Flutter Until You Fly

When he was six years old, he declared to the hearing of some friends: “I want to be a pilot when I grow up,” and it generated mocking laughter from them. The laughter became louder when at the end of sixth grade, his father lost his job and life went further downhill. From his family couch surfing in the neighbourhood for about seven years to having to cook and hawk kenkey, gari, and bake bread as a secondary school student, he kept going. He took the A Levels twice and performed poorly, disqualifying him from joining the air force even though he passed the army’s assessments twice. In Flutter Until You Fly, Captain Solomon Quainoo shares how he overcame these stumbling blocks and more, worked 17-hour days as a labourer, cleaner, pizza delivery guy, and traffic warden, to still become a captain of the world’s biggest passenger aircraft.

Firefighting: Better than Working for a Living

Tom is a firefighter. He loves going to work. For him, encountering the intense, prickly heat of a building fire is to experience the euphoria of fear. He loves the adrenaline rush when the bells drop and the anticipation of what may lie ahead. But there is more, so much more! The best part of his job is the mischief he finds himself involved in, the antics and the camaraderie.It’s the early 80s and life was very different; Tom and his ‘brothers’ split their time between the pub and the fire station, although it is not always clear whether they are on duty or at a party. The fire engine, which they call ‘The Machine’, doesn’t always want to play and sometimes they forget to climb aboard. This is a tale of frolics, of trauma, of nurses, and even villainy. It is an exposure. Are Tom and his compadres heroes? Well, that’s for you to decide.

Fighting for Hanne

Hanne Schafer, 63, had just retired as a psychologist from her position in a mental health clinic. Youthful and energetic, she looked forward to engaging in more travel, socializing, hiking and ballroom dancing with her partner, Daniel Laurin. When Hanne received a devastating diagnosis, she asked Daniel and Mary, her long-time friends, for help in dealing with a grim reality. She asked them for the ‘unthinkable’.

How would you respond? What would help you deal with one obstacle after another?

This memoir, written from Mary’s perspective, is based primarily on Hanne’s emails to Mary over a three-year period. It details how Hanne, Daniel and Mary persisted in pursuing Hanne’s goal of remaining in charge of her life.

Canada passed assisted dying legislation in June 2016, but some obstacles still remain and impede a person’s choice to die with dignity. Further legislation is anticipated. Hanne’s receipt of a court-ordered exemption in February 2016 is one facet of Canada’s history of assisted dying. Telling Hanne’s story reflects our mutual desire to eliminate obstacles that others may encounter.

Fastovski's Tales of Hampstead

Imagine that Isaac Babel’s Cossacks wassail together with Runyonesque Liverpool Jews outside the plate-glass window of a Hampstead café where a Klezmer band is playing to a packed and tea-drinking congregation of jazzmen, Hasidic scholars, surrealists, old soldiers, and retired strippers; and you have the tone and temperature of this unique and unclassifiable memoir – no, not memoir, more a stream-of-consciousness novella – no, not a novella but a piece of autobiographical fiction – no, not autobiography but a picaresque drama conquered from the unreliable and fertile brain of the eponymous Fastovski.

And who is Fastovski? Is he real or invented? Is he perhaps the alter-ego of real-life jazz pianist, Klezmer swinger, big band leader and flaneur, Wallace Fields, who stares at us from the book’s frontispiece in shades, Diaghilev coat and moustache, over a cup of strong black coffee? Fastovski’s not telling and anyway, who cares.

This is a book to be devoured, disseminated, denounced, and delighted in. It belongs to all who think art and life are one and that the Arch-Savant of Canterbury, Issy Bonn, Rashid the Manic Berber Chef of NW3, and Mrs Karl Popper, have an equal claim on history. I haven’t had such a good time since I shared Sir Ralph Richardson’s motorbike with a parrot and a striking grandmother clock.

Piers Plowright
August 2008

F*cking Up Adulthood

I didn’t ask for this. There’s no consent form for adulthood, you just get thrown in the deep end. One minute I’m jerking off my way through high school, the next I’m spending £5 on cheddar cheese. If you’re fed up with adulthood and its merry band of shite like me, let’s fight back against the conventions we so dearly hate. Join me on my runaway mission as I moan my way through the themes of young adulthood. Longing to be back on his feet, escaping the country to recover from what broke him. All the while dissecting the political and social landscape the world enters.

Exploitation

In Exploitation, readers are taken on a heart-wrenching journey through the mind and experiences of a frontline soldier. Through intense and extreme pressure, the soldier must navigate their way through the challenges of combat and emerge on the other side. With raw and emotional storytelling, this book offers a unique insight into the thoughts and actions of those on the front lines, leaving readers with a deeper understanding of the challenges and sacrifices of military service.

