The Last of the Lucky Childhoods

This is the story of my childhood recollections while growing up in Glasgow. The streets were still for kids and we knew how to make our own fun, though some of the mischiefs we got up to may not be classed as fun nowadays.

If we were poor, we didn’t realise it; if we were ill-treated, we thought of it as normal. Kids didn’t complain in those days (or they got a ‘slap across the lug’). Kids knew their place, we just got on with life and enjoyed it to the fullest.

As Billy Connolly would say: “What I’m about to tell you is true…well mostly.”

If any of my old pals, relatives, or friends recognise themselves on these pages, you’re most likely right…but I have changed the names (in some instances) to protect the guilty!

To Cry No More

Can you remember the last time you cried?

Life can take many directions. Each path leads to a different result. Which one you choose is determined by the previous path. 

How do we decide which path to take?

Linda’s paths could have been determined from her birth, her upbringing or the tears that flowed from her falls and tumbles or the joys and jubilations.

This is the true story about Mazie, who demonstrates that no matter what life throws at you, there is always another door to walk through, another path to follow. She shows that strength and willpower can turn any bad experience around and that no matter how hard, sometimes it’s just best to walk away.

Linda’s successes were through pure fight and determination. Her courage allowed her to see through her horrific childhood, her traumatic motherhood and her final moments with her true love.

Follow Linda’s paths entwined with pure emotion. Which path would you have taken? How many tears would you have shed?

Not Abandoned Nor Forgotten

Have you ever wondered if God exists?Has your faith been tested to the limit?Is your life in a dark place despite having faith?Are you waiting for answers to prayers?Are you feeling hopeless, still waiting for breakthrough?Lynn Attwood engages readers through vivid descriptions of rejection, health issues, torment and despair, thwarted opportunities and a life which, essentially, was a ‘wilderness experience’ in which she felt separated from God and isolated from others. Quotations from Scripture illustrate God’s promises and intentions and how these were evident in her life during specific time periods and critical events.Having faith, Lynn persevered in prayer, holding fast to God’s promises. Eventually her life changed. Hope is stirred as Lynn’s experiences unfold to reveal the heart of God.If you want your life to change, draw inspiration from how God turned Lynn’s life around.Through her own story, Lynn illustrates the truth of God’s word in her life – His love, faithfulness, goodness and mercy.

On with the Show

On with the Show follows on from the first volume of Love and Music, a joint autobiography of singers Christopher Davies and Barbara Kendall.

In 1965, Barbara graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London and joined Chris in the musical profession. They had gotten married in 1963 and this is the interesting story of how they coped with what was bound to be a demanding way of life.

Passive Conflict

Born on the serene island of Jersey, Irene Camus Smith’s life took an unexpected turn as the shadows of war descended upon her homeland. The Channel Islands, Britain’s oldest possessions, faced the threat of Hitler’s invasion during World War II. When the islands were demilitarized and left defenceless, German forces swiftly occupied them for five arduous years, marking Hitler’s triumph of setting foot on British soil after centuries.

The Channel Islanders endured unimaginable hardships under occupation, particularly during the siege that followed the Allied invasion of Normandy. Facing starvation and struggling to survive, their resilience was tested to the core. Among the countless stories of struggle, Irene’s family narrative unfolds, capturing the essence of the islanders’ collective experience.

Through their journey, we witness the strength of the human spirit amid adversity, as bonds are tested, and sacrifices made. In this poignant tale of survival and hope, Irene Camus Smith’s remarkable story stands as a testament to the unwavering resilience of the Channel Islanders during one of history’s darkest chapters.

Refuge in the Land of Silver

Time and again, history comes back to haunt us. How we choose to deal with it often shapes our own happiness. Can we learn to live with our own decisions and the actions of others? Is there a difference between the need to know and the want to know?

James fights to hold on to memories, which are slowly but surely being stolen from him. Will he make peace with his past before it is too late? Can this happen through telling the story of someone he barely knows?

Will Lorena cope with what she discovers about her family history? Or will it destroy her and her loved ones? Are you defined by the sins of your forefathers?

Revelations From Spirit: Over-coming Grief

Who hasn’t wondered if there is life after death? Margaret discovers there is, following the sudden unexplained death of her 22-year-old son Marcus, who died in his sleep.

Margaret couldn’t accept there was no medical explanation and went searching for an answer. Her quest ultimately leads her to spiritual contact Mediumship. Then, not only does she discover why her son died, but also received amazing revelations about his life in the spirit realms.

Revelations from Spirit: Over-coming Grief provides insight, solace, and hope to those affected by grief and sorrow that death invariably leaves behind. It is a heartfelt story of loss and discovery, revealing death is not the end, but a new beginning.

Solo in Oz

My travelling adventure started after my son, Stefan, and his friend, Rob, set off to the California Coast in America for a few weeks staying in hotels and backpacking across America to Las Vegas. I decided on my trip to Australia and it set a travel bug off inside me to do a two-month adventure of a lifetime backpacking and staying in hotels and travelling 12,000 miles across Australia by train.

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.

Thursday’s Child Had Far to Go

Training Indian village children to look after buffaloes, instructing girls to use a sewing machine, running adult literacy classes for rural women – Did Betty Robinson in her Youth Employment Office in Dunfermline in the 1950s and 1960s realise where her application for missionary training with the London Missionary Society would take her? Three years of missionary training did not prepare her for that. A buffalo and a sewing machine can literally save a village and give its children a future.

Then romance and marriage to a fellow Scot, Leslie Robinson, General Surgeon and Medical Superintendent at the Church of South India’s hospital in Chickballapur, Karnataka.

White Socks and Chalk Dust

Proof that truth is often stranger than fiction, this hilarious and poignant account of the unlikely journey of a mobile soft-drink salesman and sometime band member to school headship, is made still more compelling by virtue of the fact that all events leading up to and during this metaphorical mountain climb are entirely true…

Kicking on

Kicking On by Andrew Jobling is the account of one man's journey from a very unlikely professional footballer to personal trainer, cafe owner and finally ‘Accidental Author'.Funny, candid and poignant, Kicking On is a fly-on-the-wall account of life as a young sportsman and the personal journey which ensues for Andrew Jobling following his dismissal from the St Kilda Football Club. The author's self-awareness and observation has led to this frank and humorous account of self-development, life's highs and lows, honesty and a desire ultimately to share his experiences and acquired wisdom with the wider world. This is the great debate about how much is fate and how much of life comes down to our own choices. What comes across strongly in Kicking On is the desire to teach, inform and to instruct - because Andrew Jobling has found the true meaning of life and his life in particular, an understanding which many search for and which pass some by completely. Pithy and without self-pity, this book will shed a little light into the lives of everyone who reads it.