Rick Brindle

  My new book is finished to first draft, working title Charlie Schitzen, An American President. It's going for first edit soon, and I'm hoping to publish early 2026. Cold Steel on the Rocks We Are Cold Steel Cold Steel and the Underground Boneyard It's Not For Everyone Sister Alex

  Sister Alex , my post-apocalyptic novel about a trans survivor, is free to download from Amazon for a limited time. Get your free copy now! Berkshire, England, and it’s no longer the promised land. Ever since a species-wide illness wiped out nearly every human being, the home counties have become a gender-based battlefield. The women stick together as a single, cohesive community, but only as long as you’re a woman. And it’s the same for the men, although they haven’t quite got the same group thing going, choosing instead to range as lone threats, taking what they want. Sometimes they team up and run in pairs, but only as long as you’re a man. They’re separate tribes, and they hate each other on sight. Pick your gender, pick your side. And then there’s Alex, born as a man, identifies as a woman, and thanks to a stash of scavenged hormones, she’s stuck somewhere between the two, lost in the middle and hated by them all. But she’s survived, and if what’s left of the world won’t lea...

RAF aircraft in the seventies  looked gorgeous. And almost, but not quite as important as that, they were all badass. For sure, they were all in service in the seventies, but they were designed way back in the fifties. The Avro Vulcan entered service in 1956 and was retired in 1984. In about 2014 I saw the last flying Vulcan at an air show, and the roar of its engines was something to behold. The noise was like a physical thing hitting you. The Black Buck raids during the Falklands War immortalised it in British folklore. An absolute flying legend. The Handley Page Victor was an absolute beast and definitely looked like it belonged in Thunderbirds. It had the biggest payload of all of the V Force bombers, but it really excelled as a tanker. It entered service in 1958 and was on the books until 1993. I was lucky enough to see them on the pan at Akrotiri during my short Op Granby tour. The English Electric Lightning was the RAF’s nude-shot, centrefold pin-up for decades. It served in...

For me, Ronnie James Dio And it’s not even close. I grew up with Dio. My first truly heavy metal album was The Last in Line, and as I went through my teenage years and grew into an adult, so too did I discover Ronnie James Dio’s musical heritage. If something good happened in my life, I celebrated by listening to Dio. If something bad happened, turned to Dio for support. For me, his voice, his lyrics and his passion for the music are simply impossible to beat. And live, the man was utterly unbeatable. And sure, there are plenty, dozens, hundreds of other great rock vocalists out there, but if you’re asking someone who’s the best, then for each of us it’s more than just an empirical thing, it’s a personal thing. That’ll make everyone’s answer different, but it will always make my answer Ronnie James Dio. Cold Steel on the Rocks   We Are Cold Steel   Cold Steel and the Underground Boneyard   It's Not For Everyone   Sister Alex  

  Yes, you could survive indefinitely off the land before or after the apocalypse. But if you haven’t got your food plot up and running already, there might be a few things you’ll want to do in pretty short order. Right, you’re a lone survivor. There might be other people around, but there won’t be many, so make the most of your ‘home alone’ time. Get as many veggie seeds planted as you can, then go to your nearest deserted supermarket, and pick up literally as many tins of food as you can carry. Once your veggies have grown, you’re good, but you’ll need some stopgaps until then, so maybe make a few trips to the deserted supermarket. Don’t worry, you want have to pay for anything. You can also do foraging tips into any nearby forests. If you’re lucky, an apple grower is, or was nearby. If you’re really lucky, a post apocalyptic potato farm will also be on your doorstep. Make your home as secure as possible. Sure, you’re on your own, but are you? And the animals will probably see yo...

  It's Not For Everyone , a personal memoir of my time in the RAF Regiment, is free to download from Amazon for a limited time. Get your free copy now! What do you do when your dream job turns into a nightmare? Rick Brindle was a third generation military child. His father and grandfather served their whole lives in the Army, and all he wanted to do was be a soldier. In 1989 he joined the RAF Regiment. But life in the Regiment was a world away from what he thought it would be, and it quickly became toxic. Facing a culture of bullying, beatings, verbal abuse and sexual harassment, the community he wanted to be a part of became more like a prison. Most people around him went along with the abuse. Some agreed with it, some joined in, while the chain of command routinely looked the other way. Set over thirty years ago, this is a story of surviving abuse that still resonates today. It’s Not For Everyone is essential reading for anyone considering a military career. Sometimes funny, some...

  I’ve had my EV for nearly a year, done one long journey, and it hasn’t bothered me a bit. I can get 160 to 220 miles on a full charge with my Renault Zoe. I’ve learned to use my home charger as my go-to, but if I go on a long trip, it’s all about using the technology, mainly zapmap and google maps, to figure out where the public chargers are, and visiting as many as I need to in order to get me where I need to be. For myself, I avoid the motorway service stations, and instead look for retail parks with a bank of EV charge points as my pit stops, for two reasons. There’s a lot more to see and do than there is at Fleet or South Mims, and the charge is loads cheaper as well. You’re talking about 79p per kW at the motorway over 49p per kW at the retail park. Well worth a small diversion. It’s just a case of knowing your car’s limits and staying within them. Sister Alex   It's Not For Everyone Cold Steel on the Rocks We Are Cold Steel Cold Steel and the Underground Boneyard