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Wild Colonial Boy
This autobiographical novel narrates the journey of Dan Docherty, a young Glasgow law graduate and karate black belt, who left his traditional Catholic family in 1975 to serve in the notoriously corrupt Royal Hong Kong Police.
In Hong Kong, he learned Chinese language intensively, then drill, musketry and law. A famous Tai Chi master accepted him as a disciple and trained him to become an international full contact champion.
In this book we’ll have a few beers with colourful characters like Big Don and Mountie Dave. We’ll visit exotic locales—Manila, Macao, Singapore… We’ll witness Dan in full contact competition and in street fight action. As they say in the Hong Kong Police, “If you can’t take a joke, you shouldn’t have joined.”
£9.99 -
Why I Wrote wot I Wrote
As Joanna Lumley notes in her preface, Bruce Denness has always trod a precarious path between serious science and philosophical frivolity. The science reached its peak at the British Geological Survey and Newcastle University in the 1970s but even then – and certainly since – he always looked for the funny side of whatever he was involved in, which may explain why his research has seldom been taken seriously.
Bruce was born in 1942 on a farm in the Isle of Wight, where he grew up. His career then took him to the mainland (or England, as it is known on the Isle of Wight) and several countries in the Caribbean, South America and the Far East before he settled back on the Island again in 1984. Experiences gained during those years have contributed to the many letters that Bruce has since had published, mainly in The Telegraph and New Scientist. Admittedly, some of them may also have been influenced by regular visits to The White Horse Inn at Whitwell, Isle of Wight for invigorating Shiraz treatment.
£9.99 -
Who Do You Think You Are?
This is at once a personal memoir and the story of what it is like to grow up and live alienated from the values of the society into which one was born. In the deeply fissured modern world, many now find themselves similarly in places where rival ideologies and interests are tearing their worlds apart. This is an account of how awareness of such a world reveals itself. In South Africa apartheid succeeded in enshrining its own particular values in law. But the roots of what had brought its monstrosity into being have never been confined to South Africa. They remain plain to see in the world today: intolerance, bigotry, fanaticism – xenophobia, racism, nationalism.
In this memoir, Hitler’s installation as German Chancellor and the rise of Nazism leads directly to the author’s early sense of not belonging: a growth in awareness of the reasons for the feeling and acute sensibility to the rifts and fractures lying beneath the surface of a comfortable domestic life. It clarifies how personal beliefs may become diametrically opposed to those of the society to which one belongs by birth. So the question of identity quickly arises: ‘Where do I fit in? Who am I?’ It was this that many Whites asked themselves in apartheid South Africa, but it is also one that increasingly must be asked by many today.
£8.99 -
White Socks and Chalk Dust
Proof that truth is often stranger than fiction, this hilarious and poignant account of the unlikely journey of a mobile soft-drink salesman and sometime band member to school headship, is made still more compelling by virtue of the fact that all events leading up to and during this metaphorical mountain climb are entirely true…
£9.99 -
White Slave
A man who is 6'6" and nearly 400 pounds casts a big shadow. Charles 'Big Chick' Huntsberry lived beneath his own shadow. He always set out to be the best at what he was doing, to be the top dog. When Chick wins an arm-wrestling contest, it leads him to a profession as a bouncer at the big campus bar. Rumours start to spread about the huge bouncer at the club. Chick starts hearing stories about a guy who would fight a whole motorcycle club and turn over cars. The person in these stories turns out to be Chick himself. An old bouncing associate calls Chick and tells him about a music artist who is looking for a bodyguard. Chick, needing a change, tries it out. The rest is music history.
£15.99 -
White Light
Meet Andy Kent.
Husband, dad, businessman and survivor of death.
This is the story of a person’s life – the story of a life fully lived, a life touched by many others and a life that has made a difference. It hasn’t been plain sailing, and many lessons have been hard-learned along the way. From a cerebral haemorrhage he should not have survived to an impossible fund-raising walk spanning the length of the country, discover the incredible true story of a man whose mission it is to help others, whatever the cost.
Love, loss, and life combine in this inspiring account of a man who has always refused to give up, and whose determination has helped so many people.
This is Andy Kent’s story so far…
£13.99 -
White Is Black
A patient’s journey in intensive care always starts like a tennis ball landing on top of the net, at the tipping point. Not only for the one in the bed.
Doctor Apfelstein, a specialist in the field, recounts his rise and fall; from flamboyance to custody; from the sleaziest north-east suburb of Paris where he may have killed some of his guests, to the jungle of Harley Street, and finally the flatlands of Norfolk.
He portrays the darkest recesses of his trade, the fleeting nature of life and love, and the blessings of all sorts of music: the soothing drug he needs.
When his own tennis ball lands on top of the net that separates oblivion from memories, at the tipping point, he has chosen his side. Memories. His way.
Translated from French by Brigid Purcell, PhD in European Literature, assisted by Philippe Grunstein, Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (London), Associate Professor of Medicine, for specific vocabulary of Respiratory Medicine and Intensive care.
£9.99 -
Where's Me Teeth
From the mystery of the missing teeth to the urine sample for a goldfish. From the hapless gardener who mows through a power cable, to the debate over fresh or frozen ice to be used in a drink. Why can’t you send an octopus through the post, yet you can take your parrot for a walk?
The frustration caused by the jobsworths of this world and automatic/robotic telephone answering machines.
A humorous and tongue-in-cheek observation of daily life and society. You could not make this up. Life is really stranger and funnier than fiction.
£7.99 -
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.
£9.99 -
When the Weight of the Paper...
This aviation/travel journal is an account of the author’s experiences in 59 years of travelling the globe. His half-Scottish roots may have something to do with his yearning for a desire to visit a number of cold-weather countries that many of us might stay away from, but might like to read about! There are some tropical visits and temperate ones too, but the latest tally has been 21 landings or take-offs within the Arctic Circle, and photos included in the book show Greenland, Iceland, Faroes, Svalbard (sometimes called Spitzbergen), The Falklands and Antarctica amongst others, but there are some in warmer temperature zones! Over those years of travel 124 separate trips have been made involving over 450 different flights. In the early years, many were propeller aircraft and then later jet transport but over that period 64 different types have been flown, and each is supported in the book by brief technical notes and a photo. The author’s work in airline operations and then later in the travel agency sector allowed him the opportunity to extensively travel the world and see these sights. Later in retirement, the travel bug has continued. Interspersed into the timeline of the book is the author’s autobiography of his time spent in the three countries he has lived in during his working life.
£21.99 -
When the Last Note Sounds
These are the recollections of the life and work of a great singer. They explore the true accounts of great happenings following the Second World War when a Renaissance of British music took place, giving birth to several great composers, producers and conductors and a school of singers that led the way to rival the Europeans. Richard Lewis was among the main architects of that Renaissance. His wife Elizabeth was with him for many years, and her reminiscences showcase what a singer’s life is like, its dramas, its humour, and what happens When the Last Note Sounds.
£7.99 -
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.
£10.99