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The Corridors of Hope
Author Eric Buhle Gumbi has penned a captivating memoir that delves into his personal encounters, both challenging and interesting, as he navigates various socio-political landscapes. The Corridors of Hope takes readers on a journey through the author’s youthful experiences, both inside and outside of the classroom.
Through his narrative, Gumbi explores the people who have supported him along the way and how they have helped to redirect him towards success. Looking back on his childhood, the author identifies moments of both rise and fall, paying particular attention to his high school and socioeconomic endeavours that have kept the ball of life rolling.
With a keen eye for detail, Gumbi brings his personal history to life, weaving a compelling story that captures the complexities of growing up in a rapidly changing world. The Corridors of Hope is a powerful memoir that offers readers an intimate look at the challenges and triumphs that have shaped the author’s life.
£8.99 -
The Cruise Vacation
The Cruise Vacation takes readers on a wild ride through the highs and lows of addiction, as told through the unfiltered lens of a former nurse turned drug addict. From the hectic pace of a UK hospital to the dizzying rush of snorting, injecting and smoking any narcotic he could get his hands on, the protagonist’s story is a cautionary tale of excess and adventure. As he spirals out of control, he exchanges his professional life for a world of self-anesthetisation, casual sex and multiple attempts to kick the habit. Through community rehabilitations, untold pain, regrets, and a horrific example of failure, the protagonist’s childhood sweetheart remains by his side, helping him cling to life and recognize his own mortality. This personal journal takes readers through the heart-wrenching journey of addiction, offering a stark reminder of the destructive power of drugs and the importance of love, family, and community in the face of overwhelming temptation.
£6.99 -
The Deeper Water is Ashore
Although the author’s graduation from his pre-sea nautical HMS Conway was both expected and anticipated, to be honoured at the same time with the Queen’s Gold Medal was certainly not, coming as it did as a deeply humbling surprise. Acceptance into the P. & O. Steam Navigation Company as a Cadet was far less of a given, as a pre-requisite was to successfully conclude a month at the Outward Bound Mountaineering School at Ullswater. There, one would be taken into the ‘tender care’ of three Marine Commandos, charged with ensuring that character building would indeed follow from adventures in mountaineering, canoeing and fell walking, not to mention the Commando assault course, athletics, and copious amounts of Kendal Mint Cakes!
His career path appeared to become even more defined as he gained Commission with the Royal Naval Reserve, his Master Mariner’s Certificate of Competence, and rose through the Officer ranks of the P. & O. Steam Navigation Company. However, the Seamans Strike in 1966 brought about a startling, but enervating, state of swiftly changing issues that demanded a fresh approach to, well, everything!
The Deeper Water is Ashore focuses on, and develops with, both fact and humour, the substantial changes which followed from significant strike action, and the eventual personal outcomes. If one can but briefly plagiarise and use the words of the poet and cleric John Donne (1572-1631), it was a case of “Seek not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.” (But never in the subjunctive tense!)
£10.99 -
The Gift
This is a fascinating story full of hope and passion for a worthy cause. The author has managed to capture a sad story and give it hope, humor, and humility. It is an entertaining and interesting memoir which is strengthened by the author’s personable and engaging authorial voice. There is a striking honesty to the work that allows the reader to elate in the joys and challenges of the author. It is a true case of finding hope in a seemingly hopeless situation. It is written in an accessible and immersive manner with detailed context that transports the reader into the author’s personal journey as well as his career. The book evokes a sense of empathy in the reader. It is enjoyable, thought-provoking, educational and inspirational. This is a lesson for all of us that there is faith, hope and love in some of the darkest moments we go through in our lives.
£6.99 -
The Gift
Sixteen-year-old Anne faces radical change in her life after a supernatural encounter. When an unusual person makes an unexpected visit, Anne finds she is linked to a decision that was made three hundred years earlier, and her peaceful and predictable life is shaken. She must respond to a complicated request that challenges her own sense of morality and integrity. Anne seeks out help from a local seer and healer who reveals secrets about her birth and her destiny. But will this guidance be enough to help Anne see through the deceptions and traps that have been set for her by nefarious forces?
Behind the pastoral loveliness of the Vermont hills, Anne experiences an invisible world, populated by both good and evil presences who vie for her very soul. A special gift has been given to Anne, but her use of this gift can bring either joy to others or be a curse to all.
£5.99 -
The Jawbone of a Carnivore
The Jawbone of a Carnivore will fill your imagination with tales of adventure, friendship, eccentric people, success and failure, as well as encounters with life and death. While I explore the adventurous life and the pathway to peace that can come from it, I do not offer instructions on how to pray. I will encourage you to believe that the way we live can become a prayer. This memoir of life on the edge of the unknown trusts that you will strike out on your own audacious exploration of the world and the spirit that surrounds it. Perhaps, through this, you will identify your pathway to peace and in so doing find yourself saying on some cold and snowy morning, “This is a prayer.”
£11.99 -
The Life I Won
A gripping tale of strength, resilience and of how life can be devastating yet beautiful at the same time.
