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Last Touch
Dean Jamieson was murdered on 04/04/2006, leaving an irreplaceable void in the lives of those who held him dear. Dean's mother, Josephine, pens a devastating novel that is a deeply intimate and personal examination of the life and death of her child and the grief that accompanies such a loss.Jamieson critiques the landscape following an untimely death; the support of the social sector and the police, the role of the media and reportage and the effect on family.Jamieson's prose, whilst at times visceral, portrays the emotional weight of burying a child but offers, amongst the darkness, hope. This is a work, whilst being intimate, that transcends the personal and offers solidarity to those who have suffered the loss of a loved one.
£7.99 -
Mayfly
Much has been written about aviation, nearly all of it focussed on the glamorous work of pilots. Even cabin crew have checked in their stories. However, though a hundred of us stand behind every pilot, virtually nothing has been written about groundlings, without whom there would be no flying. Mayfly is one man’s account of his two-and-a-half-decade adventure in aviation; the fun, the excitement, the tragedy, as witnessed (mostly) from the ground.
£9.99 -
My Life, and Its Ups and Downs
Who would have thought that growing up could be such fun? Especially in a village where you knew everyone, and we all looked out for each other. It appears with today’s hardships and crime that the fifties were the best years to be alive. It was safe to walk about the streets, even as a five-year-old at school. The pace of life was a lot slower and more genteel. Not so many cars were on the roads, and jobs were easy to change if you didn’t like the one you were in.
In this heartwarming memoir, Anna Goddard takes us through the ups and downs of her life journey, from her humble beginnings in a Kentish village to her varied career pursuits, whirlwind romances, and the joys and challenges of raising a young family. With refreshing candour and humour, Anna reflects on coming of age in post-war Britain, training as a nurse, her unplanned twin pregnancy, and navigating young motherhood. As times change, so do attitudes, fashions, and relationships. Through it all, Anna retains her wit, warmth, and lust for life.
Brimming with nostalgia and hard-won wisdom, this is the story of an ordinary yet extraordinary woman making her way through extraordinary times. Her account offers a window into a bygone era and reminds us of the resilience of the human spirit.
£6.99 -
Sixteen Chickens on a Trampoline
Faye Lippitt is a journalist who found her inspiration in the happy chaos that enveloped their home as she and her husband raised their six children. The six arrived in eight years, sometimes arriving two by two, which made for interesting times.
This book is a series of snapshots of the family at their home in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies. It is also about choices. As Faye puts it, when chaos rains, your response is your choice. Laugh? Cringe? Cry? Laughter feels a whole lot better.
It’s the author’s hope that busy parents will steal five minutes of the day to read one of the stories, and another five to write their own in the back pages of the book. For time flies, and memories fade and the things our children do and say are crazy enough and precious enough to keep forever.
Faye, and her husband Greg, now live in the Caribbean and are blessed with enough grandchildren to keep the laughter coming.
£7.99 -
The House Is Burning
It’s the 1950s and mounting political unrest consumes Rwanda. With fading monarchy, intensifying colonial rule and whispers of rebellion, countless native families find age-old traditions under attack.
For Abel A. Nkunda’s family, the shifting climate grows increasingly hostile. As powers vie for control around them, they face a painful choice: take flight to save all they cherish or stay to watch it burn.
Venturing into remote wilds in search of refuge, grandparents lead young Abel towards an uncertain future. With each step into the unknown, doubts arise. Can a foreign haven truly preserve their sacred cattle herding heritage from extinction?
Follow the Nkundas’ quest across a changing landscape where long-held customs blink at the brink. Will new mountains shelter this household from escalating threats? Or will the life they knew go up in smoke? Immerse yourself in one family’s struggle to find safe harbour for endangered livelihoods and identity before the house left behind is reduced to ashes.
£8.99 -
The Accidental Speech Therapist
For those who feel they are content to be working with the cards that life has dealt them – beware!
I was that person – enjoying my work, enjoying the good salary I earned and enjoying considerable job satisfaction. So why would I throw that away and allow myself to be carried along by curiosity and vanity?
This book is the story of what happened next and of the wonderful variety of people I met along the way.
£8.99 -
#The Travelling Panda
Keep your eyes open. Life can be a rollercoaster, but it’s always an adventure! From car beds to tents, pain to padded pants, middle-aged housewife to a traveling Panda… there are many roads to travel, sights to see, and adventures to be had. Do you need to seek them out or simply fall into them?
