The Mysteries of Rome and Intrigue by Robert Faulkner has been released, offering readers a dramatic journey through a world where trust is uncertain, danger is constant and survival is never assured.

The Mysteries of Rome and Intrigue follows field operative Giorgio, whose plans for rest are abruptly interrupted by a sealed message ordering his immediate return via Athens. What begins as a routine directive quickly escalates into a dangerous pursuit of stolen secret files, drawing Giorgio and his long-time associate Emilio into a web of deception where loyalty is uncertain and survival is never assured.

Set against a richly drawn backdrop of Athens and Rome, the story unfolds through a series of tense encounters, shifting alliances, and quiet moments of reflection that reveal the personal cost of life lived in the shadows. The novel is inspired by Faulker’s years of global travel and professional work across borders.

As powerful enemies close in and hidden motives surface, Giorgio must navigate betrayal, moral ambiguity, and the consequences of trust in a world where nothing and no one is as they seem.

As the story moves from Greece to Rome, secrets surface, alliances fracture, and powerful forces close in. Amid hidden desires, manipulation, and escalating danger, Giorgio must navigate a web of lies where one wrong decision could prove fatal. In this world of power and passion, trust is a risk and survival comes at a cost.

Speaking of this latest work, 68-year-old Faulkner said: “The novel opens in Athens with sharp dialogue and immediate tension, immersing readers in the lived reality of seasoned operatives who understand that even friendships have an expiry date.

“Rome becomes the emotional and symbolic heart of the story, where moments of beauty and reflection stand in stark contrast to the dangers faced by those lives lived in shadow.”

Keen readers will observe that poetic elements are woven throughout the book, including a striking concluding poem that echoes the journey, the losses, and the quiet sacrifices made along the way. Themes of loyalty, consequence, and moral ambiguity linger long after the final page.

A cinematic book trailer script reinforces the novel’s atmosphere, tracing the characters’ movements across continents and culminating at Rome’s fountain of love and dreams, where past fears become present reality and separation is inevitable.

This compelling thriller will appeal to readers who enjoy international espionage, political intrigue, espionage fiction, political intrigue, Rome thriller, Athens espionage, global conspiracy, intelligence operatives, high stakes suspense, emotionally complex characters, and stories rooted in real world experience.

The Mysteries of Rome and Intrigue has been published by Maple Publishers, a UK-based publishing company. It is now available worldwide through major retailers, including Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Waterstones, WHSmith, Blackwell’s, Foyles, Books A Million, Powell’s Books, Indigo and more.

As businesses increasingly depend on large volumes of electrical equipment, workplace safety and regulatory compliance remain key operational concerns. From offices and retail spaces to warehouses and public buildings, PAT test expert Ray Brosnan, Managing Director of Brosnan Property Solutions, says organisations are placing greater focus on preventative maintenance and operational resilience. He adds that regular Portable Appliance Testing (PAT) helps detect electrical faults early, ensuring equipment remains safe for ongoing use.

Ray said: “PAT Testing is a practical way for organisations to reduce risk and maintain safer workplaces,” he explains. “Small faults can quickly develop into larger safety or operational issues if they are not identified early.”

Why PAT Testing Matters

PAT Testing involves the inspection and testing of portable electrical appliances to ensure they’re safe to operate. It forms part of a wider health and safety strategy for many commercial organisations.

Commonly tested items include:

• Desktop equipment 
• Kitchen appliances 
• Extension leads 
• Power tools 
• Portable heaters 
• Charging equipment 

Routine PAT checks can help businesses:

• Reduce the risk of electrical faults 
• Improve workplace safety 
• Minimise unexpected downtime 
• Support insurance requirements 
• Maintain compliance documentation 
• Extend equipment lifespan 

For businesses operating across multiple sites, structured testing programmes also improve visibility and consistency across estates.

Reducing Risk Through Preventative Maintenance

Electrical faults remain a common cause of workplace incidents and equipment failure. That’s because damaged cables, overloaded sockets and worn appliances may not always be visible during day-to-day operations. PAT electrical testing provides a structured process for identifying risks before failures occur.

According to Ray, proactive maintenance, like electrical safety PAT testing, is becoming increasingly important as businesses seek greater control over operational performance.

“Organisations are looking for ways to avoid disruption while maintaining safe and compliant environments,” he says. “Regular electrical appliance testing supports that by helping businesses identify developing issues early and take corrective action before systems fail.”

Supporting Compliance and Operational Continuity

PAT Testing is often integrated into wider facilities management and maintenance strategies. By combining electrical testing with planned preventative maintenance programmes, businesses can reduce administrative burden and maintain more consistent oversight of equipment and assets.

For commercial organisations, this supports stronger operational continuity while helping teams maintain accurate records for inspections, audits and internal compliance processes.

As workplaces continue to evolve, structured safety and maintenance programmes are becoming increasingly important. PAT Testing remains one of the simplest and most effective ways businesses can protect staff, safeguard equipment and support long-term operational reliability.

Lady Justice took centre stage at Olympia London as TikBox unveiled its enterprise rights and provenance platform for the AI era.

The UK-based provenance and licensing technology company used the visual symbol of justice to highlight a growing challenge for businesses, creators, publishers and rights-holders: in a world of AI-generated and AI-assisted media, how can organisations show what content is, who owns the rights, and how it can be licensed?

TikBox’s “Make Rights, Not Wrongs” activation, staged in the AI Zone at the Media Production & Technology Show, brought that message to life. Lady Justice appeared alongside TikBox founder and CEO Nageela Yusuf, drawing attention to the need for practical tools that help organisations distinguish between human-created, AI-generated and materially altered content.

