Black Prayers

‘My original thought when writing this book was as a paean to the church – the Black Church – that had sustained me throughout my childhood and boyhood. I wanted to say thank you for all the joy, strength, hope and faith it had given me.
‘I also wanted to celebrate the wider voices of the black diaspora that have added an essence of wisdom to my youth and adulthood: I would not be the person I am today without these voices and influences.
‘I have learned that silence is blessing if you seek the truth, but there comes a time to sing of the truths – so I have now chosen to sing.
‘God works and is manifest through the flesh of people. If we listen to the God Voice within, we can hear the genetically coded source of holy science throughout our brief sojourn on this planet. Read, enjoy, and if it is your wont – get annoyed!
‘All I desire is that these poems move you.’
Elijah Karriem

Black Presence in Britain Through the 16th and 17th Centuries - Teacher Handbook

A black population existed in Britain long before the Windrush generation arrived in 1948. As early as the 16th century, there were evidences of black people in the royal courts of England and Scotland. Britain’s active involvement in the ‘Triangular’ slave trade saw a growth in the number of black people. Did you know that Queen Elizabeth I, alarmed at the growing black population, attempted to expel them? Find out what she did and how this impacted the lives of black people in her realm.

Discover how the increasing numbers of enslaved Africans survived during the 17th century, and how they resisted slavery. For example, do you know the name of the person on the front cover? Learn about her resistance against slavery and the resistance of other Africans in England and the British colonies.

Blade of the Chosen

Chaos has awoken

Rahn has been chosen

A journey has begun...

From a seemingly ordinary day, Rahn’s fate shifts, drawing him into a desperate search for an age-old blade: the key to thwarting a looming darkness. Now, far from home and faced with insurmountable challenges, he must navigate treacherous paths to uphold a prophecy he was entwined with since birth.

Blade of the Chosen delves deep into a tale of loss, resilience, and the indomitable spirit of overcoming.

Blame the Blacksmith

Following in her aunt Maria’s footsteps, Bella vet nurses at the Sandford clinic and also becomes great uncle Morgan’s protégé, learning all his horsemanship skills.

Then she leaves it all behind and nobody, not family or even her best friend, knows why.

Only when tragedy strikes does she return. But her resolve to deal with the past is easier said than done.

When her secret is found out by the last person she expects, her life begins to unravel.

Will she run again or stand her ground?

Blessed is He

Towards the end of the American Civil War in 1863, Sergeant Zack Jackson, a black Confederate soldier, wakes up after a battle in Virginia, in a field full of his dead comrades, and he sees a hand held up in the middle of all the dead bodies. On further investigation, a dying soldier hands him a wallet, with both monies, his home address, and the deeds of a map of his claim to a gold mine. He requests, with his dying wish, that Zack takes the contents to his wife and family and to eventually go and find the gold mine. He then dies of his wounds. Zack, also gravely wounded, sets off to find the dead soldier’s home but collapses along the way. Isaac, a young 11-year-old Jewish boy, finds him and manages to take him back to his parents’ home where they look after him until he is fully recovered. Zack, fully refreshed, goes to find the dead soldier’s wife and hands her the wallet. She thanks him for his courage and honesty and agrees for him to search for the mine. Together with Isaac and his dog, they begin their journey through the dangerous terrain of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Unknown to them, they were being followed by an outlawed gang of Chinese immigrants, who had overheard their plans. They eventually manage to find the mine, but it is not what they expected. Ancient settlers from various Red Indian tribes appear and create havoc, and the two heroes are tasked with unbelievable struggles to save their own lives.

Blood and Guilt

He remained a myth throughout his life – almost a horror story. To many just a rumour, and to others, UK’s most feared gangster!

Nobody knew him. Now it was his turn to tell his story and expose several truths regarding organised crime and corruption.

But how much can he reveal – how much can we believe?

A life of blood, fear and regret compiled with a search for understanding and empathy. Is he looking for forgiveness? Or does he only have a tale to tell?

We’ve all read about villains – hard men. It has captivated us, shocked us and in some cases inspired us, but in this book, Paul Reddy looks to educate and inform us, and to a lesser extent, looks to entertain us too.

The shocking story of Britain's most infamous gangster in his own words!

