A Wing and A Prayer

When Beatrice unexpectedly joins Her Majesty’s Royal Air Force on a whim, she soon realises she has bitten off more than she can chew. 

Why is she the only woman in the training unit?

Why is there so much snobbery, and so many illogical archaic rules to fathom? 

Why does she stick out like a sore thumb, and when will she be able to escape?

A Winter's Tale

One cold and frosty winter’s morning the animals in the pine and oak forest were busy gathering various berries, leaves, flowers, and fruits from their larders to be taken to Snowdrop Hall, in preparation of the annual winter festival. Come and join in the fun and find out what a magical time winter can be.

A Wish in Lockdown

Harriet, while in bed, said out loud that she wished she could have a lovely day out and forget all about the lockdown.

Immediately, a small Wish Fairy appeared and said she may grant her the wish. She then magically transported Harriett to her brother’s room where she told them that she would only grant the wish on four conditions:

1. The children didn’t mention they had seen a fairy.

2. They helped their mum and dad with the chores around the house.

3. They didn’t argue…

4. They completed all their school work for a whole week.

The children agreed but knew it would be difficult, particularly the no arguing part.

Could the children keep to the agreement?

At the end of the week did the Wish Fairy think they had been good enough for her to grant the wish?

Did their magical day out take place?

A Word of Hope

Each of us are on the journey of mortality. A journey in which no one is spared a handful of heartaches, a time of trial, or a darkest hour. And though our time on Earth is a time for joy, love, and life– there will come a time, or many, of shadow when a simple word of hope is all that seems to part the darkness surrounding us. A time when it is only hope that is light enough to keep us moving on our path. Where this hope can be found is a question whose answer is too individually unique to capture in a simple phrase.

A Word of Hope is a collection of poetry that explores some sources of hope and the faith required to find them. Other poems in the collection paint a picture of the hardships of mortality as these are the times hope is most needed. These poems serve as reminders that no matter what may darken our lives, there is some light that will always shine. There is always hope to be had.

A World of Stone

From Mireille Saba Redford, author of A City Across the Night, The Waltz of Dust and The Wounded Virtue, and translator and editor of The Anthology of Contemporary Australian Poetry, here is a new collection of English poems that will take you to a forgotten land where nothing seems to matter anymore.
A World of Stone adopts the voice of a woman who finds her life turned upside down when faced with the harsh realities of the modern world and clings to her childhood memories, when the land of legends was a truly mysterious and captivating place.
It highlights her love that could not overcome her pride, her loneliness caused by the many losses she has encountered, and her sorrows amidst the fast and sad changes in the world, such as humanitarian crises, drug abuse, violence, alienation, inequality, power in the hands of the few and abuse of human rights.
Throughout the poems, you will hear and feel all the torments, disappointments and cries which somehow have the power to change the way some perceive the world. However, there is a clear message that despite losing its ‘gentility’, the world can still have a ‘Margin of Peace’ that would guarantee its security and sustainability.
This book of love and anger, of the living and the dead, displays the values that once formed the very pillars of our society, and sends a call to restructure what is left and to stop the decline in civil liberties. Its vivid descriptions shed light on the poet’s own experiences, while stressing the need both to save a world on the brink and to alleviate the suffering of the most vulnerable by a return to the humanitarian principles of equality and justice.

A Year of Words

The year is 2007 and my mind is full of poems and a need to write. These poems I wrote are a diary of emotions reflecting the day that they were written. They are an eclectic journey through my year. They reflect an emotional journey whose intent is to diarise in rhyme the moment they were written.

Oft the poems are whimsical, sometimes philosophical, and other times musing. The poems were written without edits, the poems in this compendium are of the moment, no revisions were ever considered. These poems are my conversation with you, they are your insight into a very mercurial mind, full of emotion.

I have written poems all my life, and now at 74 some of them have found a page and an audience, please enjoy.

A Zebra Called Hoops

Hoops was one fine zebra! He was happy, he was healthy, he was fast, he was handsome…but he looked different to the other zebras…and they noticed.

Some of them said things to him that made him feel sad. Instead of his stripes running down his body from top to bottom, they ran across his body from head to tail! He didn’t feel any different but he looked different. When his best friend, Zac, decided to show the other zebras that Hoops was really no different inside than all of them, he worked out a special way to prove it to them!

Find out what happens next. What do you think happened that night? How do you think Zac showed the other zebras that Hoops wasn’t any different to them?

Join Hoops to learn about special needs.

