Living the Dream!

This is the story of my life, from childhood struggles with polio to leaving home at seventeen for an apprenticeship with British Aircraft Corporation, working on the iconic Concorde. My career path took me through Westland Helicopters and British Rail, before a 22-year career at British Airways in London, where I became a Senior Airline Engineer, licensed to maintain a fleet of company aircraft.

After that, I turned to flying for pleasure and eventually became a Chief Flying Instructor, starting my own flying school. Over 36 years of training pilots, I experienced fourteen engine failures, three near misses, and two bird strikes—the most dramatic being a fight with a buzzard that smashed through the windscreen, hitting my student in the face, leaving him with a black eye and a split lip, and ending up draped around his neck like a scarf. I also survived a cockpit fire shortly after takeoff that burned my left leg.

Then there’s the story of a mild-mannered, religious pilot who became a good friend. He once told me about the day his ejection seat failed during a jet spin-out, sending him plummeting toward the ground. Resigned to death, he was saved by a voice in his head that he believed was God, offering the solution just in time.

A Piece of the Action

What is it like to spend a lifetime doing research in a wide variety of fields in the physical sciences? Studying distant planets, binary stars, neutron stars, stellar mass black holes and active galaxies using optical and near-infrared ground-based telescopes. Designing and constructing equipment as a member of international teams studying the high-energy X-ray emissions from many of these objects. Flying these detectors on short duration sounding rocket flights, utilising huge balloons to carry experiments to high altitude, or installing them on long duration satellite missions. Being a scientist engaged in fieldwork studying the physical properties of the world’s oceans, or the sea ice and glaciers around the coastline of Antarctica. This lifetime involved living in the UK and Australia for many years, with a four-year interlude in the USA, as well as working in or visiting many other countries. How lucky can you get? This book describes numerous projects in an unusually diverse range of research areas – the fun and adventure of STEM activities – without getting into excessive technical or specialist detail.

Where There is Life, There REALLY is Hope

Have you just discovered that someone you know is a drug addict? Are you heartbroken? Do you feel overwhelmed? If so, you are not alone. That is what happened to me. I thought I would have to bury my daughter by Christmas 2014.Snippets of my and my daughter’s story aired on 60 Minutes and Seven Sharp in 2015—current affairs programmes in New Zealand. Now, you can read the full account of my perspective of the traumas that led to my daughter’s addiction, the impact of them on me and what I learned along the way.My daughter shares her story in a companion book. Together, we have a miraculous story that has a happy ending. The great triumph after tragedy is that it is always possible to rebuild something with more beautiful results. My daughter and I are now closer than ever and she is doing better than I could have ever imagined.Expect to feel encouraged, empowered and hopeful as you travel through the pages of this book.Where There Is Life, There REALLY Is Hope, the inside story of a mother of a P addict who survived the rigours and now wants to share the insights she learned along the way.

We Were Tourists

Jim Toomey was already a successful drummer when he became a part of a new group, The Tourists, in the late seventies. He formed the group with Annie Lennox, Dave Stewart, Peet Coombes and Eddie Chin.From their early beginnings in London, finding their sound and their voice, through their success, their recordings, TV appearances, and their tours across the world, this is the story of The Tourists, told by the man sitting behind the drums.In a series of anecdotes and tales of the band's journey, we gain insight into the inner workings of a successful band; the fun and success, but also the work, the creativity, the pressures of seemingly endless tours, the good and the bad sides of the business, and the all too familiar trajectory of a band which sowed the seeds of music which endure 40 years later.

They Said I Was Misguided

The struggle to find your identity while growing up is a common experience for us all. Now, imagine that you belong to an orthodox religious community and you are gay – so your sexual identity is entirely at odds with your environment. What would you do to find acceptance? This memoir follows the very personal and lonely struggle of a young man forced to deal with this very scenario, with dramatic and moving consequences for his family, friends and most importantly, himself.

The Reality of War

Have you ever wondered what war is really like and how you would react in it? This book tells the story of what a young soldier, exposed to a full-blown war, experienced during the Gulf War, the largest conflict since World War 2. Based on a diary that the author wrote on a daily basis, the book hides nothing at all. People died, before, during and after the war. The reader is exposed to the military culture at the time, with a brief history about the author and the regiment he served in. Once deployed, you are then taken through a day-by-day account that vividly brings to life the drama of exactly what went on, including all the fighting and what life was like when a person was sent to fight in a war overseas – far from home. War is not just about fighting the enemy; that sometimes is the most straightforward and simplest part.

