Hugh Vaughan has written five books. This website contains details and extracts of all of his books. Readers can purchase them through this link. Included are a variety of photos from childhood, the Troubles to life downunder. Two are major rewrites of previous versions, incorporating additional material. Below are brief descriptions of the books and links to their detailed  pages.

An Analytic Pub Crawl, Wanderings and Observations traces the journey of author's life, its memories, interests and events. The book title is not to be confused with the traditional drinking pub crawl. It is a way of describing the psychogeographical nature of this book. Patrick ffrench, the writer, described psychogeography as “an analytic pub crawl”, a lived experience – one drifts from one place to the next; observing, noting, reading, reacting. We may drift through a city, a book or a life and absorb. This is the “dérive”. Charles Baudelaire named this person, the flâneur. Just as the past left traces in today’s built environment, so have we, and so has the author. The picture on the book cover, represents Hugh's journey from the borderland to emigrating to Melbourne, Australia. 119,240 words. 

View  a video introduction here. The subjects reflect a variety of interests: the Introduction, the Troubles, see the Troubles photos, my life in IT education, psychogeography photos, Irish humour,  reading, music, Writing, What life-skills are needed for a happy life? Read some positive quotes here.  Emigration, some down under photos, family, and urban liveability. A journal of the  Pandemic. 

Borderland is a historical memoir, including the history of the borderland area in the north-west of Ireland. The stories reflect an observant child in Ireland attempting to understand the world around him. The reader is taken on a gamut of emotions in this rich and amusing journey of growing up in Ireland. Some of these stories are disguised memoirs – creative memoirs. Little nuggets of memories give birth to these flights of fancies. 73,240 words.

View a video introduction here. Read a sample story Run,  my childhood, Christmas and teenage music years and of course, the Northern Irish Troubles, my book, Cillefoyle Park, the Brendan Duddy papers, Martin McGuinness. Have a look at some photos: childhood, Strabane,  teenage, the Troubles. Read some reviews.

Cillefoyle Park is about a social activist, torn between the possibility of politics and the violence exploding on the streets of Derry at the height of The Troubles in the mid 1970s. An innocent friendship with a neighbour – a schoolteacher, leads them both into a precarious web of secrecy and intrigue with all sides of the endless conflict. Caught in a nightmare world of secret negotiations for a ceasefire, his life spins on the edge of clandestine friendship, love, meetings and certain death at any wrong turn. It is a constant struggle with his conscience and the challenge of simply staying alive. The story is based upon  the Brendan Duddy Papers, a peace-maker. The collection has been archived and placed online. Its website states,  “Throughout twenty years of violent conflict in Northern Ireland, a secret channel of communication linked the IRA to the highest levels of the British government. At the heart of this channel was a single intermediary, Brendan Duddy. His house was the venue for secret negotiations between the British Government and the IRA throughout 1975. He managed the intense negotiations over the Republican hunger strikes in which ten men died (1980-1981) and he was at the heart of the contacts (1991-1993) that culminated in a secret offer of a ceasefire that was a precursor to the public IRA ceasefire of 1994.” 102,509 words.

Fragments of an Analytic Pub Crawl traces the journey of the author's life, its memories, the events and the places, where the author has been and lived, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia and Spain but also what he has read that powered his imagination. This book includes stories from Hugh's childhood and some history of  Northern Ireland. The picture on the book cover, represents his journey from the Donegal roads escaping the Northern Irish Troubles, and then emigrating to Melbourne, Australia. 

A Bump on the Road is a book of 18 short stories emanating from the innocent years before secondary school, and the growing out of it. The stories reflect an observant child in Ireland attempting to understand the world around him. Family, The Church, The Troubles, secrets, ghost stories, leaving home, myths and legends. All this comes under the microscope of a child growing up. These stories are disguised memoirs – creative memoirs. Little nuggets of memories give birth to these flights of fancies. BUY the books HERE

Click here for all links to all the pages.

Hugh Vaughan was born in Northern Ireland and lives in Melbourne, Australia.  He has a Masters in Information Systems and has lectured and worked in Information Technology since 1980 until his retirement in 2017. He has lived for four years in Alicante, Spain, almost four years in Wellington, New Zealand, and many years in Australia and of course, Northern Ireland. He is married with two children and has two beautiful grandchildren.                                                                                           

© Hugh Vaughan 2023