How It All Began

A most entertaining, amusing and gripping memoir, rich in action and packed with interesting characters, often in diverse places.

This thrill-seeking brave adventurer leaves the reader in awe of life on the move in the years before modern technology, devoid of the internet, mobile phones, travel guides and credit cards.

She paints a vivid picture of various countries throughout the globe. The many forms of transport undertaken to various destinations and the colourful characters she met along the way.

During times which will never be experienced again. Through war-torn countries, many under civil unrest, behind the Iron Curtain, and across deserts and mountains.

This true story is bound to enthral and also inspire. Her descriptions are told with candid honesty, dotted with humour and history, and is bound to please readers of all ages.

A completely captivating memoir that will keep the reader engrossed to the very last page.

How Hard Can It Be?

So how exactly would you cook a bat?

And what did Jesus get up to between being born in a stable in a hail of publicity, up until he appeared again at about 33 complete with a beard and an NVQ in carpentry?

Questions like this are what happens when a middle-aged, overweight bloke has a mid-life crisis, buys a bike and decides to cycle, unsupported and with minimal training from Land’s End to John O’Groats.

Whilst the actual journey itself is covered in the book in a self-deprecating humorous style of the author, as his physically inadequate body and lack of training battle against the lack of comfort provided by a 2-inch wide saddle along with gravity and nature seemingly working against him for every mile, it is more about the thoughts he has while away from home with nothing else to think about other than pushing the left pedal followed by the right, followed by the left. And the responses to his thoughts from work colleagues, friends and family.

How Cricket Saved My Life

An honest, often sad but humorous account of life inside a body that no longer does as it is told!

Ian Martin was a sports-loving youngster. When he realised he was more enthusiastic than talented enough to make a career out of playing sport he left home and joined the Royal Navy. This book tells the story of his experiences at sea onboard HMS Ark Royal, his service during the first Gulf War on HMS London and his subsequent medical discharge after being diagnosed with a neuro-muscular condition. Ian talks about the impact of the diagnosis, his deterioration and mental health battles and how cricket helped him transition into a wheelchair and to him finding himself, and a new career.

It’s a tale of rejection, dreams, discovery, determination, resilience and, ultimately, success via the floors of many hotel bathrooms and scrapes with airport security.

Hottentot Venus – The Story of Saartjie Baartman

Hot Soapy Water

So, I see you’ve picked up Hot Soapy Water, a bubble bath that’s not for kids. It’s okay, no need to look over your shoulder, I’m not there, I’ve never been there. Well, you’ve taken the first step. I suppose the question is, are you really going to do that old cliché and judge? “Hot Soapy Water, someone’s fetish with bath time?” Nope.

I haven’t diluted the contents of this book with fragrant bath bombs, candles and Barry White playing in the background. It’s mustard gas in the eyeballs, salt on an open wound. It’s utter modern-day carnage. Stories within stories, short poems. War, death, destruction, a chef’s journey, addiction, hedonism, mental health, trauma, the cold dark blanket of suicide, bravery, courage, bewilderment and some funny shit.

It’s a book you will not put down if you are brave enough to start. Why? Because I’m the voice in your head telling you this. My name is Auguste Knuckles, and you will ask yourself a question when the last page is turned: ‘how am I alive? Am I alive or has an alien written this nuclear bomb narrative fired into a volcano?’

Holloway

Holloway was a closed category A prison supposedly for women who had committed murders and were considered to be dangerous criminals. What was unknown was that many women were placed in Holloway due to the abuses and crimes related to and should often have been blamed on men. Historically such injustices and inequality were often linked to cases such as the Suffragette movement and the Irish Republicans, however, in modern times women found themselves to be remanded or imprisoned in Holloway for petty crimes, as a place of detention when there were immigration issues and for reasons that were beyond the understanding of those involved. Here are the stories of women who were abused by the laws and society one hoped were there to protect rather than punish them further. These remarkable women formed deep friendships, loved and cared for each other despite being thrown into a place of fear and intimidation.

Hippie Kushi Waking up to Life

Most people as they get older tend to forget about themselves. It seems to be a normal part of the process of life and it happens to the best of us. We forget to reach our own potential because we are far too focused on bringing up a family, working long hours to pay off the mortgage and bills, locked into the cycle of the never-ending treadmill of work and career. It is easy to lose our way and disregard our own existential well-being.

