An Ordinary Child

Born in 1966, before it was legal to be gay in the United Kingdom. This is the personal and sometimes graphic account of a boy’s journey of sexual enlightenment through five decades. Told in short accounts the reader gets an insight into the life of a gay man. Discovering a crazy gay life only to face prejudice with the discovery of HIV in the 1980s. His travels take him through personal relationships and employment disputes. The historic changing attitudes and lowering of the age of consent in the 1990s. The introduction of civil partnership in the 2000s and eventually gay marriage in the 2010s. If the control of a relationship lies with whoever cares least, we will all go to hell!

Antonio Canova 1757-1822

This book covers the life of the Italian neo-classical sculptor Antonio Canova (1757-1822), some of his works and the lives of two of his contemporaries: John Gibson RA (1790-1866), known as the ‘British Canova’, and the Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844). Both Gibson and Thorvaldsen lived and worked in Rome under the influence and in the shadow of Canova. All three sculptors helped and guided each other. Gibson was under considerable pressure to return to London, which he resisted, while Thorvaldsen returned to his homeland on several occasions and was greeted as a celebrity. The book aims to rectify the dearth of information in English on Canova and updates the information available on Gibson and Thorvaldsen in this bicentenary year of the death of Antonio Canova.

Anger Brought The Fire

This book should resonate with so many that had a horrid childhood on one side, fun on the other, seeking escape from the nasty into the good.

The swings and roundabouts of a young child with no control over their life except their imagination.

It is easy, years later, to look back with humour on some grim times which could never be understood properly then. Only now, unfettered, can we laugh.

And Then He Showed Up

This book depicts the ugly face of the wars in Iraq and the trail of the devastating aftermath they left behind. Based on a true story, the book is a history witness of lifelong scars of a little girl, now a woman with a stolen past, gone forever, evaporated as if it never existed, so nostalgic it makes your chest hurt. A woman with unshakable faith, but despite today’s privileged peace around her in Scotland, it could not bring back the lost times and treasured memories of her birth place.

And I'm Still Waiting!

‘And I'm Still Waiting! is about all my struggles coping with a mental illness: the “highs” and “lows”, my achievements and how I have grown over the years into a capable, confident and ambitious person. I still have my bad times but the way I deal with them has changed drastically. I cover individual topics such as anger, alcohol abuse, relationships and prejudice.

‘Many songs have been referenced as they have played an important role in my continued recovery and have helped to inspire me through good and bad times. Sometimes a particular song could convey exactly how I was feeling at that time, when my own words weren't there.

‘Apart from helping with my recovery, the main reason for writing this book is to share it with others and give them hope that it is possible to lead a rewarding life even in the face of adversity.’

Steph Chaplen

An Irish Orphan in Africa

The fortitude of women is measured in many ways.

When Brigid is orphaned at the age of six in 1937, she is separated from her three elder brothers. She finds solace in books while living with an elderly spinster aunt and her younger brother in the country.

With her vivid imagination she dreams of travelling to faraway countries. After a strict Catholic upbringing and boarding school in a convent, she leaves Ireland at the age of 21 to follow her dreams. The British Foreign Office sends her to Libya as a radiographer for two years. It is there her love of the dark continent is ignited and three years later she arrives in Malawi to work in Lilongwe. She meets her Catholic South African husband in the first two weeks, marrying him after eight months.

Over the next 13 years, she endures constant control and abuse while trying to raise five children with no family or emotional support. The family eventually returns to Ireland in 1973, travelling by car and caravan for three and a half months through Africa, Asia and Europe. After a year of increasing control and entrapment she finally escapes with her five children, aided by her two eldest brothers. She never sees her husband again, as he departs the country leaving her penniless and a single mother of five young children.

She survived and now lives peacefully in Dublin on her own enjoying bridge and hearing from her children and 14 grandchildren.

All Show Off

OK, if I’m completely honest, since I’ve been quite ill just before my half-century, at the end of 2016, I realised that I hadn’t ever got around to passing on the stories of my childhood to my children; that cluster of experiences and characters from my past that have “helped” me become the person that their father is today.   

Memories of a childhood in late 60s and 70s Llanelli is considered within, though they’ll possibly be of no consequence to others, I hope that my girls find them of interest. This entanglement of belonging and of being are what has made me who I am and how I am. 

I’ve never written a book before, though I’ve created one many times and at many stages of my life in my head. English is not even my mother tongue. Welsh has and always will be more comfortable for me, though I’ll try to make Dr Martin Rhys, my English teacher, who I both revered and feared at Ysgol y Strade, proud.