She was born to a working-class family in Manchester. Her father was her inspiration. She idolised this charismatic man, and he told her every day that she was special. Emulating her beloved father’s work ethic, Mandy worked on a market stall at thirteen years old, then went off to university at eighteen, always working to help financially. From nothing and nowhere she built a successful career in an unexpected place. She was admired, respected and had made it.
Then her world literally fell apart and life took her on a journey from abundance to rock bottom. There were lessons to be learned on this rocky road and if she wanted to stay alive, it was her duty to learn them.
Facing relentless challenges, losing people she loved and every penny she had, many would have given up. But not this woman, because her dad had told her she was special.
Heart-breaking, enlightening and ultimately uplifting, The Life I Won tells a story of success despite adversity. It will teach you that if you have the right attitude, you can play the game of life and win, no matter how bad it seems.
£9.99 -
The Long Road to Freedom
People in my position must often ask themselves what the answer is? How did I get here? At what cost?
And how did I finally come out on the other side, into a world where the grass is green and smells fresh. And where life is worth living and relishing for every last facet of its existence - a place where utopia can exist for the simplest of men.
It is ironic that what finally triggered my debut book was being handed the psychiatric report on our youngest daughter’s suicide.
People always say that inside every good journalist is a book, and I always joked that that ruled me out in that case.
But then I thought about what everyone is looking for - the secret of a happy life. And this story is about the journey that it took to get there.
We will never be able to bring her back. Obviously. But we can take massive strides towards rebuilding a family that was once so strong, and bringing it back to a time when laughter really was the most valuable thing we had.
You will laugh and you will cry in equal measure, and hopefully somewhere along the way you will be inspired.
But what you could not do, no matter how you tried, is make any of this stuff up.£6.99 -
The Miseducation of Monique Ross
The Miseducation of Monique Ross, like Ms. Lauryn Hill’s debut album, is a love story: unapologetically in a league of its own with no other author ever utilizing its concept. Each chapter in the book is named after a track from the album. Monique likes to think if Lauryn Hill’s album were a book, it would be this one and vice versa.
It's a controversial feminist memoir that reads like fiction. It's unconventional, touching, strong, immersive, authentic, thought provoking, complex, emotional, powerful, intelligent, uncomfortably bold, direct, daring, unapologetic, inspiring, empowering, uplifting, raw, uncut, erotic and full of emotion and vulnerability. And its word play would leave the late great Maya Angelou proud to know she inspired it. If it could be summed up in one word, it would be self-liberating. There is something in this book for everyone, all told from Monique’s perspective.
To the author that's what sets it apart from anything else because like her, The Miseducation of Monique Ross says all the things that everyone else is afraid to say. It gives out those inner thoughts – the ones you think to yourself and maybe would share with only your closest friends or family members and sometimes simply keep to yourself because they’re that inappropriate. It touches on everything from women's issues, mental health issues, abortion, miscarriages, divorce, dating, parenting, marital issues, family, and most importantly love and other drugs.
£8.99 -
The Story of a Provincial Armenian Woman
‘Fel’ grows up in an Armenian province. What do we know about Armenia? A small Christian nation, locked between large powers, some of which are hostile. Preserving the Armenian culture is of paramount importance, but what is “culture”? As valuable as it is to the elder, the youth seek their own new values. This story is about an extraordinary young woman who struggled between respect for her country, love for her family and her own desire to be independent, preserve her self-esteem and live her ambitions. Through her eyes, we see what tensions a teenage girl in Armenia is subject to when she follows her own emotions and preferences. She takes the reader into her world filled with dilemmas, loyalty conflicts and confrontations. When her life story unfolds the reader is dragged into the astounding turmoil that results from her choices in life. Choices that are always inspired by her emotions, her personal principles and never-ending willpower to find respect, understanding and happiness, for herself and her loved ones.
This story is certainly an inspiration.
£8.99 -
The Strength Within
December 1979, Annie was three months pregnant with her second child and in excruciating pain. She couldn't walk, couldn't stand, couldn't sleep. In just a year, Annie had gone from being an active young woman to almost entirely incapacitated. Going from one doctor to another, after 18 months, Annie finally had a diagnosis - it was a malignant Ewing's tumour the size of a tennis ball on her knee. Cancer. Almost in the same breath, Annie was told she would have to have her leg amputated above the knee and then told the baby wouldn't survive the surgery…they both defied the odds. She was 26 years old and 26 weeks pregnant. Annie has demonstrated amazing courage sharing her story and overcoming adversity, further setbacks and living life to the full, encouraging the reader to believe there is light at the end of the tunnel, even when you can't see it.
£8.99 -
The Tale of a Hip
The Tale of a Hip is an account of the author’s 80-year life to date, through a period of huge social change, during which, technology has taken over from nature. It is the story of true love lasting six decades, despite the fact that physical aspects of the relationship were less good than they might have been, due to an unsuspected structural problem that only came to light when Pamela and her husband, John, took up dancing in their 40s.
The mystery of Pamela’s shifting bones is unravelled piece by piece, from art-influenced early years in Yorkshire, through the excitement and romance of working in a burgeoning post-war London, to marriage and, later, to obsession with dancing, resulting in back and hip issues for many years.
£7.99