A-Z of Animal Collectives

Have you ever wondered what a group of ants is called? Or a group of ducks? Or eagles? Or lizards? There is a whole world of amazing “collective nouns” to describe these groups. Some of them are very funny! Join us on an alphabetical journey through some strange scenarios, silly predicaments, and crazy situations, as animal groups from apes to zebu join together in a funny word world all their own! Language is a wonderful way to engage and amuse kids!
This book of 26 short verse poems plays with the sounds and images language produces for children and encourages imagination in the young reader.

Insects in a Rabble went out to play.
They put on their shoes, yellow and grey.
But a Mess of Iguanas had taken the swings,
And the sandpit and climbers and jumpity things.

Inspired by the inquisitive nature of children and their endless quest for answers, this sweet, funny book will ignite the love of language, reading and imagination in young readers everywhere!

Twelve Beds of Oysters lined up in a row,

Trying to sleep, though finding sleep slow,

Called out to a Parliament of Owls flying low,

“The moonlight is making us restless, you know.”

Abbie Brown: On the Cusp

Abbie Brown kicks off her 34^th year with an unexpected splash of fame: her Santorini vacation snap, featuring her in a vibrant yellow bikini atop a donkey, is plastered on billboards across London. (For clarity, the bikini is on Abbie, not the donkey!) Riding this wave of newfound celebrity, she lands a spot on Sir Giles Bromley’s BBC gardening show. Life seems perfect, until the universe serves her a slice of humble pie.

Navigating the chaos of single life (weighing in at 73kgs, if you must know), Abbie finds herself in the midst of an office medical drama, dealing with her nightmare flatmate Janice, and questioning if Rebecca truly is the refined acquaintance she seems. As for romance? Between George’s overbearing mother, Oliver’s youth, a married butcher, a BBC exec with a cringe-worthy habit, and the not-so-perfect ‘Peter Perfect,’ Abbie’s love life is a rollercoaster. Yet, she remains hopeful that her knight in shining armor is out there in the vast English countryside.

In the midst of it all, she gains a furry companion: Woofer, a lovable terrier with a quirky ear. Plus, there’s a promising spark with a dashing farmer from the Yorkshire Dales. The two are smitten. (We’re talking about Abbie and the farmer, not the dog, of course!)

But with Abbie’s track record, what could possibly go awry? Dive into a tale of unexpected fame, comedic misadventures, and the quest for true love.

Abduction Seduction

Abduction was the furthest thing from Aimalee Robertson’s mind when she applied for a research position, but it occurred, unceremoniously and intrusively.

Thrust into a world she could not comprehend and did not believe existed, she soon discovers the secrets behind the research position for which she so innocently applied.

Aimalee finds herself in a brand-new world amongst strange and intriguing … aliens!

These creatures are not at all what she imagined. In fact, they are intelligent, attractive, peaceful and loving.  

As she is drawn into their world, she finds herself attracted to a particular alien and, unable to resist his advances, succumbs to her inner guilty pleasure.

Now that she’s tasted the coveted “honey”, she realises there is nothing sweeter!

Abductions From My Beautiful Life

‘There is a shapeshifter asleep in my head. And when it wakes you won’t recognise me as my children’s mother, my husband’s wife, or the writer, veterinarian and advocate that I am. You won’t recognise me as someone who is alive to adventure and beauty.’

Anita Link was thirty-two years old, and six days into motherhood, when she experienced a psychotic episode and was trapped on the wrong side of sanity for the first time. It took months in hospital, medications, electroconvulsive therapy and psychological therapies to fully recover. And then, a few years later, it happened again.

This memoir is a look into what can happen to a person’s thoughts, emotions and behaviour when they are ravaged by a severe mental illness. Anita writes compellingly about what psychosis, mania and catatonic depression can feel like. Her authentic narrative of recovery reveals the hard work it takes to return to normal life after being stolen away from it by highly stigmatised symptoms.

Anita has survived these abductions and returned to her beautiful life many times. This is her story.

Above the Circle

What would you do if you knew that you had been given a second chance to sail away from life’s safe harbour? Each of us has dreams of doing something that takes us out of our comfort zone but few of us take the plunge and actually do it.

In this book Mervyn Smith describes a point in his life when he was facing the question of his own mortality as he recovered from a serious life-saving surgery. This is the story of how he responded to that challenge and followed a life-long dream to ride a motorcycle from his Shropshire home to a destination way above the Arctic Circle and who he did it for.

Read what brought him to that decision, what difficulties he overcame to pursue his dream and the adventures he had on the journey riding through the hottest European summer on record. This book will inspire you, challenge you and hopefully motivate you to realise that everyone has a skill set unique to them which, with faith, imagination, and creativity, can be released. And that age is never a barrier to doing something extra ordinary.