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Hello,

As I write from my Cottage on Colonsay, I’ve been thinking about Aberfan and the sixtieth anniversary of the disaster, which fell on 21 October.

Anniversaries bring these events back into public view. Understanding them deserves attention throughout the year.

My two Aberfan books explore the disaster and its wider consequences.

Aberfan is the starting point I suggest for readers new to my work on the subject: an examination of what happened and the questions it raised.

Aberfan II takes that...

Behind the Scenes at Billy’s Book Club

The wind is blowing a hoolie here on Colonsay, putting my plans to gloss the window frames at the Cottage firmly on hold. Fortunately, there is plenty to keep me occupied at the desk.

Work continues behind the scenes at Billy’s Book Club and Stewart Independent Publishing Group. I am spending time on the website, revisiting existing pages and considering how to make it easier for readers to explore the books and the subjects behind them.

I am also...

Behind the Scenes at Billy’s Book Club

It has been a little quieter here over the past week, so I thought it was time for a quick update.

I have been busy with the work that goes on behind the scenes at Stewart Independent Publishing Group. There is always something needing attention: checking details, reviewing the backlist and giving existing books another careful look. It all takes time, and it doesn’t always leave much to announce at the end of the day.

I have also been revisiting some older...

Aberfan — sixty years on.

Today, we remember Aberfan and the families whose lives were changed forever on 21 October 1966.

I was thirteen when the news came through. I remember listening to the radio with my mother, who was in tears. That memory has stayed with me ever since.

It was that lasting memory that led me to write Aberfan and Aberfan II: to examine what happened, what followed, and why this story still matters.

On this anniversary, my thoughts are with the survivors, the bereaved...

A Christmas Map, a Mysterious Cat and a Little Kindness — Lily Paige-Turner’s Christmas Story for 2026

Christmas is coming, and Lily Paige-Turner has a new adventure to share with young readers — with Lily and her ever-inquisitive beagle, Charlie, at the heart of it.

Her Christmas story for 2026 begins with snow falling outside, decorations coming down from the attic, and an old cardboard box containing something rather unexpected.

A hand-drawn map.

For Lily, that is interesting enough. Add a...

Silent Cries and Silent Cries II:

Understanding Ireland’s Mother and Baby Homes

Behind every institutional record was a person. A mother with a life beyond the institution. A child whose name deserves to be remembered. A family for whom questions about the past may be deeply personal.

That is the starting point for my two nonfiction books, Silent Cries and Silent Cries II.

Together, they examine Ireland’s Mother and Baby Homes, the circumstances surrounding them, and the wider structures that...

A New Chapter for Lily Paige-Turner

The House She Came Back To

I’m delighted to introduce another lovely book from Lily Paige-Turner—a standalone novel that takes us away from the islands and into a small Perthshire town.

The House She Came Back To follows Helen, a widow who arrives at her late aunt Jean’s house intending to sort the belongings, settle the practicalities and return home.

But an unfinished letter leads her towards a family story she never knew. Beyond the papers and photographs,...

The Henry Julius Jacoby Case: Murder, Mercy and the Gallows

My latest book project returns to London in 1922 and a murder case remembered not only for its verdict, but for the request that accompanied it.

Henry Julius Jacoby, a pantry boy at the Spencer Hotel, was convicted of murdering Lady Alice White. His jury strongly recommended mercy because its members did not believe he had entered her bedroom intending to kill. The judge passed the death sentence and forwarded their recommendation to...

The Murder, The Gallows, and the Case That Refused to Die

My latest nonfiction title examines one of Britain’s most controversial criminal cases: the A6 murder and the conviction of James Hanratty.

The A6 Murder: James Hanratty — The Murder, The Gallows, and the Case That Refused to Die traces the case from the crime and investigation through the trial, execution and subsequent efforts to challenge the verdict.

The book examines the identification evidence, competing accounts, questions raised...

Introducing Operation CHAOS by Bill Stewart

A secret CIA programme. American dissent. A difficult boundary between national security and political freedom.

My latest nonfiction book, Operation CHAOS, explores an intelligence operation born from concern about possible foreign influence on American protest movements.