Blood on Their Hands

Algy Foster and Graham Murrell grew up in the diverse and vibrant community of Tiger Bay, a world-renowned neighbourhood in Cardiff. Algy’s parents were part of the Windrush generation, immigrants from the Caribbean who made their home in the Docks area of Cardiff. Graham’s grandfather, who also immigrated from Barbados in order to fight in the First World War, married a Welsh woman who owned a boarding house in Tiger Bay. Both men, who are of black and mixed-race heritage, respectively, have faced racism and prejudice throughout their lives. As they near the end of their careers in education, they set out on a journey to uncover the root causes of prejudice in society.

Blood on Their Hands is a fictionalized account inspired by the real-life experiences of Algy and Graham, offering a unique and thought-provoking perspective on contemporary political debates around race and inequality.

Blood-Eagle Saga

Deep frozen midwinter in a Viking warlord’s longhouse. From the snow emerges a white-haired saga-teller, Snorri, who offers to entertain the drunken warband.

Sven Ravenfeeder agrees – but drops a noose around Snorri’s neck and tells him: “If we like your story, you will live...”

So begins the Blood-Eagle Saga – a tale of greed and betrayal, courage and cowardice, that takes rival Viking longships across the Atlantic to a new world of depravity.

In the menacing forests and on the vast bison-rich plains, Viking enemies Grim and his former right-hand man Asgeir battle over honour and treasure. Along the way, they find themselves in another equally proud and brutal warrior culture, that of the native Americans.

Throughout Asgeir is helped by his muse, Mary, a shape-shifting former Irish slave who has every reason to hate Grim.

At the heart of the saga is one burning question that sends Sven and his men into a frenzy – who will be the victim of the Vikings’ favourite torture – The Blood-Eagle?

Bloodlust

Elizabeth Jones returns home to find her life upside down. Its been nearly 200 years since she last saw her brothers, and things haven't been easy. Elizabeth is not like any other vampire, she has secrets and a complicated past. Reunited with her family and friends can she help save everyone she cares about or will it all end in ashes? 

Bloodstains on the Cocaine Trail

A homicide crisis began sweeping America after massive quantities of cocaine first began their journey into America in 1986. Drugs were trucked along the highways of the Cocaine Trail to every city in America. This influx of a deadly new drug led directly to a series of record deaths from overdoses, suicides and crime-related murders, family breakdowns and destroyed lives. Drugs are credited with driving the highest homicide rates in American history and a raging turf war between street gangs.

Crack cocaine unleashed a brutal era of violence, placing newspapers under enormous pressure to provide coverage. Relations with police were breaking down everywhere and crime coverage was in its death throes. Newspapers could not cover the homicides or give any context or explanations to such a social upheaval. Editors, reporters and police now reveal the shocking truth behind this agonizing episode in American history, when crime reporters had to re-invent journalism to get behind the police blue code. This book combines investigative journalism and narrative style to produce a rare portrait from within the secret inner world of newspapers.

Blowing Away the Bura

In this novel, by October 1991 war in western Croatia between Croats and Serbs is daily and deadly. Navenka Berik, a wimpy 25-year-old Serb mother of two has had her Serb parents and her Croat husband make decisions for her. During the next few months:

- Her father is taken and presumed killed,

- Navenka is raped,

- Her husband is arrested and probably is killed,

- Her mother becomes crippled,

- From the rape, another child is born,

- Remaining family members are on the run as internally displaced persons in the dissolving Yugoslavia,

- The hassled Navenka has to step up and lead.

Unwelcome anywhere, the family languishes with temporary protection visas in Germany. In 1996, they are accepted as refugees in Australia. Peace, the English language and Australia’s very multicultural society bring many new problems. Navenka’s ongoing memories of her husband keep her wishing that he might be alive. Thoughts of moving back to Croatia or to Bosnia end when, briefly, Navenka attends the trial of those accused of murdering her father. There, poverty and the old ethnic prejudices live on. Back in Australia, her long “lost” husband finds her. However, after the initial joy wears off, the terms of his demand, at gunpoint, that his family go and live in Croatia with him are unacceptable. Navenka’s daughter Srebrenka, too young to be burdened by bad memories of Yugoslavia, cleverly resolves the impasse.

People react differently to war. Some think. Some “just feel”.

Blue Bell From Greenfield Parade

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a cat and be able to get into, under and beneath cars, houses and especially trees where you would be able to see everything around you? 

Meet Blue Bell, who is a very special cat who lives in Greenfield Parade.  No one owns Blue Bell, but everyone loves her.

Interested and curious in all things living, Blue Bell has great freedom to roam in her neighbourhood and meet many other creatures.

See how Blue Bell is able to discover the Room of Happiness and Song – and how she saves the life of one of its most beautiful residents.