Sharki and the Naked Travellers

Travelling with one’s partner in a campervan for a year provides an excellent, if not gruelling, test for newly married couples; it amounts to “couples therapy” on wheels but without the therapist. Not only does one learn a tremendous amount about one’s partner but also about oneself. There are a few endeavours that couples should avoid; three that come to mind are wallpapering, navigating, and being in each other’s company 24/7. After travelling for a year with my partner, I can say with absolute authority that putting up wallpaper with one’s partner is nothing short of life-threatening. Navigating and constant companionship did put us to the test a few times but fortunately there were no casualties. None that I noticed.

Think “Fawlty Tourists on Wheels” and that would accurately sum up our year-long meanderings in Sharki, our trusty wannabe 4x4 campervan that took multiple terrains in her 2.8-litre stride.

If one has a year to spare, I highly recommend throwing caution to the wind and embarking on a zero-itinerary adventure with an open mind, a strong stomach and your very best friend at your side.

Sexpionage & Honeytraps: Confessions of a Private Investigator

Join ex-Air Force reserve officer turned private detective Richard Martinez as he investigates real-life criminal and moral cases in this captivating (and sometimes comedic) book. With a background as personal security staff for Boris Johnson, Martinez brings a unique perspective to his work as a private detective. From catching cheats and fraudsters to using hi-tech surveillance gadgets and forensics, he uses his expertise and a variety of evidence gathering techniques to solve cases involving phone hackers, honour killers, and more. Along the way, he helps locate missing people and protects individuals from sex-mad stalkers. Follow Martinez on his thrilling journey as a private detective.

Sex, Drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll – Memoir of a Police Doctor

I can claim to have enjoyed a satisfying and fulfilling medical career. British General Practice was the jewel in the NHS crown and I was a Family Doctor during its heyday before the Government decided to take control and tell the doctors how to do their job, demoralize the profession and seriously compromise patient care, destroying the respect between patients and their doctors and turning a vocation into a chore. I was fortunate that I began my career at the right time and got out at the right time. My almost thirty years working with the local police force was hard work but once I’d seen a few corpses and gained the respect of the local constabulary I enjoyed the work immensely even if I was so often denied a good night’s sleep. The case load varied from the gruesome to the amusing but looking back it was never boring.

Sex, Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll – Memoir of a Police Doctor is an account of my experience as a Forensic Physician – a facet of the rich tapestry of medical practice that Joe Public never realized existed.

Sermons and Addresses

When a respected scholar with a career at three major American universities moves to a position as principal of an important institution in UK, there is likely to be considerable interest in what he has to say not only to his students, but to many others as well. The two most important formats for such communication were the sermon and the academic lecture. Historically, the sermon has been an extremely important form of communication, first as verbal communication to a specific group of listeners, and then as a written text made available to many more readers. Marc Saperstein was a member of Beth Shalom Reform Congregation in Cambridge, where religious services were directed and sermons delivered not by the rabbi of the synagogue – which never had a rabbi – but by members of the congregation. During the five years from 2006-2011, Marc Saperstein delivered 29 sermons in Beth Shalom. He also was asked to deliver sermons at 15 other congregations. The texts of these sermons are now accessible in the book.

Secrets and Lies – Tales of an Employment Lawyer

If you want to know how real-life lawyers behave, using deceit, lies, and other dastardly methods to try to beat the individual litigant then read on…

Gillian lays bare some of the tricks that she has discovered that some solicitors and employers have used, details how she found them out, and how she won.

Secret Son of a Legend

I have only known since 2012, but I am the illegitimate child of Bobby Moore, the captain of the 1966 World Cup winning football team. I went from living an exceptionally happy and privileged childhood to one of detachment, hurt, and misery. My world was completely turned upside down and I deeply missed my former life and my family. I made the most of my life by focusing energy and attention on my education and the sports in which I participated, which helped me relieve the tension. I enjoyed my freedoms as I grew older and made a life for myself. I have never really wanted anything, but I now feel, after six decades, the need for recognition, acknowledgement, and closure in my life.

Second-Best Luck

Fancy retirement right across the globe? Learning to speak a foreign language (Australian)? Too easy; don’t be a wuss, mite! Herein, you will find travel, exploration, how not to buy a house, how to build a harpsichord; how to cope with a second hysterectomy, coronary bypass, two different and simultaneous serious cancers. No worries; she’ll be right, mite! Consider Orshtraya on differing scales; the conurbation that is Canberra; the 90-mile straight which is just a blip in the landscape driving across the Great Australian Bite, Mite; the deeply soothing silence of the outback.