Established in 1967, the programme sought to identify foreign links with American dissident groups. Its work developed into an extensive collection of information concerning Americans...

New Release: Jill Dando —

The Murder That Remains Unsolved

Some stories stay with us because we remember exactly when we first heard the news. The murder of Jill Dando is one of them.

My latest book, Jill Dando — The Murder That Remains Unsolved, is now available on Amazon.

On 26 April 1999, Jill was shot outside her home in Fulham. A familiar and much-loved face on British television, she had become part of everyday life for millions of viewers. Her death brought shock, grief and a question...

New Book: After Diana — The Aftermath

My new book, After Diana — The Aftermath, looks at what followed Diana’s death in Paris in 1997.

The days of public mourning are still remembered by many. Less easy to recall is the long sequence of investigations, the evidence they examined and the questions that continued well beyond the funeral. That is the story I wanted to tell.

This is a respectful, evidence-led book about the aftermath: the French and British investigations, the press, the Royal...

We’ve been busy tidying up Billy’s Book Club and making it easier to find your way around.

The What Happened? articles now have their own index, so you can browse the real events behind the books in one place. We’ve also added a new Book Explorer. Choose aviation, maritime history, intelligence or wider history, or search for a subject that interests you. Tap a book and you’ll go straight to its page.

• Explore the books
• Browse the What Happened? articles

The Explorer is a selection from the...

Good afternoon everyone,

I have started cleaning my email list and i need your help.

If you want to continue hearing from me then please use the link below, it will take you to our new consent form and once you complete it you will be placed on my newest(and best) email list.

Thank you,

Bill Stewart

Please consider joining my email list. You will receive regular updates on my latest musings, investigative work, new articles, and forthcoming books.

I will not spam you, and I will never sell or...

My latest nonfiction investigation, Operation Paperclip, is now live on Amazon Kindle.

At the end of the Second World War, the United States and Soviet Union began competing for one of Nazi Germany’s most valuable remaining assets: its scientists.

German specialists possessed advanced knowledge of rockets, aviation, weapons, medicine and engineering. Washington understood immediately that allowing this expertise to fall into Soviet hands could alter the emerging balance of power.

But there was a...

Twenty-five years ago today, the world watched an event unfold that would change international history.

On the morning of 11 September 2001, hijacked passenger aircraft were deliberately flown into the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center in New York.

Within hours, both towers had collapsed.

Nearly 3,000 people were dead.

The consequences would reach far beyond Manhattan.

Today, on the 25th anniversary of the attacks, we are announcing the release of Before the Towers Fell: The...

JFK — A New Investigation Now Available

A new title has now joined the investigation library.

JFK examines the forty-eight hours surrounding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas on 22 November 1963.

Few events of the twentieth century have been examined, debated and challenged as extensively as Kennedy’s death. More than sixty years later, the basic sequence of events remains familiar around the world, yet arguments surrounding the evidence, the investigation and the...

Independent publishing never stands still.

Amazon KDP remains central to the books published through billysbookclub, but I have always believed that it is worth keeping an eye on other ways of reaching readers.

Recently, I took a look at Etsy as a possible outlet for ebooks.

What I found surprised me.

Rather than a strong marketplace for individual independent books, much of the digital-book offering appeared to consist of enormous PLR and MRR packages containing hundreds or thousands of ebooks...

Aberfan: Remembering the Tragedy 60 Years On

2026 marks the 60th anniversary of one of the darkest days in modern British history — the Aberfan disaster of 21 October 1966.

That morning, the children of Pantglas Junior School in the Welsh mining village of Aberfan had arrived for the final day of school before half-term.

At approximately 9.15am, waterlogged coal waste from Tip No. 7 collapsed and surged down the mountainside.

It struck houses before engulfing the school.

Within minutes, a...

A new Lily Paige-Turner novel has joined billysbookclub catalogue.

The Man Who Stayed is now available through Amazon.

It is a warm, reflective story about love, loyalty, second chances and the quiet courage sometimes required simply to stay.

Readers familiar with Lily Paige-Turner’s fiction will find many of the qualities that have become part of her storytelling: ordinary people carrying real histories, relationships shaped by experience rather than perfection, and the possibility that life...