Painting the Mosque for Christmas?

This is the story of one person. An errand boy, junior artist, car washer, cub, scout, choirboy, glass runner, wine waiter, postman, tomato plant and faggot stripper, potato picker, life guard, scout leader, canoe instructor, teacher, cattle rancher, polo player, forest and sawmill manager, head of English, logger, general manager, managing director, importer, exporter, businessman, outdoor pursuits instructor, fund raiser, headmaster, principal, CEO, school founder, advisor and appraiser, mentor, model, poet, playwright, writer and actor in the UK and many countries of Central, Southern and Western Africa through good times and bad.

The author deals sympathetically with the nostalgia of a post-war childhood in Bristol, detailing with many of the joys and problems of childhood before leaping into adulthood with entertaining narrative and dialogue.

Africa takes hold with many incidents and observations backed by humour and acute observations of post-colonial developments. Life was never dull and he has sat on crocodiles and slept with lions as well as experiencing coups and unrest where some humour can still be found. He has met royalty and personalities from a wide mixture of society and has also been a friend of presidents and heads of state – herein lies a tantalising mix of European and African life in a kaleidoscopic presentation of humour, pathos, seriousness and shrewd observation.

P.O.S.H. Portside Out – Starboard Home My Life Story

The liner on the cover is the Empress of Scotland, the flagship of the Canadian Pacific Steamships, known as CPR, a very elegant liner. 

In the year of 1951 at the age of eighteen I was one of the three officer’s stewards on board the liner. That same year Princess Elizabeth and her husband Prince Phillip had completed a tour of Canada and America. The princess was returning to England for her coronation which was taking place on the 2nd June 1953.

In her party were five Canadian Mounted Police. Throughout the seven day voyage, the princess and duke spent every day on the bridge deck of the liner in the company of the ship’s captain and officers. One of my duties was to serve beverages to the princess, the duke and the officers. I was eighteen years of age.

Only a Yorkshire Lass

Only a Yorkshire Lass is an account of a woman born in South Yorkshire in the 1950s. It follows her life from birth to her late fifties, events which occur in her hometown and in many other countries of the world. It details the high and low points of her life, the people she has met and the people who shaped her destiny for better or worse. It is a story full of emotion, joy, happiness, sadness, anger, hope and despair. It keeps the reader wondering and waiting for the next chapter and what will the outcome be. It also forces the reader to look at their own life and both sympathise and empathise with the writer’s different situations.

In parts, it is humorous and will bring a smile to the reader’s face and in others, one can’t help but shed a tear for the writer.

It is a book that will appeal as there is always light at the end of the tunnel.

One Tear at a Time

When Natalie’s mum was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s at the age of just 54, she didn’t realise the devastation it was going to cause and the changes she was going to face. She faced numerous challenges; from memory loss, incontinence, confusion and accusations to paranoia, relationship breakdowns, a loss of physical capabilities and being sectioned. Her journey with her mum was anything but easy and she reveals her struggles and challenges when faced with caring for a loved one with Alzheimer’s.

This book is a real eye opener but also very informative for those facing an Alzheimer’s diagnosis. One Tear at a Time will most certainly make you understand the heartache caused by Alzheimer’s and the devastating consequences it has on family and friends. It aims to raise awareness, help people understand and inform those who need answers about their journey after their loved one is given a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s. Follow Natalie’s journey from early symptoms, diagnosis and the heartache she endured while caring for her mum. Join the emotional rollercoaster and brace yourself for this tear-jerking page turner.

Old Days And Old Ways

Maggie was born into a race of Romani Gypsies first discovered within Scotland in the 14th century; they were then known as “Little Egyptians”, which later got corrupted to Gypsy or Gypo, but were known to each other as “Travelers”. People believe this group of Romanies originated from India, but Maggie strongly believes that her race originated from Egypt; hence the endearing name of "Little Egyptians". From the 14th century to the late 18th century, the Gypsies were viewed with deep suspicion, distrust; sold into slavery and put to death by hanging, simply because they were so different from others. They spoke in their own Romani language, which is still intact today. They made their own medicines and potions for themselves and their horses, and, for hundreds of years, worked on the land for farmers but using old skills to make the wooden clothes pegs, paper and wooden flowers baskets, hedge laying and stone walling. They could also live quite well off the wildlife of the country side, needing to buy very little from shops. They would barter for flour, eggs and cheese from the farmers they worked for. Gypsies are a very self-supporting race; a race which is still in strong existence today, and Maggie is very proud to be a part of this race.

