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Broken Roads Lead Me Here
Broken Roads Lead Me Here tells the true-life story of a boy born into unimaginable abuse in Glasgow in the sixties. By the age of eight, Colin had been abandoned by his mother and continued to be sexually, physically, emotionally, and spiritually traumatised by the man she left him with. Blunted by severe trauma, Colin went through one unimaginable nightmare after another, each more traumatising and soul shattering than the last, with no one to tell and no way to understand why. He wondered as he drifted through life, what was to really become of him? Or his half-sisters? All the while, deep down, sensing that one day it could be his last.
At fifteen, he was thrown out of school, and at sixteen he was sent to prison. Colin survived rejection, abandonment, homelessness, gang wars, addiction, mental illness, overdoses, suicide attempts, and abusive adult relationships. But it always seemed as if he was living on borrowed time…
Even as he started writing his memoir, Colin had suffered a stroke, and near his recovery’s conclusion was then diagnosed with what was initially suspected as pancreatic cancer. While Colin’s diagnosis was eventually re-assessed as not immediately life threatening, it did leave him with a series of conditions which would continue to limit the quality of his day-to-day life. His illnesses and his experience of this instead of instilling a sense of profound hopelessness surprisingly led him to a profound sense of inner peace, clarity, and re-awakened purpose through his renewed faith in the real presence, love, forgiveness, and grace of God. His is a miraculous story of faith and redemption.
Colin Mackell is a husband, father, and grandfather. In his professional life as Psychotherapist, he has helped people who struggle to overcome drug and alcohol addiction, and helps them find new meaning, and explore new life paths. He is also the founder of Chrysalis Supported Association & Group CEO of Chrysalis Group Services, providing homes and support to some of life’s most vulnerable and disadvantaged people.
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Brushstrokes
And for a brief moment, we finally set aside
The shield that we don, beneath which our hearts hide
Brushstrokes is an exploration of the nuances of love, the ebb and flow of hope, as well as the search for meaning, clarity and purpose.
A moving composition of poems and prose, it recounts the tale of an electric encounter and ensuing, all-consuming love – with its irresistible highs and perilous lows – that sets into motion a cascade of events. What unfolds is a transformative story of self-discovery, unveiling one’s deepest fears, longings and dreams.
Timeless and universal in message, Brushstrokes invites us on an intimate journey steeped in passion and wonder.
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Café de Flore
Addressing the escalating global issue of mental health and suicide, Café de Flore is a serious book that provides inspiration and relief to those caught in the net of despair. Identifying the critical error made by mankind over the centuries. Café de Flore points towards an escape from the madness of the human condition.
An easily digestible form of philosophy, written with graceful authority, the book takes the reader on a journey that captures the sublime messages contained in the wreck of literature, poetry and prose.
Dostoevsky once said: “It takes something more than intelligence to act intelligently.” What more does it take?
Encouraging the world to stop thinking, to entertain a degree of madness, to live with passion and to laugh more. This book provides a fresh perspective on the perceived struggles and difficulties we find ourselves trapped in, in this sad and lonely world.
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Captain Courageous
Meet the best friend every kid needs – Captain Courageous. She’s the superhero with a difference. With her elastic arms, X-ray vision eyes and trusty sidekick, Bob the Cat, she will help you find the courage inside yourself to face any challenge and save the day.
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Catching Breast Cancer
CATCHING BREAST CANCER
“How is it possible to catch breast cancer?”
“How could breast cancer be an infectious disease?”
For over 20 years James Lawson and his local and international colleagues have searched for the causes of breast cancer. By 2021 they had found the answers.
From Australia, Italy, Austria and the US, a handful of medical scientists dared to think outside the accepted narrative. These outward-thinking individuals and small dedicated teams overcame the intense rivalry and competitiveness that so often stymies scientific progress. Over two decades, their collaborative work discovered that you can catch breast cancer and that it can be indeed an infectious disease. These groundbreaking findings have laid the groundwork for the most important step of all – preventing breast cancer.
