ness and he needs to go there to complete the time circle. He arrives in the loch in the time machine. After meeting Henry, James leaves in the time machine which everyone thinks is the Lochness monster and that James has been swallowed by it.
Meanwhile n 1873 Elizabeth visits Henry to find out how he knows James and discovers James was eaten by the Lochness monster in 1871. She Is mortified until her sister tells her that he can’t be dead because she meets him two years later. Elizabeth confesses to Hentry that the two James’s are the same person and she is having a relationship with him. Henry says he know Batalia who was with James at Loch Ness and thinks Batalia might know where James is. Batalia meets E. and offers to take her to James in Chichester in the future. She accepts.
While together at Chichester JAMES & ELIZABETH decide to meet Batalia again in Manchester to try and understand what is going on.
They discover that Batalia, who unbeknown to them, is also the Director of CommsMesh, has found a diary of James Clerk Maxwell which describes how to build a time machine. Batalia knows he has to build it so that he can go back to meet Maxwell to give him the knowledge to design the Time Machine and write the diary.
Unfortunately, Batalia revealed the future to Maxwell who is appalled by what he hears on Social Engineering and decides to destroy his papers on the Theory of Electromagnetism so that the time machine and CommsMesh will not exist. Batalia, who has read the diaries of JAMES & ELIZABETH returns to 2015 in the Time Machine and stops at Hamgreen Lodge to see if he can get any more information on their diaries.
Maxwell, fearing Batalia may return and publish his papers, secretly boards the time machine with Batalia to Hamgreen. Maxwell stays hidden at Hamgreen and finds out where Batalia is working, steals his time machine and brings it to Hamgreen to stop Batalia returning to 1870’s to republish his equations.
JAMES & ELIZABETH believe Batalia is a simple scientist who has lost his time machine and needs help to prevent Maxwell destroying their world. They are unaware that he is the Director of CommsMesh. Batalia has discovered his time machine has been taken to Hamgreen and they all go there to find who has stolen it. Batalia is shocked to find Maxwell there and jumps in the time machine and goes back to 1870’s to rewrite and publish Maxwell’s papers so the technology for CommsMesh will exist.
JAMES & ELIZABETH thinking they have helped save the world return to Chichester leaving Maxwell stranded in 2015.
Part II
James and Elizabeth try to discover what powers the time machine and find it is controlled in a cavern located below the Norman castle at Midhurst.
James remembers that HG Wells who wrote the time machine lived in Midhurst and suspect Wells has met Batalia and got his ideas for his books from him. By suspicious coincidence when they arrive at the control centre in the cavern, Wells is there trying to understand the time machine controls. They also find they are in 1895, which is the year Wells publishes The Time Machine.
Wells explains he has met Batalia who furnished him with stories of the future which Wells has used for his science fiction books.
Between them they learn how to control Batalia’s time machine and inadvertently retrieve the time machine leaving Batalia stranded in the nineteenth century.
JAMES & ELIZABETH are now totally confused and think they should visit Maxwell at Hamgreen to try and understand his versions of events.
While with Maxwell at Hamgreen, Wells turns up with the time machine from Midhurst. Wells tells them he has met Batlalia again who accidently left a letter about Maxwell’s diary and the need to know the whereabouts of JAMES & ELIZABETH.
Maxwell tries to get back to 1870’s to destroy his papers but the time machine is only set for Midhurst. Because JAMES & ELIZABETH still do not trust Maxwell, through a ruse,JAMES & ELIZABETH and Wells travel in the time machine back to Midhurst leaving Maxwell stranded again.
At Midhurst James accesses the CommsMesh and Adcom sites via his laptop and signed in only to find they have automatically taken all his social history. They now realise Batalia is the villain and need to go back and see Maxwell a third time.
They re-read the letter Wells had got from Batalia and find the name Rollinson in 2021. They then use the control centre to travel to 2021 so they can phone Rollinson to tell them they are on to CommsMesh’s plan.
Rollinson says he knows about JAMES & ELIZABETH because he bought JAMES & ELIZABETH’s diaries from Hamgreen in 2021. Then JAMES & ELIZABETH discover why Batalia first came to Hamgreen with Maxwell hidden in the time machine.
JAMES & ELIZABETH and Maxwell return to Midhurst and decide to go back to the nineteenth century to find Batalia. There in a pub they meet Wells again. Wells had tried to work the time controls in the cavern but James had immobilised it trapping Batalia.
Wells says Batalia is at the Midhurst Cricket club and they all go to meet him. Batalia on being found out takes a horse to the cavern to escape on the time machine but can’t make the controls work because James has the fuses. Wells pulls a gun on Batalia. J sends Batalia out of the cavern to 2016. Wells gives JAMES & ELIZABETH copies of the notes for his SF books. JAMES & ELIZABETH take Wells back to 1895.
Before Wells leaves the cavern he takes their diaries and gives an Electric diary instead. Then JAMES & ELIZABETH return to 2015 and leave the cavern.
Wells takes the diaries to Elizabeth’s sister at Hamgreen and tells her to put them in the attic to ensure the time circle is complete.
JAMES & ELIZABETH realise the servers for CommsMesh are in the cavern at Midhurst. They manage to shut them down and also the power supply which has supplied the time machine. CommsMesh is destroyed and Batalia is stuck in the future. The Martians have now lost their contact with Earth and decide to invade.
James and Elizabeth return to Chichester in 2015 and just when they think they have saved the world a second time that find they are in one of Wells future worlds and the Martians have landed.
Part III Down the Rabbit Hole
JAMES & ELIZABETH survive the Martian invasion who are destroyed by germ warfare from Porten Down.
James discovers that the electric diary given to them by Wells is a time machine. Elizabeth confesses an affair when she was young. They get married.
Using the electric diary in his attic they are transported to an ethereal Rievaulx Abbey where an apparition of Wells appears who tells them to come to Yorkshire.
They take plane to Teesside but on arrival find they are in 1895. They take train and coach to Helmsley where the stay. They find nothing at Rievaulx and decided to use the electric diary which transports them to Helmsley Castle where the find the Keep incorporates a Wellsian Martian Tripod. To their horror they disturb sleeping Martians.
The Martians awake and through telepathy get into their minds and discover their invasion is doomed. But also inadvertently, the Martian let them see a vision of Mars showing the invasion preparations. The Martians try to take the diary which will tell them what has happened.
JAMES & ELIZABETH keep the diary and escape to Helmsley where Wells is waiting for them at the Inn. Due to the number of coincidental meeting with Wells, JAMES & ELIZABETH believe he is a time traveller.
Wells tells them that he can leave his body and travel to the future and had seen the Martian invasions.
He tells them that CommsMesh and the Dark Net were set up by the Martians to put the world asleep to prepare for the invasion. He wrote his science fiction books to warn future generations and help them to prepare for the invasion.
While they are at the Inn the Martians try to escape to warn Mars that their invasion is doomed, but their ship which has been incorporated in the Keep built by the Normans blows up. Having saved the world again Wells uses the electric diary to returns them to 2015 in Chichester.
They discover that they have been away 6 months and Elizabeth is pregnant due to being cheeky on the train to Northallerton.
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