Ships, Trips and Rites of Passage

This is a true-life story of a young man’s life in the Royal Navy during the early 1970s. The book provides insight into what life was like for young men joining Her Majesty’s Forces at that time and of the journeys that followed during a five-year period. The book takes the reader through basic naval training and to far-flung places visited aboard HMS Albion (RO7) “The Old Grey Ghost”, a 22,000-ton Centaur-class Light Fleet Carrier, until its decommission. The story relays the difficulties and struggles of one young man and his decision to leave a career after moving to shore bases. The book offers a historical perspective of the Royal Navy from the eyes of a rating and a world much different from today.

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.

Solo Travel Fun with Multiple Sclerosis

This small autobiographical record of a few solo trips on two walking sticks to Asia, Australasia and the Caribbean takes a look at the spirituality of travel, the travel of spirituality, and the humour in all of it.

It could rightly be said that nothing I experienced was dramatic in comparison to the truly exciting and/or scary human events daily found on the Internet and in TV programmes, but my journeys achieved something greater. They allowed me to grow.

When I was first diagnosed, I was advised to expect immobility, and was counselled to accept stasis; instead, I went around the world and I am still smiling at it. I hope that you will follow me if you have recently been visited by disability.

It is often said that laughter is the best medicine, to which I would now add that travel is the best laughter and the richest religion.

Songs Through the Night

We are all at some time or other faced with loss and trial. How do we deal with them? If these kinds of experiences are foreign to us now, they inevitably will come to us. What is it like for those who struggle with long-term illness and a doctor’s diagnosis?
This book handles these issues head-on from someone who has lived with Parkinson’s disease for over 20 years and who has been involved with facing many different kinds of loss. Where is God in all this? In this book the author reflects honestly on these issues – and more – and uses his battles with Parkinson’s as a place to start.

Strength to be Myself

Born into harshness and born into suffering, a warrior’s soul struggles to keep true to himself. A soul born into modern times, trying to hold tightly onto that which is him, that which is beyond his pain, to see the real him. This is the story about a person who through the most difficult of environments finds the strength to stay true to himself, to stay true to the very essence of his soul. The years of life from birth to late teens are when the environment plays a major role in a person’s development, a soul’s growth. In this first book of an emotionally turbulent series, those first years of my life are expressed here. This book tells some of the story from my early years. It’s not the pain I want to show, but rather how I found the strength to go beyond that pain to embrace all that is good and loving about me. A person must be able to keep a clear focus on his/her actions, his/her abilities and, most importantly, on his/her true self throughout the most testing of times. This is my story; this is my testimony; this is how I found the strength to be myself.

Take a Seat

This book encompasses the fascinating 40 year journey in life of someone who just wasn’t your average practicing GP, but someone whose passion and drive were to use his skills and medical ability to bring quality of life to every patient that crossed his path.

He thrives on challenges in every situation and circumstance. Wherever there was a medical need, however big or small, he would jump to take it on! Whatever the complex medical condition was, in whatever culture or country he was operating in, whether in a war zone, an aircraft carrier, an Aboriginal township in Australia, or a community GP practice in Essex, he thrived and wanted to make a difference!

Many of the episodes in this book have been the catalyst of the diverse and interesting career, which have kept many a dinner party enthralled, amused, admired and envied.

Every memoir depicts the enthusiasm and need of the author to achieve the overall ambition … ‘to bring a quality of life’ to all humans that needed his medical help in the best possible way… and to give the reassurance and empathy to make them ‘feel they matter’ and ‘quality of life is essential and priceless’ whatever the circumstance prevails!

Take Me Home

When the train hit, we all felt it. Maybe not physically but with a tidal force that rapidly unearthed a pain that none of us were ready for. From Ghana to Ecuador, Benin to El Salvador, Lebanon to Taiwan, Gujarat to China, Burma to Kenya; we were wounded. This jolt of agony traveled in a variety of paths for each of us - text, phone call, social media, police visit, and in person. No matter what language each of us received the news, it didn’t seem tangible. "Nancy was dead." نانسي كانت ميتة Nancy était morte. નેન્સી મરી ગઈ હતી. Nancy estaba muerta. Nancy estaba muerta. 