Lawson's work takes you behind these discoveries to the personal stories of those that have made such immense contributions to science and human health. The dry world of scientific papers and journals comes to life as one delves into the stories of those bright and brave minds that have driven this progress. Some humorous, others sad or poignant, all are fascinating.
From Professor Generoso Bevilacqua of Pisa: “I have just completed reading your book. It was a fantastic experience! One can find everything in it. Science, history, personal memories and many humorous anecdotes.”
Catching Breast Cancer is an important and compelling detective story for our current generation. -
Champions of Circumstance
Let me ask you this question: what does an exiled king, a thief with morals, a young sorcerer off on his own, a high elven wizard with secrets, an unlucky sell-sword, a somewhat clueless child, a man with gambling issues and a sewer needing cleaning have in common?
The answer is: not a whole lot.
But when the king is a three-meter-tall polar bear man, the thief one of the capital’s most wanted, the sorcerer unlucky, the wizard too prideful, the sell-sword cursed with the body of a snailman, the child eons old and made from rock, the gambler a blessed priest and the sewers filled with monsters, then things start getting interesting.
Now five hundred years after the defeat of Molthos the Enslaver, demon emperor and thousand years tyrant of the Almira continent, civilisation has flourished, and the annual Purge Festival is just around the corner in the human capital, Kivar.
Follow a group of less-than-compatible people as their chanced meeting and later enforced companionship get them caught in a deadly popularity contest in which they are forced to participate under the threat of prison. Follow our…not heroes…but champions brought together by circumstance as they battle slavers, oozes, giant insects, blood mages, living plants, nightmarish terrors and more.
Follow along in this book the opening act of an epic tale, depicting the story of those who go from strangers to comrades, to friends and to champions.
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Change Your Life Forever!
Did you know that we have the freewill and are always given a chance to choose the kind of life we want to live? You can either choose to live in sin and choose a sinful lifestyle or alternatively, you can opt for living a life based upon the principles and core values of righteousness. In reality, you have a choice. Most people rarely question the way that they live and automatically follow a path of mindless and senseless self-destruction, destroying relationships with themselves and with others - by choosing to allow sin to underpin their hidden agendas and motivations for their life choices. But the truth is that you don’t have to live this way.
This book was written to help every person in the world understand how the seven deadly sins as we know them are not only extremely dangerous to us and those around us, but are the reasons and root causes that can lead us down the road of destruction. Understanding the ways these sins may operate or manifest in a person’s life, and how to deal with them, can help us to banish sinful and destructive routes in life once and for all. As it is only then that we can choose to turn our backs on the very lives that are causing us immense pain and suffering. Choosing to live a life of sin equates to gradual emotional and spiritual suicide, whereby one’s once joyful spirit and moral character of nobility and righteousness are eroded and eventually lost forever.
What are the benefits you will gain from reading this book?
• Help people from around the world understand how to combat these seven deadly sins, develop the willpower to consciously overcome destructive emotions and underlying motives - help you to restore a sense of hope, purpose, and new-found direction in your life.
• Will help you live a life based on truth and stop you from making costly mistakes that are causing you unhappiness, perennial pain, and suffering.
• Will help you realize that you deserve to be happy, and deserve to have a better life through simply knowing what is presented to you in this book; learning, understanding, and implementing the life-changing virtues taught in this self-help guide.
• Will help you will gain the ability to recognize the material manifestations of the seven deadly sins in the world and the people around you, and how best to neutralize or combat these attacks on your own lives.
• Incrementally find liberation and be set free and change your life forever! Our main motivating purpose is to liberate all people in this world. No matter who you are, where you’re from, your individual circumstances, or your past mistakes or faults. This guide will ultimately help you to understand that your destiny is your own to change!
