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Life's Golden Thread
This is an account of the life of a Jewish psychiatrist growing up in Melbourne, Australia in the 1940s and 1950s as a child of a traumatised immigrant mother who had a limited capacity for love. The consequence of this was poor self-esteem as well as an inability to become emotionally separate and realise his potential for love and relationships. Another result was a difficult first marriage, the psychological manifestations of which are discussed in the context of growing psychological self-awareness and eventual emotional re-birth that also contributed to a deeper understanding of psychotherapy. Dr Rose discusses his medical student days culminating in his decision to study and enter into a career in psychiatry that was varied and rich in nature. He subsequently had successful careers in the fields of psychotherapy, treatment of sexual difficulties and forensic psychiatry. Dr Rose gives considerable detail with rich anecdotes of his life in each of these fields including de-identified case descriptions. He describes his experiences of working in the mental hospitals of Victoria. He also describes his experiences in the 1970s and early 1980s in the field of sexology at a time in which many of the experts led colourful lives, as well as his rich experience in civil and criminal forensic psychiatry. Finally, Dr Rose writes about his surprising encounter with Christian religion and how this together with his second marriage led to the sense of fulfilment he has today. A golden thread has indeed been woven through his life.£3.50 -
Life's Too Short to Wear Dull Shirts
Graham Badrock was born in 1954 in the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Australia. That indeed made him a baby boomer. Growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, life was uncomplicated and easy. He recalled asking his father, “Are we middle class, Dad?”
The family didn’t seem to go without, and it wasn’t until he was older that he had time to reflect on his good fortune. As he grew older, his leisure time was spent trying to find a girlfriend. When found, they embarked on a wonderful adventure, indulging in things that today might be off limits to their children.
They moved to Balnarring on the Mornington Peninsula several years after being married. Had the ‘Don’s Party’ times in their spa, much to the delight of the neighbourhood.
Tried to learn to sail and almost drowned, conquered rock climbing with a degree of terror at Mt Buffalo.
Grew up finally and moved to the Victorian town of Bright. Ran a bed and breakfast for over 19 years until the novelty of being nice every day took its toll. Finished signwriting after 45 years as technology caught up with him, thank God.
Travelled all over the place, Norfolk Island where they almost crashed and escaped Lord Howe Island.
They say, “Everyone has a story.” This is ‘his’ so far.
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Life, Death, Tai Chi and Me
Picture this: you wake in a hospital bed. Searing pain courses through your body from your toes to your head. On your head, there is a hole where they’ve placed a drain to counter the effects of the terrible subarachnoid haemorrhage you’ve suffered. You open your eyes, and the botched blood still remains in the right eye, as does the appalling double vision. You struggle to pull yourself a little more upright and reach over to the table with trembling hand to get the eye-patch to cover the now weeping eye.
There’s the hustle and bustle of the Intensive Care Unit beyond, and a TV plays in an adjacent bed. Every sound is muffled and distorted, like profound, dismal cathedral bells. This is hell. You struggle to sit up some more, pushing against the paralyzed right foot that slips helplessly against the sheets. You lean over again to hit the button for the bell that summons the nurse; more morphine is needed for the exhausting pain. Tonight, you will suffer a near-fatal catastrophic seizure brought on by blood seeping into the brain.
Life, Death, Tai Chi and Me - My Brain Injury Journey is the incredible true story of an epic struggle to defy the odds and survive the most profound physical and mental trauma.
If you've had a brain injury or know someone who has, if you've ever wondered what a near-death experience is actually like, if you've been intrigued by the power that martial arts can have on one's mental and physical resolve, if you question your own mortality and your place in the universe, or if you want to know what it's like to come back from the dead, then this book is for you.£3.50 -
Living in Interesting Times: Curse or Chance?
These are the memoirs and reflections on the most acute issues of the contemporary world by a boy from the Estonian countryside who, through accident and pure ambition, ended up as a professor at Moscow University and adviser to President Gorbachev on matters of international law. After a stint as head of Estonian diplomacy at crucial moments in the restoration of its independence, he later became a centennial professor at the LSE and chair of international law at King’s College London. This is not a traditional autobiography. Besides reflecting on issues he dealt with while advising Soviet leaders, such as Yakovlev in his speech on the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact or the status of the Kuril Islands, and their repercussions in today’s world, the book analyses the roots of the crisis within liberal democracy, the upsurge of populism, the rise of China and the re-emergence of Russia as a great power. A Marco Polo fellow at Jiaotong University in China and recently awarded the highest Russian Order for foreigners – the Friendship Order by President Putin, Professor Müllerson, who lives in London, feels equally at home discussing the renewal of great-power competition, the problems of the European Union including Brexit, the conflict in Ukraine, as well as the negative impacts of political correctness both in the former USSR and today’s West. Having lived equal thirds of his life in three different worlds and worked in and visited many countries as a UN diplomat, he is a man who understands small country mentality, though being ‘spoilt’ by great-power mindset.