Not What The Good Fairy Promised

Twenty-four-year-old Joanna’s life flipped upside down at the taking of a phone call. News of her sister’s near-death in a fire triggered the onset of bipolar disorder, a mental health condition that Joanna would have to manage for the rest of her life.

A scholarship to Cambridge, with three years to get her degree, had ended in this. Joanna’s high hopes, and her father’s fierce ambitions for her, now lay in tatters. A glowing future of any description lay beyond her grasp as she struggled to get to grips with her new and utterly foreign reality. Where was she going in life now?

Not What the Good Fairy Promised is the heart-warming story of a young woman’s experience of terrifying breakdown, psychiatric hospital, and the stigma of mental illness. There is the battle with everyday life, with its frightening demand that she re-discover her identity – her selfhood – while struggling to survive and earn a living, yearning for something worthwhile to fill the hours of nine to five. This is a tale of experiencing, and overcoming, serious mental illness, of driving ahead to forge a new and unlooked for future – and what the Good Fairy did deliver.

No Room to Breathe

This is the personal story of a psychologist living with an emotionally abusive partner and her struggles, both personal and institutional, in leaving. No Room to Breathe: A Memoir of Emotional Abuse, Motherhood, and Resilience is a cautionary tale that reveals the often publicly unseen and underestimated dynamics and patterns of emotionally-abusive relationships. It also highlights their potentially far-reaching consequences, particularly when attempts are made to leave the relationship, and children are used as pawns.

As a licensed therapist for more than 30 years, Dr Coha worked with many challenging people. When it came to her personal life however, her professional credentials as a clinical psychologist and clinical social worker did not help her to avoid entering into an emotionally-controlling relationship. Loretta’s experience speaks to many people’s lives. Her story covers many complicating factors and powerful forces, such as health, children, the involvement of the judicial system, and the fact that her partner was a public figure. Although her significant other was a woman, the life-impacting results are the same for anyone who has ever been involved with a controlling partner. No Room to Breathe is ultimately an inspiring account of a woman using her personal strength to break away and create a new, healthy life for herself and her children.

No More Blood

Blood is the life-force of every human being (and other animals). When it leaks out of our blood vessels, we die. When the aorta, the biggest blood vessel in the body, bursts, death usually comes quickly but for a lucky few it’s not instantaneous. For them, survival is possible with emergency surgery. When a blockage in a blood vessel stops the blood from flowing, the deprived part of the body malfunctions and may decay if an operation to relieve the blockage is not performed. When Peter Harris first became a consultant vascular surgeon in the 1980s, the operations were big and bloody. When he finished in 2012, scalpels and saws had been largely superseded by bloodless needle-puncture procedures guided by X-ray images on a television screen. The evolution of the technology that made this possible is told primarily through the experiences of patients and includes vivid and, at times, harrowing descriptions of their operations and aftermath. Accounts of his own trials and tribulations and the good times are set against the troubled backdrop of the NHS starting in Broadgreen Hospital on the outskirts of Liverpool in 1979 and ending at University College Hospital in London in 2012.

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.

My Sage

Clouds pass and so do our opportunities… 

Have you ever met a sage? 

Can you see the extraordinary in your daily life? 

Did you observe the spark of clairvoyance in the modern days?

A sage can revolve you to experience the extraordinary and you will then see the daily miracle. 

A sage can give you many tales to keep a secret with a miraculous edge. 

In this book, you will find some of these extraordinary events from real-life experiences in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

My Land of Counterpane or My Résumé

The author is a retired registered nurse who has published three previous works: I’m Not Allowed to Say is about her experience as an active duty army captain; At the Foot of Rawlins Mountain is a series of vignettes of life growing up on an island paradise; and Casualties of Life details her early childhood, nursing training and the vagaries of life. Although not part of a series, two of these books dealt with her early nursing training and experience. All three were published under the name J’nette C. Bryant. This current work is a comprehensive detail of her nursing career as viewed through the eyes of, and experienced by, an emigrant. It covers a wide variety of health care settings to include: nursing homes, private and public sectors, and military and veterans’ administration institutions.

The author has one daughter and lives in New York.

My Kaleidoscopic Life

My Kaleidoscopic Life is an account of the life during a century of upheaval and social change. It is a record of adaptation to circumstances and potential opportunities, rather than any burning ambition to become rich or famous.

However, the frequent changes in direction and necessary adaptation are certainly unusual. They provide unique and intimate glimpses into rarely described aspects of social history from before World War Two to post-Brexit Britain.