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The Smallest Show on Earth
From the 60s through to the present day Patrick Church has worked in the cinema from Peterborough through to Bury St Edmunds. In The Smallest Show on Earth he takes us through that experience in an autobiography that draws the reader into the trials and joys of a being a projectionist screening blockbusters like ‘Jaws' and a curious period of Indian films where half the time is spent splicing the films back together.The role of projectionist was always a low paid, but with the advent of TV and bingo and other demands on people's time it also became a precarious one as the decades rolled by. Sometimes Patrick had to plead his case as cinemas changed hands from ABC, to Odeon and bingo conglomerates, just to keep his job going and the buildings in operation. The fact that he succeeded is testament to his love for cinema and this passion shines through in this engaging book.
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The Pleasure Cats of Nova Playa
The Pleasure Cats of Nova Playa is a story of sex, drugs, alcohol, violence and techno music. Set in the fictional sun soaked Mediterranean resort of Playa Nova where underground, under town, cats mirror the excesses of the sunseekers above. Into this bustling, vibrant underground city arrives the beautiful Napoleona, a charming and cunning cat with a past, but with her eyes fixed squarely on the future, and in particular the coming winter. In the summer the cats feast and party, but the cold desolate winter threatens to thin them out. She encounters new dangers, especially Count Luciano, the second in command to King Louie, gangsters with pretensions of nobility. The pursuit of power and pleasure seems to have no bounds in this subterranean city. How far will Napoleona go to ensure the party never ends?
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The Painting
Using a shoreline for the book’s landscape, The Painting is about re-emergence from a crisis of confidence. It uses the metaphor of a young water-skiing artist painting his life with his beliefs, inspired by a muse. All ages will enjoy identifying with the insight into peer connections and society, reflecting on the wrecked confidence that is pieced back together in reinventing ourselves. Younger readers will appreciate the colourful symbols littered throughout the story for the simple pleasure of reading unpredictable sentences assembled to meet needs not satisfied by daily conversation. This is entertainment sympathetic to the journey of self-healing. Every word has been carefully chosen for its sound, shape (and colour!) which can be interpreted in ways that are as individual as those reading it.
£7.99 -
The Foreseen
Jodie has finally managed to move on from her violent husband, Jack, and is forming new relationships and establishing her own business. With CJ, her son, she has a new home"”the whereabouts of which are unknown to Jack"”and the prospect of a normal life.Jack, however, feels differently. He is the victim and he wants Jodie back to play the part of the dutiful wife with her life centred around his needs and desires. He is prepared to go to any length to find her and get her back under his control.But not only is he frustrated by Barry, who was involved in getting Jodie away, he is also up against forces beyond his understanding. CJ's best friends, Thomas and Kelly"”killed in a hit and run incident"”are still not at peace. They establish contact with CJ and a medium, Mable, and are instrumental in trying to thwart Jack.
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The Final Fence: Sophomores In The Saddle
Fair Questions for a Feature Story Is a disability something that is subjective or is it objective? Is a diagnosis opinion or fact? The Final Fence: Sophomores in the Saddle authored by Marc O'Brien takes a creative and honest look into a life filled with support due to well meaning individuals that think before they speak. When Eddie Patrick meets up with Danielle Lynne on a college campus, a love of horses triggers a classroom discussion. When their professor - a large chestnut pony named The Great Satan - starts the lecture, the relationship skills make the grade, with the ribbon only being a decorative award. Using a backdrop of the elegant and classy world of the hunter jumper horse shows during the second Ronald Reagan presidential administration, the setting for this novel is a perfect way for the future generations to learn about respect.
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Starting To Shrink
Douglas Barker is a young doctor who starts work as a psychiatrist in Scotland in the 1980s. The job is fascinating, but he soon falls out with his grandiose consultant, Dr Burlington. A patient accuses Douglas of having sex with her, and backed by Dr Burlington, this complaint goes to the General Medical Council. He is called to a hearing in London, where his career hangs in the balance.
