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Speaking Volumes
How did a fishmonger’s son from Tyneside, growing up in the 1950s with a Geordie accent, become the person who recorded over 900 audiobooks and received an MBE from the Queen in the Birthday Honours of 2017?
This ‘charming’, ‘entertaining’ and ‘heart-warming’ memoir answers that question.
Reviews:
AudioFile magazine
“…not simply a reader but an artist of the spoken word…”
“…Gordon Griffin, an entire acting company in one person…”
“Witty and moving memoir of how a working-class boy becomes THE voice of the spoken word.
Honest and vivid account plus excellent advice for those of us who work with words.” Miriam Margolyes£3.50 -
State of Mind
We all have challenges to face in life, some greater than others. Most of us born in the developed world are extremely fortunate – something we need to remind ourselves of from time to time. It becomes apparent that it is more the state of mind than the actual circumstances which affect our ability to lead full and happy lives.
This is brought home to us when we meet those less fortunate than ourselves. I see this with friends who maybe seemed shy and insecure but when they suffer a serious illness like cancer or some other disaster that occurs in their life, they find a courage and strength that surprises and impresses us all.
Disabled people have much to teach us, can we even imagine life day after day in the circumstances in which some people live their entire lives, wheelchair-bound, unable to see or hear or communicate, control their actions or their lives? Yet many of these people show nothing but affection and gratitude, they remain cheerful, positive, and determined, to know such people is an honour and a truly humbling experience.
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Stepping Out Of The Ordinary
Something gnawing away inside his body was suggesting it should be taken out of its comfort zone. At 30 years old, Mike discovered rock and winter climbing perhaps a little later in life, it just meant he had to train harder and catch up on the others rather quickly, pretty soon progression into the world of mountaineering, alpinism and interesting adventures were to follow. In writing from his personal accounts from Alaska to the southern tip of Patagonia or from Baffin Island to Norway’s Lofoten Isles, he endeavours to transport the reader to those remarkable worlds to become intimate with them and their extremes of remoteness, wanting to share the rawness and intimacy of nature which is truly inspirational. Conventional family holidays were a thing of the past as Lynne, his wife, joined in on some of the adventures. All of these were achieved while both held down full-time employment, Mike as a production manager and Lynne as a dental receptionist. Their offspring, Gary and Nicky, were not short of a few adventures of their own too. Unfortunately, in the places visited, the evidence became abundantly clear of our rapidly changing world and of the tragic impact the human race is having upon it.
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Tainted Beauty
Yvy grew up believing in who she was, but what she didn’t know was how to live her truth. Trapped in a body that presented as male, Yvy had no choice but to take on life’s obstacles whilst attempting to desperately find the answer to living her truth.
And so her journey begins. Yvy embarked towards uncharted territory, knowing that she would inevitably reach her truth and live as an authentic creation. But what she wasn’t prepared for was the lessons she would learn along the way. Lessons that would shape her gender identity and give her the confidence to be unapologetic when it comes to being who she was born to be.
Tainted Beauty is a heartfelt, sexy and hilarious no-holds-barred look into the life of a woman who isn’t afraid to tell it like it is.
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Tangled Thoughts of Reason
Aged 21, Owen has lost all his self-worth and self-control. Addicted to crack and trying to get clean, he falls back into the same cycle again and again. Losing his mind and falling deeper into depression, he needs to make a change before he loses himself completely.
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Tank to Tower
Tank to Tower is the story of a young woman’s transition from childhood to womanhood, through the many facets of life. It takes the reader on that journey with the writer from the heat of the Arabian desert, the dust and flies of Western Australian farmland to lush New Zealand bush and beyond. For instance how does a young bride, fresh from the city, cope with the starkly different challenges of rural life, or from having very limited culinary skills to catering for a number of healthy appetites with several hearty meals every day?
This is the record of an interesting and everchanging life full of fascinating places and of interesting but unremarkable people living full but very normal lives.
It is a story of challenge and resilience, lack and abundance, sadness and joy, and all the other ingredients that go into building a tale of ordinary people with ordinary lives that will resonate with many, perhaps encourage a few and hopefully entertain them all.
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Teaching In Chongqing
Today, China is so important. We need to understand why this empire (it is not a country) acts as it does. What are its intentions? This book is not a political analysis, but simply a record of one westerner’s experiences teaching English in Chongqing. Nevertheless, being part of the daily life of ordinary people has given rise to valuable insights. Chongqing is a major city with some 17 million people: it is not a backwater and was China’s wartime capital. But it is important for another reason. The popular mayor when the author began his time there was Bo Xilai, a rival to Xi Jinping; his subsequent removal and imprisonment says a lot.
The author’s daily experiences were fascinating, a real privilege to visit such interesting places and to meet so many wonderful people. These should be shared, which is what this book does.
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Teaching in Fuzhou, China
English is the world’s international language. Consequently, many speakers of other languages have taken great pains to make English their second language, mainly for practical reasons rather than for love of the language itself. Practical reasons include travel, business, academic intercourse and inter-governmental communication. China recognises this need and, in consequence, the author spent more than ten years in China, finding the experience interesting, enlightening and exciting, albeit at times frustrating. It was a wonderful time. In the author’s view, it is essential that the world comes to know and understand this huge empire. This book is full of observations from within the country, which should help in presenting China, its people, customs, educational systems and way of life, its contradictions and its attractions as well as its darker side. Most importantly, it gives some insight into how the people think – and this is important. Hopefully readers learn something while enjoying the experience.
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Teaching in Tongren, China
Since the accession of Xi Jinping as the supreme Chinese leader, the empire has been becoming increasingly aggressive, to the point of bullying. Its so-called “Belt and Road Initiative” seems designed to lure poorer nations into a debt trap, forcing them into subservience to Chinese demands. Its huge fishing fleet is encroaching upon the legitimate fishing grounds of many other nations. It is seeking to expand its territory to include almost the entire South China Sea, Taiwan, parts of India, Japanese islands, etc. Indeed most of “China” is conquered territory. Chinese efforts to control Australia have been extraordinary.
Yet is this the whole story? This book describes just how wonderful the Chinese people can be. The students I taught at Tongren University were amongst the best I have taught anywhere. It was not hard to love them.
The town of Tongren is itself quite beautiful, surrounded by conical hills and built around the green, winding Li Jiang River.
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Teenagers and How to Succeed
It doesn’t matter whether your own teenage years are a distant memory or only yesterday, you will love this book. If you have your very own living, barely functioning teenager at home, you’ll laugh until you cry. Or just cry. If you have younger children on the cusp of their teenage years, you’ll definitely be crying, as you’ll know that all the things you are reading will be happening very shortly and there is nothing you can do about it (within the bounds of the law, anyway). And if you are a teenager yourself, it’s likely you’ll laugh yourself silly because you probably think it’s about someone else.
Either way, you’ll be immersed. It’s a frank and honest account of the incidents and accidents the author’s own children got up to, with some of his own memories of teenage years. His youngest son features very heavily in the stories, as he was a constant feature whilst the book was being written, especially as he left a perfectly good job to join the circus.
You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll wish you never grew up and certainly wonder why you ever had children.
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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.
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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…
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