Suddenly one day thirty years later, we say to ourselves, ‘What happened to the person I used to be, what happened to my life? We used to be fun, go to parties, dance the night away at night clubs and have loads of crazy friends.’ Your social life now consists of a bottle of wine at home watching TV. Your friends are getting fewer and fewer because over the years you have focused on everybody else except yourselves.

My name is Stephen Cox, I am 55 years old and I describe myself as a modern hippie. I am spiritual, forward-thinking, a traveller of the world and a lover of life. I paint my brow with the colours of the rainbow, I wear bright multi-coloured clothes and beads and I dance with my whirly friends all through the night. I am happy! I have found hippie happiness, I have found Hippie Kushi and I would love it if you find it too.

Himalayan Tsunami

In June of 2013, darkened skies over northern India released torrential rains from multiple cloudbursts, leaving behind an incomprehensible trail of destruction.American cardiologist, Dr. Seshadri, had just arrived in the Indian state of Uttarakhand for a spiritual retreat when the colossal storms hit.Stranded on the isolated grounds of an ashram with his fellow retreatants, he is forced to address the mental and physical wreckage of this natural disaster.“An arresting tsunami account told with great intelligence.”– Kirkus Reviews“Gripping… amazingly well-written.”– Om Swami, best-selling author of If Truth be Told: A Monk’s Memoir

Hidden Treasure

Here is a spell-binding and profound memoir for our times, sparked by the sudden death of a beloved partner. An intensely intimate yet fresh and light approach draws us into the delights of love, the consuming nature of grief, and a potent journey which unveils the mysterious treasures inherent in heartfelt engagement with the significant ups and downs of life.

Not only are we privy to the depth of the author’s thoughts and feelings but her partner comes across as a person with a real and secret unknown life all his own beyond the page, giving an appreciation for the profundity of a person we will never directly know. And a spectacular forest in New South Wales comes alive as an integral vital companion in this journey of discovery.

Hidden Treasure is not so hidden, it is a light of mature love that two attuned adults brought to life which emerges as a spiritual journey of deep relationship with the mystery of life.

This book acknowledges the vagaries of life with all its pitfalls and yet – ultimately – it is uplifting, ending on a hopeful joyous note. It holds the potential of nourishment for those who are grieving in a world currently dominated by loss and contains inspiration of the most dignified kind, beautifully portrayed.

Hello Troj

Hello Troj is a book that took over three decades to experience and 12 years to write. It is a book about growing up as a young female arts protégé during the last decade of Communism in Eastern Europe, in a society shaped by a rapidly disintegrating censorship apparatus struggling to sustain itself, in the world of the so-called “Intelligencia” governed by middle-aged white men, many of them prone to predatory behavior and accustomed to getting their own way. It is a deeply personal and unapologetic coming-of-age story that circles around the suicide of a younger brother and trying to figure oneself out in the context of dystopia and chaos.

But this is also a book about growing up in a family of heroes and madmen, all of them insanely creative but never recognized as anything but average, invisible, “just regular folks”. There is nothing “regular” or “average” about them.

Heartbreak Hotel Diary

Through the course of our lives nearly all of us experience the heartbreak that accompanies a failed relationship - all the more poignant when the relationship was a long-standing one. Theo Kemp’s Heartbreak Hotel Diary is a candid exposé of the myriad emotions that run riot during this time, but it is also an uplifting celebration of life itself and the sort of spirit that overcomes adversity. Although written from the male perspective, it is never gender specific, because heartbreak is universal and affects us all in one way or another. Tackling the difficult subjects of love, relationships and mental health, Heartbreak Hotel Diary is a deeply personal account and a powerful and thought-provoking read.

Hard Luck Motty

You will not be able to put this book down once you start!

Hard Luck Motty has been through everything you can imagine.

See if you can find someone who can top my life adventures!

The famous people I have met and spent time with: Hollywood superstars, sporting greats.

The family tragedies along the way.

The excitement and thrills.

The silliness.

The lessons I have learnt the hard way, in my working, sporting and fun life.

You need to read this book.