The Militia Boy

This is the autobiography, memories and impressions of a boy born in 1918 in the poorer district of a large, Lancashire city. His childhood and early youth were spent unaware of the awful poverty and deprivation of the hungry thirties which were coloured by the spectre of mass unemployment, social degradation and abject misery. The clouds of war had been building up from 1935 and the Spanish Civil War was a prelude to the final holocaust of 1939.On his twenty-first birthday, in July 1939, his passport into manhood was to be conscripted into the Armed Forces among the newly recruited Militia and he became a Militia Boy. For over six years these militia boys served in every theatre of war from Narvik to Dunkirk, the deserts of North Africa, Sicily, Burma, Singapore and Malaysia, India, Iraq and Syria, Crete, Italy and Germany and even witnessed the final disregard of human life in the charnel houses of the concentration camps of Europe.This story is dedicated to all those Militia Boys who were unfortunate to be born at the wrong time and who gave over six years of their manhood in the hope that the World would become a better place to live in.James PalmerJune 1980

The Green Badge of Knowledge

An Oxton cockney and proud of it, Tony Davidson speaks in East End vernacular, giving the lowdown on a childhood of tough love among London's street allegiances and hard ethics. Be prepared for boxing showdowns, adventures on 'bird'-pulling holidays and Friday-night pub confrontations with the 'Oxton Mob'.Nearly barbecued while working 'on the gas', Davidson decides to strive for the 'real deal': to become a London black cab driver. He shares the pain and comradeship of that elite group working together for The Knowledge. Cabbie life depends on a network of tough mates protecting each other's backs against some dodgy characters.Hilarious and tender stories teem from the driver-passenger relationship, and between driving the frail, funny and famous, he tells of struggles with alcohol, the taxman, family life and the courts of so-called justice. Davidson's humour floods the book, and despite sobering obstacles, his strength and loyalties shine through.

The English Woman And C. G. Jung

Ruth Bailey, reeling from her work as a nurse during the Great War, is feeling listless, lonely and lacking purpose. With the war over, her work as a nurse is no longer needed, and so far, she has been lucky enough to meet men who have moved her, but has been unlucky enough to lose them in heart-breaking wartimes.But when her sister needs someone to accompany her to Africa, to give her away on her wedding day, Ruth is only too happy to oblige. She's more than ready for adventure and self-discovery, and the Wangoni is calling.Little does she know, another passenger aboard the Wangoni is on a similar mission, noted psychoanalyst C.G. Jung. When the pair's paths cross, it ignites a lifelong friendship that starts with a simple exploratory research safari through Africa.Ruth Bailey, the English lady, saw the side of Jung that no academic was privy to. She met his children, his wife and his mistress, sticking with him until the very last day and learning much about herself, the human psyche and about her unforgettable Swiss friend.

Tasman Echo Alpha

Tasman Echo Alpha is the embellished experience of former air New Zealand pilot Guy Clapshaw at a time when airline flight brought magic and romance to lives.Characters include Richard Whacker, the aircrew scheduler who managed to get all the aircraft overseas and their crews back in New Zealand, the operations manager who only hired people with bird names, and aircrew who performed extraordinarily well in emergency situations.

School Shit

Kevin candidly presents the highs and lows of a teaching career spanning four decades, and useful advice on how to motivate children to learn. The book is intended to appeal to practising professionals, anyone considering teaching as a career, and those with an interest in what goes on behind school doors. Kevin's style relies heavily on humour, particularly when recalling children's mischievous natures.        The fun element is being systematically squeezed out of learning and teaching. Fear of failure underpins the ethos of many of our schools. Children and teachers too often find themselves operating in a stifling educational culture that prioritises performance data. Educational success is defined by the measurable.Child-centred education has become an anachronism. The case is argued that individual children and their unique talents and abilities matter. Radical changes to school practices are advocated if our institutions are to do justice to school populations of the future.

Rugby Tries and Knock Ons: Tales of a college rugby player in New England and the game that gave birth to American football

Tales of a college rugby player in New England and the game that gave birth to American footballWe had just beaten a few of the top men’s rugby football clubs in the East that excelled in both sevens and fifteens. This included – Mystic River, Beacon Hill, the Washington Exiles and two good college teams – Brown University and Coast Guard Academy. As I prepared for the championship final against another very good men’s club – the Hartford Wanderers RFC – I lay down on the sidelines and stretched my sore leg muscles. My mind drifted and I couldn’t help but remember the previous three consecutive finals our school (URI) had participated in. We had beaten some excellent teams each year to advance to the Harvard Business School Sevens finals, but we had lost each close championship match. This rugby sevens tournament was the most popular sevens tournament in the East and it consisted of rugby clubs – men’s and college teams from all over and the U.S. – winner takes all!