The launch comes as AI transparency rules under the EU AI Act approach, with transparency obligations due to take effect from August 2026. For organisations, the issue is no longer limited to lost licensing revenue or unauthorised use. Reliable provenance is becoming central to legal readiness, brand protection and public trust.

Every organisation now publishes, shares and relies on digital content. Images, video, likenesses, marketing assets, archives and branded media all carry reputational value. As synthetic and AI-assisted media become harder to distinguish from human-created work, businesses need clearer ways to show whether content is authentic, AI-generated or altered, and whether it is properly licensed.

The TikBox platform helps enterprises manage rights, unlock licensing opportunities and provide clear provenance signals for human-created, AI-generated and altered content. The technology supports businesses that need to verify content, protect brands, preserve public trust, retrieve rights and licensing information, and manage digital assets at scale.

TikBox brings provenance verification, rights management and licensing into one enterprise-ready infrastructure layer. Modular by design and federated by architecture, it allows organisations to deploy what they need today, extend as requirements evolve and retain control of their assets.

Core capabilities include C2PA compliant content signing; rights and permissions management that connects licensing terms directly to content; and retrieval and audit tools for legal, commercial and technical teams.

The platform has already received an enthusiastic welcome from broadcasters, social platforms and the heritage sector.

“AI has accelerated the need for modern rights infrastructure, but the principles around control and commercialisation remain the same,” said Nageela Yusuf, Founder and CEO of TikBox.

“What is new is the challenge of clarity: being able to distinguish between human-created, AI-generated and altered content. TikBox gives organisations the means to label content, attach rights information and create routes to commercialisation before questions of origin, permission and licensing become disputes.”

Author John M Hayes has released his latest book, A Quest for Meaning: A Memoir from Pit to Pulpit; from Business to Philanthropy, charting an extraordinary journey through hardship, faith, business and charitable work.

The novel tells the extraordinary, true story of an awkward, thoughtful boy, who was born into the restricted world of a pit community, who turned to religion as his escape into the wider world. 

The poor local schools offered no support for the student, and, when his secondary school teacher, recognising his academic potential, got him an offer of a grammar school place, he declined due to lack of understanding.

From Sunday school to youth clubs his talents as a leader and preacher sparkled, and at twenty-one, he left the colliery world to train to be a full-time pastor. 

Inner doubts about the depth of this belief soon surfaced. He was tormented for two decades by feelings of academic inferiority and being a clerical imposter. Nevertheless, he persisted with this studies gaining a degree in Divinity. 

He married very young to a woman two and a half years older who became a qualified teacher. Throughout his marriage, he doubted his capabilities as a parent and husband.

Once he qualified, despite this religious torment, he was a storming success as an evangelist, significantly increasing his congregations. But disaster struck in his second big church, in the form of a split between traditionalist and modernists. 

With his marriage under stress, he fell for Maggie, a married member of his congregation. He lost his chapel and finally his beliefs, and after further years of trying, his first marriage.

Still searching for meaning in his life he tried politics and eventually discovered Humanism. He also founded a successful business and is now an affluent philanthropist able to enjoy the better things in life, along with Maggie, who he tracked down and married many years later.

As a colloquial autobiography, part written from memory and part from diaries, it is a convincing social study of the mores of his mining community, of family life, and of the extraordinary hypocrisy of the church, and of the life of a pastor in the 1960s and 1970s.

The book is an astonishingly frank and detailed account of the man’s struggles with his faith and his journey to faithlessness.

Speaking of A Quest for Meaning: A Memoir from Pit to Pulpit, author John M Hayes said: “This memoir is the most honest account I could give of a life spent searching for meaning—through faith, doubt, love, loss and ultimately self-discovery. 

“I hope readers will find in the book not only an insight into a very different world, but also something of their own journey.” 

A Quest for Meaning: A Memoir from Pit to Pulpit; from Business to Philanthropy is now available to purchase from major retailers, including Waterstones and Amazon.

Specialist seating provider Ergochair and workplace furniture supplier Office Interiors Wholesale are joining forces under a new parent identity, Access Environments group.

oth businesses will continue to operate as distinct brands, with their existing teams, customer relationships and routes to market remaining in place. The Access Environments identity has been introduced to communicate the broader capability now available across the group, while preserving the expertise and reputation of each business.

For customers, dealers and partners, the closer alignment means access to a wider product offering: Ergochair’s ergonomic seating expertise alongside Office Interiors’ extensive workplace furniture portfolio, stockholding and delivery infrastructure. The group structure also supports more joined-up project support, broader sourcing options and a more resilient supply chain.

Rob Lunga, Chairman of Access Environments, said: “Ergochair and Office Interiors are highly complementary businesses with distinct strengths.”

“Access Environments gives us a clearer way to communicate the scale and capability behind the two brands, while allowing each business to retain the identity, relationships and focus that made it successful.”

Ben Caton, Managing Director at Ergochair, said: “Ergochair has always been focused on helping people sit, work and live better. Our strength is bespoke seating, particularly where comfort, adaptability and personalisation really matter.”

“Being part of Access Environments allows us to support customers with a broader workplace solution when they need it, without diluting our focus on ergonomics.” 

Ben England, Managing Director at Office Interiors Wholesale, added: “Office Interiors has built its reputation on product range, stock availability, service and reliable delivery. Our customers value the speed and consistency we bring, and that will not change.”

“Working alongside Ergochair within Access Environments adds specialist ergonomic seating expertise to the wider group, giving customers and partners access to a more complete solution.”

The Access Environments identity is now in place, with both businesses focused on building on their respective strengths while responding to increasing demand for more flexible, performance-driven workplace solutions.

Both teams will be attending Clerkenwell this week and look forward to connecting with partners, customers and industry colleagues throughout the event.