The childhood memories noted here are true from my perspective. Any factual mistakes are there because that’s how I remember them happening. None of the content is aimed at upsetting anyone, but I’m sure it will. “Que sera, sera,” as Myngu Norman used to say. 

I’ve kept some personal stuff out, which if included, would create a fuss and shadow all my recollections. I’ve lived with them long enough as it is, though they may surface unintentionally in my writing. 

Enjoy the reading, and enjoy the memories – I’ve enjoyed organising them into some sort of order, so that my children may understand why I am as I am, and for people that know me to have the option of crossing the road when they see me heading towards them!

Lastly, after you’ve read the book, consider this quote from Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) in his memoirs The Summing Up in 1938:  “There is an impression abroad that everyone has it in him to write one book; but if by this is implied a good book then the impression is false”.

A Test of Strength

From surviving childhood trauma and confiding in her doll to cope with the abuse of her father, to giving birth to a child with spina bifida at age 19, this Australian woman’s life has been marked by strength and determination. She shares her inspiring story of triumph, including her pride at winning the title of Mrs NSW in a quest to raise funds for disabled children and her bravery in facing stage three breast cancer. But her strength is tested to its limits with the heartbreaking loss of two grown children, and she shares the spiritual signs that bring her comfort during her emotional journey of writing her life’s story. This is a brutally honest and uplifting autobiography of one woman’s determination to overcome the obstacles life throws her way.

A Story of Hope and Happiness

This is a story of triumph over adversity – an absorbing, thought-provoking, sometimes amusing but often heart-rending account of British businesswoman Rosemary Bidwell’s struggles to set up and run an orphanage in Sierra Leone, West Africa, for orphaned street children – youngsters whose parents had been savagely killed in a truly awful civil war.

Read how, against seemingly insurmountable odds, Rosemary founded the Cotton Tree Children’s Trust charity in 2006 and set about raising thousands of pounds through donations, sponsorship, talks and myriad fund-raising events to give 20 African children a second chance in life.

Through her charity, Rosemary provided her charges not only with a roof over their heads, regular meals, clothing and general welfare and educational support, but love and affection.

Read, too, how Rosemary had to overcome all manner of obstacles on the way to achieving her goal: everything from corruption, bribery, fraud and interrogation by police for 11 hours without diplomatic representation to being falsely accused of child trafficking and suffering a suspected heart attack and having to be airlifted home.

Despite the trials and tribulations, Rosemary has overcome the many and varied setbacks she encountered over a period of 18 years. Today, thanks to her dedication, perseverance and Christian beliefs, the Cotton Tree children can now face the future with confidence and know that they have been given an opportunity to prosper in life that, sadly, has been denied to so many other Sierra Leone children.

A Slice of Life from a Vicar's Wife

Jean Jarvis was born in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, a market town in the East Midlands and part of the Portland estate within the Dukeries.

Her working life has been spent in schools in Worksop and Sheffield. She lived through the time when Britain was recovering from World War II. It was the time of Rock Around the Clock by Bill Haley & His Comets.

She met and married the curate and became his wife and mother of two children.

During this time, she met John Betjeman, a friend of her husband. She acquired his fun name, “The Smasher”.

Her love of art and music continued throughout her life, and she became a church organist. Her love of painting is a set of fourteen stations of the cross, which was on show for a short time in Derby Cathedral.

This is the story of a long and happening life, told in slices.

A Question of Belief

Belief is rarely pure and never simple. This book explores the particular perplexities of belief as experienced by one female vicar in the Church of England. To exercise a public and representational role within any faith community will always bring its own pressures and paradoxes. Here, the author acknowledges and explores her own questions, which cover a wide range of topics from politics to preaching; from science to suffering. A constant theme of the book is the relationship between fact and truth. Fact is, of course, an important vehicle of truth, but not the only one. Symbolism, metaphor, myth, the creative arts have all conveyed the deep truths of Christianity to the author, who remains totally committed to her faith. Perhaps unsurprisingly, however, she takes a non-literalist view of belief, which she accepts will not be shared by some fellow Christians. But in her experience and understanding, to follow Christ means to seek the eternal truth which he embodied, and which will always be more elusive and intriguing than a recital of fact. And – for the author at least – more joy-giving. This is a hopeful book!

A Passion to Run

After ten years of six-days-a-week training, she has gained three bronze medals in individual events and three relay medals at World Masters level, yet the competitive fire still burns brightly. She continues to train and now, as a sprint coach, she shares her passion for running to enable others to improve technically and live out their dreams. Speed is always the focus, whether her athletes are training for rugby, football, basketball, netball, hockey, track, tennis or mogul skiing.