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?

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.

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.

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.

Missionaries, Mercenaries and Madmen

“We’ll have to leave. This country has had it.” My husband made the decision and I followed along feeling like my heart was being ripped from my chest. Robert Mugabe switched the trigger that changed our lives. He announced that University in Zimbabwe would be for black people only. We were white Africans and so needed to find a place where our children would have educational options. Australia was the obvious choice. This memoir takes the reader on a journey to places most Australians have no idea exists in their own country. The isolated, remote locations where Aboriginal people live, not as their ancestors had done but propped up by government welfare. Wild places where hunting and gathering had become recreational rather than a way of life and where western culture, knowledge and values were imposed on ancient knowledge and ways of being. The confused, bastardised culture emerging felt like stepping into hell. The dregs of white society had gravitated north; economic refugees, criminals, drunks and druggies and God botherers all trying to survive in a melee of heat, dust, flies, mosquitoes, and topical downpours. We were not welcomed. This is where my story began.

Mongrels versus Pedigrees

There is no such thing as endings—only new beginnings. Life is all about perspective: the positive, the negative and how we respond to the challenges that life throws at us. Being diagnosed with cancer can really change your perspective on things! Cancer is a test of your patience, your strength, your courage and your faith.

This book is one woman’s reflections on her own diagnosis and her own personal outlook on her fight against cancer. From diagnosis, through to treatment with chemotherapy and targeted therapies, to the possibility of surgery, this book is an honest account of the experiences of an individual determined to fight and survive, and the positive changes that her diagnosis brought.

What could have been the beginning of the end, was actually the start of a new beginning.

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. 

Mr Movie Man

Films. Cinemas. Movies.  

They capture our imagination throughout our lives for whatever reason. Everyone has a different memory to associate with a film title or cinema name. Be it your very first experience at a young age, your first date and that kiss and cuddle in the back row or perhaps even a film that scared the life out of you!  

This book brings back to life a distant memory to each and every one for their own reason. Be it your favourite movie star or that musical’s song that wouldn’t leave your head for weeks, that journey to a far distant galaxy or just being chased by a giant man-eating shark.  

Cinema is the only place to capture all these adventures.

My Journey to Becoming a Black Male Social Worker

This book is a frank and detailed telling of experiences of racism, lack of support and the challenges experienced on the quest to become a social worker. Debonico Aleski Brandy-Williams holds nothing back and is unapologetic in highlighting the positives and negatives of his journey this far. He feels that as a black male social worker, his story is one that should be told.

He has a passion and a drive to help young people, especially young black boys/men, achieve their full potential and considers himself an advocate of finding new, innovative, and unconventional ways to engage and communicate with young people. Aleski is also interested in how young people use trust as a sacred commodity and to this extent, he has developed and is doing further research on a concept he has conceived called the ‘Paradigms of Youth Trust’.

Aleski decided to write this book to highlight the challenges and obstacles faced by black social workers as they start and continue their chosen career path. He has used his personal experiences, along with some of his previous research from his postgraduate dissertation which was entitled The Black Male Effect: Challenges & Experiences of Young Black Male Social Workers in Children and Young People Services.

Aleski hopes that this book is enjoyed by all who read it, and that it will help to continue the conversations and changes that needs to happen within the social work sector. He also wants to encourage more young black men to become social workers and make a difference in the lives of children, young people, and their families.

My Kaleidoscopic Life

My Kaleidoscopic Life is an account of the life during a century of upheaval and social change. It is a record of adaptation to circumstances and potential opportunities, rather than any burning ambition to become rich or famous.

However, the frequent changes in direction and necessary adaptation are certainly unusual. They provide unique and intimate glimpses into rarely described aspects of social history from before World War Two to post-Brexit Britain.

My Land of Counterpane or My Résumé

The author is a retired registered nurse who has published three previous works: I’m Not Allowed to Say is about her experience as an active duty army captain; At the Foot of Rawlins Mountain is a series of vignettes of life growing up on an island paradise; and Casualties of Life details her early childhood, nursing training and the vagaries of life. Although not part of a series, two of these books dealt with her early nursing training and experience. All three were published under the name J’nette C. Bryant. This current work is a comprehensive detail of her nursing career as viewed through the eyes of, and experienced by, an emigrant. It covers a wide variety of health care settings to include: nursing homes, private and public sectors, and military and veterans’ administration institutions.

The author has one daughter and lives in New York.

My Sage

Clouds pass and so do our opportunities… 

Have you ever met a sage? 

Can you see the extraordinary in your daily life? 

Did you observe the spark of clairvoyance in the modern days?

A sage can revolve you to experience the extraordinary and you will then see the daily miracle. 

A sage can give you many tales to keep a secret with a miraculous edge. 

In this book, you will find some of these extraordinary events from real-life experiences in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.