What adventure awaits around the next corner or across Europe? The only real limitations are those you place on yourself, so live each day to the fullest and revel in every moment; memories are what we leave behind.
#The Travelling Panda is a story of plans gone awry, unexpected escapades, and finding the extraordinary in the everyday. Join Panda and be inspired to uncover your next adventure… or recognize that it’s already happening!
After all, it’s your road, but where will it take you?
£11.99 -
Dad’s New Dress
An email wings its way across the sea and the desert arriving in Suzie's inbox one normal Wednesday afternoon.
What she discovers about her father in this email comes as a surprise to say the least.
Follow her story as she struggles to cope with her emotions in the present and her memories of the past.
Feel her turmoil as she examines her family relationships and tries to cope with the changes in her life.
Will Suzie come to terms with her new-fangled father? Will they start to rebuild a relationship?
Find out in this story, full of light and dark moments, about an ordinary woman with an extraordinary father.
£10.99 -
Over the Hill
This book tells the story of modern day pioneering. It chronicles a family’s move to rural Ireland in the last decade of the twentieth century, and describes their struggle to begin with nothing and build a home on the side of a valley in the hills of County Clare, using a mixture of stones gathered from the fields and concrete.
The family were determined to grow their own food and live as self-sufficiently as was practical, despite the poor soil. It also shows the attitudes of the time, and the generosity, hospitality, and sense of community of their Irish neighbours.
All of life is here and the book is sometimes humorous, sometimes tragic, and always inspiring.
£6.99 -
My Wartime vs. Pandemic
Everyone now knows what life is like during a Pandemic but if you have ever wondered whether living through it is better or worse than living in a World War, this little book is for you.
In this contest of war versus pandemic, personal recollections illustrate what life was like in the years immediately preceding the Second World War and the changes that occurred after the outbreak of hostilities.
It was not a game of two halves. There was a lengthy interval of seventy-five years between the end of one event and the start of the other. In both cases there were some own goals, a lot of off-sides and numerous penalties, but the referee leaves it to the reader to decide which side won, if any.
£6.99 -
Don't Worry, He Doesn't Bite
The vets on TV are always depicted as perfect clinicians, with sunshine and rainbows bursting out from their individual patients. But what media companies fail to show you are the more ‘uncommon’ cases, like a dog eating some used condoms, for example. This book aims to rectify this perception, specifically taking the reader on a journey through what life is like graduating as a veterinary surgeon. You will read about some pretty stupid cases my colleagues and I have experienced, all of which are true, though I must admit, I do have a habit of not letting the truth get in the way of a good story. So, sit back, relax, and take a break from this mundane existence we call life, as I show you the world through the eyes of a newly graduated veterinary surgeon.
£10.99 -
Diary of a Wartime Unmarried Mother
This diary gives a remarkably vivid description of the life of Doreen Bates, a professional young woman, who went against the social norms of her time to intentionally have twins fathered by an older married, but childless, colleague in the Inland Revenue, where they both worked as Income Tax Inspectors. At the time the twins were born Doreen did not know if their father could, or would, form part of the family. In the event, he was able to make frequent visits and helped practically, emotionally and financially with the childrens’ upbringing.
The diary commences a few months after the twins were born. Doreen lived with them and a live-in nanny in South London where they experienced relentless days and nights of enemy bombing. In 1944 the twins and their nanny were evacuated to the incomparably safer and beautiful rural setting of a Wiltshire village where Doreen joined them for every weekend.
In contrast to the chaos and fear that accompanied the wartime conditions, Doreen’s emotional life is much less turbulent than in the previous volume of her diary. This reflects the profound satisfaction she felt as a result of achieving her dream of having children. She was a remarkably enlightened parent. Her recording of their lives in this diary is detailed, intimate, and often humorous. Historical happenings are mentioned, but form only the incidental backdrop to her domestic and professional life.
“Brimming with soul, passion, candour and wit, the diaries of Doreen Bates are an extraordinary read, giving a vivid insight into the life of a woman unvanquished by her time, a woman who leaps from the page so strikingly that you feel your pulse beating in time with hers. Edited in an act of great love and generosity by her children, they should take their place as one of the essential diaries of the twentieth century for the window they offer into another world, another heart.”
– Lucy Caldwell
£10.99