Learning from Albi

Scruffy, deaf, and homeless, life on the streets is tough for young Albi. What could the future possibly hold for an abandoned Spanish Podenco puppy that has been hit by a car and can’t hear? Yet despite a traumatic start, Albi’s life changes when he is rescued, brought to the UK, and fostered by Lois Sinclair, founder of the rescue charity, Gracehounds, and a passionate dog lover who has shared her life and home with numerous canine companions. Before long, Lois and Albi’s lives become interwoven.

With Lois’s nursing background and Albi’s intuitive nature, the pair soon find themselves volunteering in the animal healthcare sector. Albi also develops a reputation as a transition dog, offering support to other dogs and their owners during times of loss.

But Albi is a free spirit. He also has health issues. And while his sensitive nature earns him many friends and admirers, there will be challenges ahead, including surgery. As Albi continues to enrich Lois’s life, questions remain. Albi may have found a forever home but can the love and hope which bind him and Lois sustain him? And does this unique animal have the strength to live the life that every dog deserves?

An IT Contractor Life

This book is an excursus of Max’s career in both data and analytics, in general I.T., and the heavy metal underground of Italy in the mid-80s. This dichotomy has characterised Max’s adult life, which is highlighted in the book and everything Max does with his spare time. Sometime filled with sad moments, some hilarious stories and some great advice for I.T. professionals and metal heads alike, it’s mainly the story of a man like you and me who cannot say no to anybody and has a focus and resilience that only a few possess.

When ‘Will’ is More Than ‘Won’t’ - Your Journey Begins

I’ve always been a dreamer, wanting more from life than it was giving me, whilst still making the best of what it did.

I never thought in my darkest moments, or wildest dreams, that one day I would, with my partner of ten years David, find myself in a Land Rover we called Lizzybus driving around the world.

If I had imagined this, it would have been nothing like the reality of it, of blistering hot desserts, snow-covered mountains, civil wars, and uprisings, with our life depending on each other and Lizzybus.

From the very first moment I stepped foot on African soil, I wrote about the reality of living two feet from your other half 24 hours a day. The intimacy, hygiene, isolation, and loneliness, so far removed from my life to this point. But slowly, without even realizing it, it became part of me, and me it, seeing only the wonder, the joy, and the privilege.

When the Knives Rattle in the Drawer

Ryan Tanner is an average family man battling alcohol and the demons from his childhood, while struggling as a husband and a father. Drowning in a life that often makes no sense, he turns to an insightful, no-nonsense psychologist as a last resort to try and save his volatile, but altogether beautiful marriage with his beloved wife Tess. Surrounded by Ryan’s drinking, memories of their traumatic childhoods and the gut-wrenching lows of married life, When the Knives Rattle in the Drawer is a cathartic recount about understanding the damage that life can cause and searching for the strength to be the best partner and parent possible.

Set in two different worlds, the story evolves between the couple’s small-town family life and wild, alcohol fuelled nights in the inner suburbs of Sydney. After meeting at 17 years old, they have been married for 23 years and play a simple game: 20 questions, ask anything you want. They explore every aspect of trust, love, fidelity and desire before they go to the club. A club where they enter a world of primal sexual energy, a world where wild things happen.

They Call Me Jake

In this captivating memoir, Jakob, a Welsh-born Australian, takes readers on a remarkable journey that begins with a troubled youth and a life-changing decision. After running into legal trouble as a teenager, his family sends him off to sea on Scandinavian ships, where Jakob finds himself working out of Brooklyn, New York, joining ships engaged in global trade. It’s the era of rock and roll, with an atmosphere of freedom, free-spiritedness, and indulgence. However, tired of the endless partying and constant financial struggle, Jakob sets his sights on a new path.

He travels to England, enrolls in a navigational school, and earns his license as a ship’s deck officer. But his thirst for adventure and reinvention leads him to an unexpected destination - Israel. Jakob’s love for the kibbutz lifestyle and a young woman on the kibbutz captures his heart. However, as war disrupts the region, their relationship crumbles, and Jakob finds solace in a hippie commune on the sunny shores of Eilat. Through ups and downs, Jakob’s journey takes him across continents, from the Canadian Arctic to Thailand and beyond. His tale is one of resilience, self-discovery, and the pursuit of a meaningful life amidst the challenges and uncertainties of a rapidly changing world.

The Road to Westminster

Nothing in life is impossible provided you never lose sight of your goal and are willing to be flexible at all times and totally dedicated to achieving your aims. Setbacks crop up at the most inconvenient times, but they give you the opportunity to make changes, accept new challenges and achieve your targets in ways you could never have thought possible.
Never give up, never lose sight of your objectives. Be ruthless when assessing your progress. Take chances when you need to. Everyone needs to speculate to accumulate. Go for it at all times.

The Needle and the Damage Done

The Needle and the Damage Done is the story of a boy from a small Irish village who became an adventurer, multi-award-winning doctor and physician to the stars. Part travelogue, part thriller, part celebrity tell-all, the memoir is a whirlwind of adventure and a fascinating insight into the colourful life of Dr Patrick Treacy.

