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Recollections
I was born a girl and to my parents, it only meant one thing; I would be a servant to my siblings, husband, dad, in-laws and any other person who crossed my path in life. The happiness of my husband, children, family and extended family was important. I would be a cook, housemaid, sexual object to my husband, a mother, a nurse and all the commitments that come from being a servant wife.
Learning respect and obeying was why I was sent to a convent for my schooling. My brothers were more important than me and when the time came I was prevented from becoming a teacher because I was a girl and that would not be my role in life. I was made to believe that my happiness was not important, only the happiness of others. My mum had been my role model and I firmly believed all that rubbish until my husband died. I was finally out of the cage and into a future of freedom and possibilities. To be able to learn who I was and what I liked. Finally, I was able to think of myself.
My life from the age of two has been a huge rollercoaster and one that I never got the chance to get off until I was 64. I have kept a lot of my experiences to myself as I believed them to be my fault. I yearned for someone to love me and not abuse me and to be my friend and my confidant. The only unconditional love I ever got was from my two boys (my dogs Max and Sam) who left me when they were 16. I cherish and feel blessed by my two wonderful children’s love but it’s not the same.
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Scallywag – My Duvet Diva
Scallywag – My Duvet Diva is a true story about a man trying to rebuild his life, and a dog in need of a second chance.
It tells of their adventures together ashore and aboard their canal boat “Bluebell”, of their developing relationship and of their deepening companionship.
Atmospheric, funny, and sometimes sad, it will make you both laugh and cry.
Keep the tissues handy!
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Shikari Shaitan
This book is an account of four and a half years spent hunting man-eaters in the jungles of southern India. It also mentions some of the people the author met. There is also a description of the areas mentioned in the book. Finally, the book is a plea to the world that no effort should be spared in preserving the panthers and tigers of the Indian subcontinent.
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Taxi to Broadway
“Hey, did anyone tell you look like James Dean!”
It happened once in a while. I had just lit a cigarette… (can’t resist the slice of ham). Drawing into myself; playing the dead actor behind the wheel, cigarette dangling loosely from my pouting lips; angry at life… scowling at the world!
Christy Jones was no James Dean, but he could proudly tell people in his taxi that he was an actor nonetheless. And driving wasn’t the only time he could play a character.
The author of this memoir found a passion for acting and made it to Stella Adler’s Academy for Theater in the early ’60s. But to make a decent living he drove a taxi across New York for six years. Christy never had an accident, though he had plenty of narrow escapes during his six years of driving. He preferred driving at night, so he could make the rounds of agents and producers during the day. But the streets can be treacherous... and dangerous. A cab only lasts a couple of years on New York City streets. After a long time spent dropping people off at their destinations, he finally arrived at his own: Broadway.
Taxi to Broadway is a story of fleeting conversations and adventurous nocturnal driving, but in the end, it is what all great stories should be – a tale about following your passions.
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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.
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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.
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Waters of Love
This is the untold story of an unknown, illegitimate, poor, working class East London woman, happily married with children, and her friendship with a well-known, wealthy, South African Jew who became a celibate Anglican priest, also a doctor, pathologist, retreat conductor, spiritual director and confessor, author and deliverance minister, with her mystical visions supporting his ministry and his pastoral care.
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What Now
What Now is written to assist people through times of change. It’s particularly relevant in these very trying times of COVID-19. It is not a how-to manual; it’s an entertaining and humbling account of how one person discovered the most powerful transformation force of all! How he recreated himself after being unceremoniously sacked from the job he had dreamed about as a teenager.
What Now tells the story of how a barefoot and frightened little boy from the remote bush of Australia went on to play State of Origin for Queensland, represent Australia and achieve his dream of being a Head Coach, leading the London Broncos alongside Sir Richard Branson onto the hallowed turf of Wembley Stadium. After tragically losing his father at the tender age of three, he unconsciously sought out older people as role models.
In his story, Dan Stains reflects on his quest in search of the most powerful transformational force available. The lessons he uncovered on this journey lead the reader on a path to reveal their own What Now. The rollercoaster ride takes the reader on a sometimes uneasy and humbling path. From the foothills of East Cooyar, to the raucous applause of screaming fans at the best football stadiums in the world, Dan discovers that the ‘open sesame’ to change is by simply loving all of life, including and especially yourself, and the rest is taken care of.
