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Maxamillion the Great
Drawing on countless real-life stories from his embattled life, Maxamillion the Great is a captivating and moving autobiography told in the only way it could be, through the eyes of his beloved owner, author Barbara Goodier.
Taking the reader through the lows of his joyless puppyhood into the highs of his new found family, it persuades us to revisit the idea that miracles really do exist and sometimes even more than once.
Creative in its narration and affecting in its story, it will move you to re-evaluate what is important in your own life, will make you cry when you least expect it and lay bare the unbreakable bond between a dog and his mum.
£9.99 -
Nobody Cares
In a world where the judgments and opinions of others often seem overwhelming, Nobody Cares offers a refreshing insight – the empowering realization that the thoughts of others have no control over your path. This memoir invites you into the author's compelling life, revealing their unvarnished experiences from a sheltered childhood to the unexplored realms of adulthood.
With raw honesty, the narrative traverses the peaks and valleys that epitomize human life, encompassing thrilling international escapades, the complexities of heartbreak, and the hope of second chances. The book intertwines humorous anecdotes and moving stories, crafting a tale that is as relatable as it is eye-opening.
Nobody Cares is a call to embrace your imperfections, celebrate your triumphs, and let go of the oppressive weight of external expectations. More than just a personal account, this book is a journey towards authenticity that will resonate with every reader. It’s an encouragement to cast off societal judgment and uncover the strength of self-acceptance, embarking on a journey that promises to transform your viewpoint, one unabashed step at a time. In the end, what truly counts is the narrative you choose for yourself.
£9.99 -
You Won't Believe This, But ...
Jane McCulloch was once dubbed a ‘Renaissance woman’ by the great American soprano Jessye Norman, and her long career as a playwright, theatre and opera director, producer, lyricist, poet and latterly novelist is certainly testament to this.
Jane’s has been ‘a life not without incident’ – to quote her husband, the theatre director Toby Robertson. Growing up with fiercely gifted but troubled parents, she found herself with a front-row seat during a golden age of British theatre before forging her own career, running theatre companies both in the UK and abroad and working with the likes of Derek Jacobi and Judi Dench.
Inheriting her father’s ability to ‘collect’ celebrities (to the occasional exasperation of her children), Jane proves a born raconteur, describing, amongst other things, how she met Jackie Kennedy Onassis in an accidental Valium haze or managed to charm both Noël Coward and John Betjeman while still a teenager. Beyond the clear-eyed, often moving stories, however, what emerges is an inspirational tale of a woman’s fight for her survival in a very tough profession.£10.99 -
Memories of a National Service Doctor
Dr John Lunn, at the outset of his National Service, could not have imagined the events which lay ahead. He writes of his first year in the Suez Canal Zone, the last year of the British Army occupation. He describes his experience acting as medical officer on the tank-landing craft sailing the length of the Suez Canal to Aqaba, taking military equipment to Jordan. During his second year in the army, he was on active service in Cyprus during the EOKA campaign. Two life-threatening events are recalled. The book emphasises Dr Lunn’s deep admiration for the bravery of the young National Servicemen in Cyprus when severely wounded and, also, how they coped with the loss of their comrades. He concludes the book by saying how much his life’s experience was enriched by his National Service and how it gave him a lasting affection for the British Army.
£7.99 -
More Than Music
This is the third part of a joint autobiographical trilogy based on the letters and diaries of two professional singers Christopher Davies and Barbara Kendall-Davies. It also relates to their young son, Giles and his blossoming career as a singer.
There is a good deal of music, of course but also many unexpected and divergent paths as well, including a major Hollywood movie.
£12.99 -
Not What The Good Fairy Promised
Twenty-four-year-old Joanna’s life flipped upside down at the taking of a phone call. News of her sister’s near-death in a fire triggered the onset of bipolar disorder, a mental health condition that Joanna would have to manage for the rest of her life.
A scholarship to Cambridge, with three years to get her degree, had ended in this. Joanna’s high hopes, and her father’s fierce ambitions for her, now lay in tatters. A glowing future of any description lay beyond her grasp as she struggled to get to grips with her new and utterly foreign reality. Where was she going in life now?
Not What the Good Fairy Promised is the heart-warming story of a young woman’s experience of terrifying breakdown, psychiatric hospital, and the stigma of mental illness. There is the battle with everyday life, with its frightening demand that she re-discover her identity – her selfhood – while struggling to survive and earn a living, yearning for something worthwhile to fill the hours of nine to five. This is a tale of experiencing, and overcoming, serious mental illness, of driving ahead to forge a new and unlooked for future – and what the Good Fairy did deliver.
£8.99 -
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…
£18.99 -
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.£9.99 -
See the Colour in the Clouds
Six years after being diagnosed with breast cancer, I revisited my diary and decided to share my experiences.
I reveal how losing my hair turned from tragedy to comedy, how a watercress and potato soup sent emotions soaring, and the way in which my two young daughters played such a huge part in my recovery.
In my own words and images, this is my story; from diagnosis to life after cancer – the complex emotions, the mood swings and the surprises along the way.
This is my recollection of the events and emotions that lined my unique path through breast cancer. I hope that the excerpts, taken from my original diary, are not only enlightening for other cancer sufferers, but that they might throw out a beacon of light to the many families and friends supporting their loved ones through a time of anguish and uncertainty.
£14.99 -
Teachers for Life
Most educators are remembered in passing – their legacies often confined to classroom walls and fleeting school years. But imagine a world where teachers can reconnect with their former students, not just as distant memories, but as influential figures in their lives once again. Teachers for Life introduces us to two educators who seize this very opportunity. No longer in traditional classrooms, they embark on a journey to re-engage with their past students, not to amend their earlier mistakes, but to bridge the gaps they’ve perceived since leaving their formal roles. In doing so, they impart invaluable life lessons, shaping not just minds, but hearts, proving that the influence of a dedicated teacher extends far beyond school and lasts a lifetime.
£5.99 -
Thank You for My Dinner, May I Get Down Please?
The author always enjoyed a sense of freedom, whether roaming around the Somerset countryside as a child or later on, living offshore with her husband and three daughters on a boat. She considers nothing strictly ‘out of bounds’, and for seventy years no-one has stopped her in her tracks. Thank You for My Dinner really sums up the dichotomy of her life – an upbringing steeped in Victorian-based principles and the free license to go her own way, which was generous even by twenty-first century standards.
This is the story of Celia’s early life coupled with a trip down the river, never completely grown up, always looking for adventure, not anticipating danger, but keeping a sense of fun and a smile through various struggles – and surviving enough to say ‘thank you’ at the end.
£6.99 -
That Boogie Beat Damn Killed My Soul
I have been involved in the music business in various roles since 1961. I was bought my first guitar when I was 12 years old, on which I slogged away for a year. In 1962, I joined my first band, the Phantoms. Then the Sparticans came for me in 1963, then in 1965, I was invited to join the Nomads, who were local pop stars!
This began a life in which I would meet many of the good and great in the music industry, including a Beatle, with whom we made a record. In 1979, with my friend, old bandmate and future business partner, keyboard player John DaCosta, I decided to open a music shop – the first of many we would open in the coming years. After an epic roller coaster ride of ambition and excess, it all came crashing down for me in 1994 and I was forced to rethink my life. Today I live a complicated but thoroughly enjoyable life in Thailand, still playing the guitar and writing songs, but no longer trying to run music shops…
£10.99