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Class Act
Biggsy is an idealistic 50-year-old English teacher in a West London boys’ secondary school. A maverick head of department who battled against the educational establishment for twenty-five years, he’s beginning to crack. His departmental colleagues love him, but he suspects that the school’s management team is out to get rid of him.
His wife, Myra, a medical secretary, is his mainstay. She patiently endures his total commitment to his calling without complaint. However, when she realises that his work is taking an inordinate emotional toll on his personality, her patience wears thin.
Through his exchanges with teenage Ella, their only child, Biggsy reveals his beliefs about the connections between literary theory and the lives we all lead. But a violent assault on one of his students, an unexpected sexual encounter and professional betrayal expose the flaws in his philosophy. He discovers that trying to think one’s way through life is all very well, but the time comes when one has to act.
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Coming Unstuck – A Year in the Life of a Failed Funk Band
‘Coming Unstuck’ is a ‘faction’. Part memoir. Part discourse on why people get stuck. And why forming a band is not necessarily the best way to get unstuck. Based on true events, the book’s front-story follows a year in the life of a London band’s attempts to claw its way up the greasy pole of the music business. Its backstory involves a journey into the dark heart of stuckness, taking in genetic theory, memetics, the history of the Border Reivers, the Liverpool Police Strike, dodgy Lourdes miracles, a Nigerian Nose-Band, and the refurbishment of the boilers in the Houses of Parliament.
Take a front-stage seat as Cyrus, Brendan, Pete, Duff, Max, Flimsy and The Guv’nor overcome unscrupulous promoters, bogus A&R reps, death-wired amplifiers, catatonic audiences, and the music critic of the Borehamwood Times in pursuit of that elusive recording contract. Only to do a Devon Loch with the winning post in sight.
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Conduit
A woman's quest to rescue the child victims of human trafficking leads her on a perilous journey fraught with danger. Will her faith and the gift of "sight" inherited from her beloved grandmother be enough to sustain her on an epic voyage of self-discovery and good conquering evil?
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Connor the Cornflake
Now you may not think a cornflake can be special…… but you would be wrong.
Connor is different, very different. He is strong, brave, fearless, a cereal version of James Bond and a really cool dude. But having been thrown in the rubbish, he soon realizes that he is special, but his first mission is to escape the jaws of a four-legged foe who thinks it's snack time.
Join Connor the Cornflake and the Mighty Variety team of cereal superheroes on a fast paced, action-packed adventure as they try to stop the evil Colonel Cereal’s plot to scare the children of the world, with his Krispy robots, so they will never eat cereal again.
From a walking stick-wielding ninja Granny Granola and a baby oiled tag team wrestling wheat biscuit duo, to a sugar cube powered flying cereal box and a flying dog on the back of a remote-controlled monster truck; can the team fight off this mad robotic Krispy army to save the world from a future of boring breakfast?
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Crossing Blue Bridges
What did you want to be when you grew up? For a long time, I wanted to be a walking talking real life superhero. For over eight years, I pursued that vision of myself in trying to become a Police Officer. With each attempt at selection, and with each letter of decline, I grew hungrier and more determined to make it. It’s answering the highest calling in serving my community, I said during my interview. The selflessness, the sacrifice, the unfathomable courage, and commitment to serve.
Finally, I had my shot. My dream had been realised. In three years, I served as a role model, and a protector for my community. I faced everyday what so much of society should never have to see or be exposed to. This is my story, a raw, honest, and open account of life as a South Australian police officer, and the most profound three years of my life. Violence, foot chases, car chases, mental health, domestic violence, and all extremes of human nature. I discovered trying to live everyday as a superhero, can bring its own personal struggles and conflicts.
I hope this serves to inspire others, who are considering and are already a part of this incredible career. It’s my humble pleasure to share with you some of the greatest lessons I learnt, what I experienced, and the awe I was in everyday of the heroic actions of the men and women who uphold that blue bridge that separates society from falling into all out chaos.