Cosmetic doctor Patrick Treacy grew up in rural Northern Ireland during The Troubles. Determined to become a doctor, he raised money for medical school in Dublin by smuggling cars from Germany to Turkey. He studied biochemistry at Queens University Belfast and medicine at the Royal College of Surgeons. While working in a Dublin hospital, he was accidentally jabbed with a needle from an HIV patient. He took blood test after blood test for many years until he was confirmed negative. Initially overwhelmed by the experience, he moved to New Zealand, away from everyone who knew what he was going through: his girlfriend and his colleagues. Thus, he began a peripatetic existence, working as a doctor around the world. In Saddam Hussein’s Baghdad, Treacy was arrested and imprisoned, spending days wondering whether he was going to be hanged as a spy. He worked as a ship’s surgeon in California and with the Royal Flying Doctor Service in Australia. On returning to Dublin, Treacy set up the Ailesbury Clinic where he pioneered the emergent field of cosmetic dermatology, championing treatments regarding the use of botulinum toxin and dermal fillers. His award-winning research brought him numerous international accolades and many celebrity patients, including the King of Pop himself, Michael Jackson, who came flocking to his door.

Central to this memoir is Treacy’s personal journey: his efforts to escape the conflict of The Troubles, coping with the fear that he may have contracted HIV, getting over his lost love and surviving the crippling Irish recession. Most of all, it gives us a fascinating insight into his award-winning research on the influence of Botox ® on the brain and how he developed protocols to reverse the damage being done to patient’s faces as a result of the complications of dermal fillers.

Reels and Deals - Angling for Business

John Sellens, electronics and mechanical engineer, international businessman, and avid fisherman!

John’s career at Thorn EMI Electronics started in design and trials with UK Military and Defence at home and to over 100 territories globally. He became Manager of International Sales & Marketing Asia and Pacific region, later managing Thorn EMI Electronics’ corporate activities in Riyadh, residing in Saudi Arabia for several years. After senior positions in the defence industry, John’s career moved into fire and security systems becoming managing director of UTC Fire Safety Middle East based in Dubai, responsible for group business in the Middle East, Central Europe, North Africa, Central Asia, Russia and the CIS. He led a successful and motivated international team – some dedicated fishermen amongst them.

My Wife’s Canary

Miles Maskell has lived a varied and adventurous life, and has travelled widely as amply demonstrated in his anecdotes. He has been a City of London wine merchant, owned two restaurants and a champagne bar, and eventually created a company letting top-of-the-range properties in southern France on behalf of their owners.

He has climbed mountains, shot wild boar in Poland, piloted a 4-seater aircraft of which he was a part-owner, parachuted in New Zealand, and ridden the Cresta Run in St Moritz. He is also a sculptor.

Written as a lighthearted and easy-to-read series of anecdotes, this is his autobiography and recounts some of the more entertaining experiences of his life to date, as well as a number of amusing incidents encountered by his relations and closest friends.

He was born in London where he continues to live, having been at school in Cape Town and then at Cambridge University.

Imperfect Recollections

Welcome to the fascinating world of general medical practice in Australia.

This book is a collection of stories from the author’s rich and varied career spanning over 40 years.

During that time, he has been a country GP, delivering babies and doing anaesthetics, a retrieval doctor with the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia, worked in the emergency departments of various hospitals and followed his passion of motor sport medicine, especially internationally in the fields of Formula 1 and World Rallying.

The stories are both funny and poignantly sad. They are told in the style that invites the reader to sit down, share a glass of something with the author and tell a few tales, like old friends.

Many of us see ourselves or people we know in these pages… You may be right or you may be wrong, but then that would be telling!

I Do Not Want a Fish Finger Sandwich

Being shown the private convenience of the Queen of England in The House of Commons was not the career highlight that Viv had expected.  A dazzling profession as a Prima Ballerina had been her plan but having two legs of the same length and width would appear to be a pretty strong prerequisite for a successful livelihood in that arena, not to mention a couple of ballet lessons at least. 

What did happen along the way were a random selection of activities which were not anticipated either:

• Inter-store “It’s a Knockout” on Cable TV
• Jumping the queue at the Austria/Slovakian Border Control
• Attempted mugging in Bratislava
• A West Highland White disgrace on National TV
• Acquiring a temporary Iranian Bodyguard
• Drinking schnapps in an isolated house in Eskilstuna

LIFE IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU ARE MAKING PLANS

Hysterical Memories

Here is the story of a man’s life that has been riddled and ruffled with emotionally unstable personality disorder, a known mental illness. Despite spending a considerable part of his life at various rehabilitation facilities, Eugene’s life was largely marred with crazy-bound incidences. He was a convicted drug dealer with a history of violence. His case was so bad that he even attacked his dad with a claw hammer. He was everything you could think of when it came to drugs and crime. However, from the lowest depths of a mentally unstable man, Eugene rose to become one of UK’s finest chefs of all time.