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Writing in Wet Cement
All these years later, nightmares of that marriage wrack my sleep. Heart pounding, I am cowering, running, trying to escape. My whimpers awaken the man now beside me, who loves me with only sweetness, kindness and laughter. He cradles me, dragging me back from the past into the joy and safety of my current life. I stare into the darkness of the night and memories. I wonder, not why did that marriage fail, but why did I allow it to last so long? To the outside world, it looked perfect. Only my mother and closest friends knew the inside reality of my life and how I was caught in the velvet trap of psychological abuse. Jayne Lisbeth was a privileged child, yet death and loss tore apart her world from an early age. The explosion of the free love and feminist movements of the 60s and 70s provided a renaissance, which slipped away during her marriage and motherhood in the 80s. Then, discovering her mother's past secrets illuminated the connections between their generations. Through that she found the courage to escape and create a new future. In deeply personal ways, Ms. Lisbeth reveals the depths of pain and elevation of joy by sharing her most intimate life experiences through sensually evocative words and painterly writing. Writing in Wet Cement is a tale which resonates with all women.
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Broken Heart
Broken Heart tells the story of a lifelong racing cyclist with a long list of achievement who falls down to earth with a bump on receiving the news that his heart requires urgent medical attention. David has to drop his lifelong passion and come to terms with the realisation that he will need to undergo open-heart surgery. Shock, fear, and denial are just some of the emotions he has to work through.David tells the story of how he dealt with life-threatening moments and the anxieties this news brought him, as well as the adventurous and unexpected events which unfold in the months following open-heart surgery.
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Our Surry Hills Our Home
My name is George Cassar Author of OUR SURRY HILLS OUR HOME. I’m pleased to say that after five years in the making, I believe that you will find this book to be most interesting and insightful.OUR SURRY HILLS OUR HOME takes you back to a time when everything was once in black and white. Cities are like dreams where images and sentiment occur in our minds while we sleep, but living in Surry Hills and Sydney certainly came as no dream to me as it created all that a magical dream contains.Many great cities of the world have their own stories to tell, but I have always believed that Sydney stands tall above them all. Sydney, and for that matter Surry Hills, has many unbelievable stories to tell, some of which I mention in this book. You will read of true stories of the people, places and the difficult times during the years of the late 50s, the swinging 60s, the fast pace of the 70s and the changing times of the 80s. There are paragraphs in this book that mention famous and well known names, some of which I personally met. This book is not a biography on my life or my family’s, but a look at what life was really like back in those days, told through my eyes. You will enter through a gateway of opened doors of families not dissimilar to mine and travel through a time barrier of decades never to be forgotten.I believe that OUR SURRY HILLS OUR HOME will leave an uplifting effect not only to the people that lived through the early decades mentioned in this book, but also to the younger generation of today.
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Running Wild
I have yet to decipher what the word ‘brave’ truly describes, but one thing is evident to me, judging by the number of things that do scare me, I am no braver than the next person.From his early days at Hartbeespoort Snake and Animal Park, to his military conscription during the late ’70s and up to his internationally renowned TV shows on Animal Planet, herpetologist and wildlife photographer Austin Stevens takes us through his extraordinary encounters with some of the world’s most dangerous creatures.Be it staring down a black mamba or trying to retrieve an escaped chimpanzee, these accounts are often exciting and hilarious in equal measure as Stevens dispels the myths surrounding these widely-feared creatures.Running Wild, Stevens’s fourth book, is reflective and personal. He touches on his relationship with his wife Amy, and describes dealing with depression after suffering a string of terrible misfortunes including a horrific car crash, a vicious knife attack and his struggle to rebuild a shattered life.Running Wild is the captivating story of a restless adventurer as he evolves from curator of reptiles, to wildlife photographer, author and film maker. Having faced adversity and mortality more than once, Austin shares with us his reminiscences of past experiences. With never a dull moment, Running Wild will render the reader both fearful and elated.
£9.99