Every Step of the Way

Taking up any challenge, even an extreme one, for many people is not unusual, especially when the aim is to raise money to support a specific charity or other deserving cause. Often there is a direct link between the person taking on the challenge and the charity nominated to benefit from funds raised. Not all succeed, of course, even ending in heart break and sadly, tragic circumstances, at times.So, what happens when one, 57-year-old, unfit, overweight, ex-smoking individual decides to pit himself against one of the world’s Seven Summits? Maybe it is a recipe for disaster on the face of it, some might even say foolhardy and risky but the events of the previous years that led to this attempt were compelling and after much consideration, made the urge too strong to ignore. The actual challenge was one thing but undertaking the preparation and importantly the fund raising, were extremely hard work, yet, at the same time fulfilling, fun and exhausting.Every Step of the Way not only charts the 12 months leading up to that week on Mount Kilimanjaro and details the actual climb but, additionally, looks into the reasons for attempting it, which began with one man being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease, his appalling treatment in care, and the inevitable outcome.

Eugene Zarebski – a Story of Escape, Survival and Resilience

What’s wrong with a pair of rose-tinted glasses? Eugene would not allow the long, dark shadow of the Second World War to impact his life afterwards. Describing a teenager taking action to rebel against the Nazi occupation of his country, the author goes on to relate further events which shaped his character into becoming an adult who would never give up hope of creating a better life. Who knows what was in his mind as he hovered between life and death, more than once, in those fractured years? But as Eugene sometimes said – “You always need a little bit of luck.”I remember my father-in-law Eugene as a stoic character who possessed a rather dry sense of humour. His story is one of a young man’s effort to stay alive and fight in the Second World War, but it also shows us how such a Polish patriot could manage to settle down to life as a coalminer in England, finally becoming an “Aussie” embracing a different culture and totally different lifestyle. The geography alone is absorbing – captured in Poland and sent to Northern Russia, then south into Uzbekistan, across Turkmenistan to Iran and Iraq - to be eventually transported by a British Navy ship to Liverpool in England. He was sent to Belgium and Holland in the war, then afterwards Duxford near Cambridge, London, Nottinghamshire and finally Melbourne, Australia. Enjoy the story.Ted Geerling, Melbourne, Australia.

Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley was born on January 8th, 1935, in a shack in Tupelo, Mississippi. Though he was born a twin, his brother – who had been named Jess Garon – was tragically stillborn. Elvis died on August 16th, 1977, at the age of just 42, in his Graceland mansion. His death marked something significant in the collective mind, like the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, or Martin Luther King.Conspiracy theories took off about the circumstances surrounding his death: Was Elvis murdered by the mob? Was his death faked? Did Elvis commit suicide? Is he still alive? This book sheds new light on many of these questions, while also celebrating his music and legacy.Elvis Presley played a central and vital role in the development of Rockabilly music, drawing as he did on a vast range of styles, from the Gospel music of his southern youth to the country music of the Midwest. This book is dedicated to Elvis: the artist, the human being, and The King.

Elgar's Secret Lover

When old friend Arnold Chater Q.C. sends retired Norwegian Judge Christofferson a yellowing manuscript with the mysterious initials G.B. on the first page, the latter starts a quest to seek the truth about British composer Sir Edward Elgar’s secret muse in his masterpiece, the Enigma Variations, and whether he fathered an illegitimate child. Fascinated with riddles and puzzles, the composer was in the habit of leaving a series of codes denoting the inspiration for his timeless compositions. But in the Enigma Variations, Elgar forsook his usual practice of inserting initials to honour his muse, explicitly refusing to name his great love by using a mysterious ellipsis. Cheekily, he gives a clue about his inspiration in the violin concerto with the words, ‘Here is enshrined the soul of …’ Chris Nicholson’s seminal musical thriller weaves an amazing tale with enigmas piled on riddles. He flagrantly delights in leading readers on a breathless chase of the women who were extraordinarily important in Elgar’s life. At the same time, he also unmasks Elgar as a man who hid himself and his intimate affairs behind a mask of respectability. Nicholson is merciless in the details of Elgar’s life, loves and music, deciphering all the clues and delivering the final judgment as only he can.Chris Nicholson is a retired judge and author of seven books.

Elephant on Main Street

This is this story of Eamon, a little boy growing up in Northern Ireland in the sixties, before he succumbed to Leukaemia, a few months short of his seventh birthday. The book describes specific aspects of his short but remarkable life, all written from his perspective. Each chapter has a footnote which charts the history of the conquest of childhood leukaemia which commenced during his lifetime. The book is based around actual events and things which Eamon said and did which have been passed down. Eamon has the benefit of perspective, so he can describe events that have yet to happen which have a bearing on the life of his family.

Edward Jenner – the Original Vaccinator

Dr. Edward Jenner was a man who has saved millions of lives due to his discovery of cowpox as the most effective treatment for the killer disease of smallpox.

Born in 1749, he was orphaned at the age of five years, his parents both dying within two months of each other in 1754. He was sent away to boarding school at the age of eight years, and whilst there was subjected to be inoculated with a small amount of smallpox which was the standard treatment of the day, although it was a matter of luck as to whether the patient survived or not. He suffered side effects that haunted him to his dying day.

 Luckily for us, he survived his ordeal, and as an adult, he dedicated his life to finding a more effective and much safer cure for smallpox and despite a great deal of opposition from some of his medical colleagues, found the cure and in 1980, the World Health Organisation officially announced that smallpox had finally been eliminated.

There is a statue of him in Gloucester Cathedral and sadly visitors to the cathedral know little or nothing about him. As the 200th anniversary of his death in 1823 approaches, this book attempts to show the reader how much we owe him.