Seriously, sport: this sometimes humorous volume is travelogue, retirement manual, and medical aid, all in one. It has a sporting chance of really helping anyone terrified with recent news of cancer or other really serious illness. We all need help.

Seascapes of a Soul: Wholeness and the Sense of Self

The search for self-knowledge and identity is a common theme in autobiographies these days. So also is the search for a spirituality other than that of the conventional religions. Both are found in Seascapes of a Soul: Wholeness and the Sense of Self. This book is an account of a unique spirit on an often solitary journey. With clear argumentation and transparent honesty, this author presents a story that reaches towards individuation, gained partly through discovering C.G. Jung’s ideas about the psyche.
Several themes recur: the onset of old age, Jungian individuation, solitude and aloneness, mood swings, a rejection of orthodox religion, a love for the natural world, an interest in gnosticism, the inner sense of the Divine. Her relationship with her twin sister is also prominent. There is light and dark here: the ups and downs of living with a twin.
In rejecting the Christianity she grew up with she followed an innate urge to a spirituality that ultimately arose from the strong sense of self she had had from an early age. If this has a name it would be ‘gnostic’ because it is a perception of inner divinity, the God within.
This is a woman’s story with a difference. Although, unlike so many, she did not have to struggle through a life of disadvantage and deprivation, she did have to wrestle with a powerful self that sometimes wandered up blind alleys into ego. But she learned to accept mistakes and incorporate them into what Einstein called a ‘calm and modest life’.
Images of the sea, symbols of the unconscious, run through the book. The ‘seascapes’ at the head of each chapter function in the story as a leitmotif for the modes and moods of the spirit.

Searching for Words in Jane Austen

There are crosswords, codewords, wordsearch and even letter Sudoku, but here is something different with a Jane Austen theme: hidden words to be found in appropriate sentences.Subjects range from her life and her writing to her Georgian and Regency world.Those in the know will enjoy allusions and may even learn something new. The information is light reading designed to appeal to newcomers.

Scallywag – My Duvet Diva

Scallywag – My Duvet Diva is a true story about a man trying to rebuild his life, and a dog in need of a second chance.

It tells of their adventures together ashore and aboard their canal boat “Bluebell”, of their developing relationship and of their deepening companionship.

Atmospheric, funny, and sometimes sad, it will make you both laugh and cry.

Keep the tissues handy!

Sailing Through Life...

When Nick Ardley asked for a prostate specific antigen (PSA) test, the aftershocks of a prostate cancer diagnosis were momentous. Frightened, he said he was too young to die. Petrified, he understandably broke down. But all was not lost: his family and the boat shared with his wife were soon at work repairing his life.

A life-long sailor, the salt marsh fringed waters of the greater Thames estuary had always enthralled, and it was to them he went for healing. It’s a place where in the free flow of a saline breeze his mind cleared, and he began treating it all as just another little illness. Like a cold, he said, knowing full well it wasn’t! Sailing up the River Thames, he announced to his wife his choice of the medical directions offered. Later, after mooring off Gravesend, both cried together.

Ardley’s treatment overlapped the COVID-19 pandemic. Fortunately, the serious stuff was done and dusted. The pandemic brought new trials. The couple were frighteningly threatened by a fellow yachtsman who disliked an Ardley web blog … the horror of that summer has remained fresh.

Throughout the telling of Ardley’s tales, his story, sailing with family and friends, country walking and living life, he has maintained a normality. Perhaps a familiar story, but it comes with a warning: Men, get yourselves tested before it’s too late!

So, onwards he goes, sailing through life…

Royal Engineer

As compelling as it is a delight to read, Royal Engineer is a military memoir that is truly a breath of fresh air and a ‘must’ read for anyone who has an interest in either the military or modern history, and for those who quite simply enjoy a good read.

Fascinating, honest, gripping, hard-hitting and never shying away from the truth, the author’s passion for chronicling his and others’ past events and experiences becomes abundantly clear from the very beginning. The unique style of writing and the way in which detailed narratives are brilliantly incorporated make Royal Engineer a powerful and moving memoir. Emotions, opinions, positives, and negatives are freely shared with the reader to ensure that there is no sugar-coating on subjects and matters that are of a sensitive and topical nature in today’s world.

Be prepared for a reading experience like no other because Royal Engineer is filled with comprehensive and engaging narratives that will have the reader mesmerised from the very first page, and it is also a remarkable piece of writing because of the honest approach and evocative language the author adopts throughout.