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Sex in the Shires
Journalist and single mum, Rebecca Pearce is clever, sexy and sharp and on the lookout for a man. But there’s a snag. Life in the shires is dullsville.com with no decent guys in sight. On offer is Charles Smythe-Bothum Wethem. He’s loaded, but a complete DUD – as in dull, ugly and desperate. Or Mervin Purvis. He’s an amorous, overweight “spam man” she meets on a blind date as a decoy for her married friend Delia who’s bedding his cousin, Toy Boy.“He’s got nice eyes,” says Delia.“Yes,” replies Rebecca, “for a walrus.”Life revs up when she goes speed dating and meets Tor, but there’s a hitch as she clocks her ex, Jake, drooling over her friend Konnie. Meanwhile, hunky Australian, Scott Henderson, walks into her office and invites her to cover a juicy scandal, arousing more than her journalistic instincts. Rebecca is set on a course to create emotional havoc and social upheaval as she tries to decide which man is ‘the one’ – or if she really needs a man at all.
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Raineland
Nothing could have been lovelier... than the vision of Raineland Lodge presented to her by imagination and memory.'The ruins of an ancient priory, some lost church silver and a tale of the English Civil War are all a part of Raineland's long story. Joy Fleetwood returns to her old family home hoping it can provide refuge and can restore a way of life she knew before her days as a nurse and missionary. Perhaps too she can find once more her weakened faith and renew here her love for Tim Wenlock whom she has known from childhood and whose family and hers have long been close.But family tragedy has played its part during her absence. The deaths of her uncle in Africa and of her brother have affected her mother and grandfather who safeguard her little nephew at the old home.Secrets and personal feelings it seems, refuse to be left untouched as the story unfolds.'He did not come. It could never again be as it was.'
£14.99 -
On The Road To Ruin
This is the story of several girls in the sixties whose life was turned upside down by becoming pregnant out of wedlock. The hardships these girls endured and the heartaches of losing their babies.In a cruel world with little sympathy, used as unpaid servants. Virtual pariahs in society.The love for their tiny babies immeasureable and the tears when their child was taken away. The yearnings over the years, wondering where their child was.
£8.99 -
Narcissist
No family is free of secrets. In a dramatic tale of intrigue, the Johnson family struggles to overcome the threat of the skeletons in their closets. French-born Céline has led a satisfactory and happy life with her older English husband, Thomas, and their two surviving children. One of two twin boys, Luke, suffers from lifelong guilt from the fate of his brother, and his sister, Alexis, attempts to care for everyone she meets, naïve but compassionate. Once the Johnson children are adults, one a teacher and the other a nurse, they appear to have come to grips with their past troubles. Upon meeting Elizabeth, however, Luke introduces a dangerous variable to the happiness of his family. Marriage, fidelity, and the opportunity for giving Céline and Thomas grandchildren are all tested. But one can only wonder, what destructive truths could have been revealed to trigger the heart attack and death of Thomas?
£11.99 -
Miriam
Miriam is a story that explores the impact of bequeathed memories and experiences on identity, behaviour and attitudes. It charts the life of a daughter of Holocaust survivor parents as she comes to grips with her parents' past and the constraints it applies to her living her life freely and without recrimination. It highlights post Holocaust attitudes and a state of mind that so often inhibits the milieu of her parents and their friends, who owe their outlook and perception of the world, to their struggle for survival. In the shadow of the shambles of their lives, Miriam seeks joy, romance and a fresh beginning, but to do so, she first needs to understand who she is and what comprises her cultural identity. It is not a story of the Holocaust per se but primarily a story of discovery - from despair to enlightenment, romance and freedom, as Miriam strikes out in new relationships and experiences that feed her quest. The story is an emotional roller-coaster ride encompassing sadness and humour, forever thoughtful, informative and often philosophical, as it takes the reader on Miriam's journey.
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Invisible Ink
London lawyer Max Rivers has it all - a burgeoning career, a beautiful girlfriend, an exclusive address - but he harbours a long-buried secret that threatens to destroy his carefully constructed world.Invisible Ink is a mesmerising novel of guilt, loss and betrayal within a family - of sibling jealousy that threatens to run out of control, a mother's life all-but forgotten through the fog of dementia and a son who longs to, but cannot, escape his past. Pippa Kelly's haunting debut offers a deft exploration of the complex emotions hidden beneath the surface of our lives; drawing its readers into Max's story and leading them, step by careful step, towards its inevitable dénouement.
£8.99