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Love and Music Volume One
This is a joint autobiography of two singers whose lives have run in parallel from 1961 until the present day. It is based on the couple's letters and diaries. They met at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 1961 and married in 1963. Love and Music - Volume One illustrates the training, dedication and grit that preparing for a life in the musical theatre entails. It also shows the enjoyment that such a life brings not only to the audience but to the performers themselves. As they say: "It's a great life if you don't weaken, but if you can't stand the heat in the kitchen, get out!!!"
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Love Beyond Love
This very personal and moving love story takes us from the anticipation of the very first date through to the moment of the very last breath. It encompasses sheer joy, romance, fortitude and sadness. But love and memories live on forever because this is a Love Beyond Love. – Jan Smith (a friend)
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Love or Money
Based on true events. Scott, a boy from a broken but good home suffers years of bullying from a very young age all before turning to fight back. And he quickly gets a taste for it as he realises he can fight back. He is more than capable of hurting people, which pretty much sets the tone for the future.
Along the way, he meets a series of crazy, messed-up characters from the Essex underworld, getting himself into deep muddy waters but finding a way through, a way to “stay afloat”. Pacman was a powerful, influential and charismatic Londoner who came to Essex and into his life with promises of being able to afford anything he would ever want or need. The same way he trapped a gang of about 14 people into believing he was their future!
Seeing hundreds of thousands of pounds pass hands every day, Scott was drawn into the dark world of gangs, robbery and hard drugs after finding a serious thirst for cash from a very young age. Would he ever escape this man and his gang without serious consequences?The legend of “the Essex boys” is still going strong, well, this is one Essex boy that didn’t get caught and the gang… they were ten times more ruthless and twenty times more dangerous for sure! There were no rules, no loyalty and no morals! Love or money meant exactly that! Your money or everything you love… your call! On the brink of death, would Scott ever come back to the living? If so, how?
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Memoirs of a Failure
Tormented by an impoverished childhood, plagued by incessant bullying, and damaged by an abusive and violent relationship. Homelessness and broke, following failure after, failure, how does someone find the strength to keep coming back?
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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.
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Memory Stick
Crafty, cunning and certainly clever, Memory Stick is a firework display of different literary styles and genres. Crammed with detail and facts. Just like a memory stick.
Book club readers have described this first volume of Oliver Milner’s entertaining autobiography as “William Boyd and Bill Bryson meet James Herriot and Sue Townsend.”
Structurally Memory Stick is based around 134 footnotes, taken from opensource Wiki history references, between 1961 and 1987. The story starts in wet and windy North Yorkshire. Flies to Nigeria. Flies back again. Goes back to Nigeria. Flies back again. Neil Armstrong lands on the moon. Olly goes to Wales. Takes in Norwich, ends up in London. Tames a penguin, and then…?
Just download Memory Stick, it gets rather interesting.
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Military Wife
Military Wife is a powerful, honest and true autobiography of an incredibly strong, independent and family-orientated woman.
The catalogue of emotions of love, loss and endurance of adulthood embrace relatable situations, some familiar and some alien.
Her brutal honesty and humour captures you in the web of family values whilst fighting her own war in her internal family.
A fantastic read from an original perspective, Elise Spencer-Hughes has opened up the door to what life is really like on the other side of the battleground. Be embraced by a mother, sister, friend and an ex-army wife that fought for her own self-worth.
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Mimi’s Memoirs
Having been inundated with fan-mail and questions for nearly three decades, actress and director Sue Hodge decided it was time for everyone to know the truth behind the making of the internationally known hit comedy series ’Allo ’Allo!
Told with heart and honesty through the eyes of that madcap, pocket dynamo character Mimi Labonq, Sue gives a hilarious and no-holds-barred insight into things you would only know about if you’d been there. How did she fly across a cornfield as the flying nun? (Or maybe she didn’t.) Did she really get inside a grandfather clock? What was her true relationship with René? What did he really do to her when he was pushing her along as a baby in the pram?
To find out the answers to these questions plus much much more, read Mimi’s Memoirs, and you will understand why ’Allo ’Allo! became one of the biggest BBC smash-hits of all time.
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