In this riveting true story, join the journeys of these amazing young men and women who exhibit the fuel, grit, and chance to navigate and embrace the American dream. As they charge their wings from around the world and switch their life plans, they are able to surge forward through volts of triumph, tribulation, and tragedy. They have no evidence that their journey will land success. It's a plunge that most are unwilling to take. Yet in due time, it is exactly what they need to teach the world that learning a second language should always be considered an asset, and not a handicap.

If you have ever wondered "Why do people come to America?"
This book is for you.
If you have ever pondered "Should I go to America?"
This book is for you.

To all who are here, living and growing in this diverse land of beautiful stormy seas – this book is for you. 

Take Them or I Will Kill Them

Diane then said to her aunt and uncle, “Benny told us we are staying with you for a holiday.” Bet looked at Benny, who signalled for the girls to come to him. Looking at the two small girls, he swallowed hard. 

When he had their attention, he said grimly, “No girls, I have brought you here to live with Auntie Bet and Uncle Bertie, because if I had not taken you away, then they would have killed you.”

Diane frowned, “They? Who are they?”

Benny replied, “Your mum and dad.”

Benny explained that when he came to collect them, their mother said, “Take them, or I will kill them. I’ve had enough; I don’t want them in my sight.” Diane gasped and grabbed Jo’s hand.

This is the true story about two small girls who suffered neglect and appalling abuse at the hands of the people who should have been caring for them; their parents.

Tales from Greece: Part 1

Follow the Williams family as they explore the Greek Islands and become engrossed in the sights and sounds. Your emotions will swing from humour to sadness to hope as you become involved in the highs and lows of family life, you will laugh and cry as you watch a mother’s struggles with memories and the need to move forward with hope.

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.

Tears of No One

This is the true story of an elite Navy medical team in a secret mission to save an isolated tribe from extinction. During the year of 2008, the Brazilian Government sent the Navy hospital ship Oswaldo Cruz to the heart of the Amazonian forest, the intent was to locate and make contact with the female leader of the Korubo tribe, and discover the reason for the massive numbers of deaths of those individuals, who were possibly infected by an unknown disease.

This book will take you into a real heart of darkness adventure, through this history, which is narrated from the standpoint of Chief Medical Officer Lieutenant Callia. You will travel aboard a Brazilian warship into uncharted rivers, will make the first contact with unknown tribes, fight river pirates and tropical diseases, survive the sinking of your boat and finally meet the mythic Korubo tribe, led by the fearless female warrior Maya, and her three husbands.

In a world deeply shaken by Covid and at the edge of a global war, this narrative takes us to a situation which proves that centenary conflicts may be solved through humanity, that science can defeat diseases, and that the love for the next one may change the world. And perhaps, at the end of this book, you may find yourself repeating the endless mantra of the Oswaldo Cruz crew members: Health wherever there is life!

Ted Harrison's Rainbow Road

Jan Stirling and Ted Harrison, the celebrated Canadian painter, met in 2007 and felt an immediate connection. Jan spent more and more time with him, oblivious of their age difference, always feeling his acceptance of her quirky, candid nature. As a jazz musician, she appreciated his ability to improvise with words, without fear of making a mistake. She would suggest a subject and then write down in shorthand what he had to say. Although never edited, these improvs were called poems. They showed that even as his physical freedom diminished, he had a very rich mental life.

After Ted passed on, Jan revisited these poems, writing about her experiences with him up to her final visit in January 2015, the last day Ted was conscious. Each chapter is interspersed with Ted’s poems. The book shows an intimate side of Ted that deepens our appreciation for his life and work.