Paul’s Story: A Son’s Struggle with Adoption, Schizophrenia and the Mental Health System

“Mental illness? Who wants to read about that?” Despite one in four people experiencing mental ill health in their lifetime, it is not a popular topic for conversation.  Perhaps this book will change that!

Combining amusing anecdotes, insights from research and heart-rending personal reflections, this book recounts the triumphs, traumas, and tragedies of the life of Paul – adopted child, loved son and brother, schizophrenia sufferer – and of his family. Excerpts from Paul’s own journals and reflections from his family, highlight the ups and downs of Paul’s life. These include his struggle with having been relinquished for adoption, his difficulty accepting the diagnosis of schizophrenia, and the inconsistent and patchwork approach to support for people with mental ill health and underline the tragic waste of human possibility resulting from inadequate mental health care.

An absorbing, poignant and powerful read, this chronicling of Paul’s life and experiences and its impact on his family is incredibly emotive, tackling some difficult subjects with honesty, compassion, and humour. The personable writing style makes this work accessible to a wide audience and the sustained analysis and discussion relating to the need for a higher standard of care and improvements in the mental health system makes the work compelling. Ultimately, it is a heartfelt piece that raises important suggestions for society today.

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.

Part of the Family

An inspiring story of one family’s journey through the British care system, from the point of view of a foster carer. It tells of the funny, challenging, and often harrowing times of living life in an ever-changing household of temporary children.

Steering a course through the muddy waters of the care system has provided many obstacles but has overall proved to be a rewarding and heart-warming experience for the author.

Children who find themselves removed from their birth families are thrust into a system which, although trying its best, is so often lacking in the love and good quality nurturing they deserve.

As a society, we need to look at the way we deal with vulnerable children.

Pages in a life

Pages in a Life charts the encounters in courtrooms, council chambers and sports fields that helped to start a young journalist’s career. His journey reflects his work in a vibrant and lively town in the Nottinghamshire coalfield and a path filled with laughs and surprises, taking in everything from the cricket star Harold Larwood to the notorious ‘Black Panther’ Donald Neilson.

One-Way Ticket to Honolulu

Should you follow your intuition in your darkest hour?

Anette is 32 and living an expat life in Hong Kong with her husband, Phil. The world seems to lie at her feet. But when Phil dies tragically, her world stops.

Sitting on the floor at their Hong Kong apartment, surrounded by all their stuff, Anette is asked by his company where to send all her belongings. And the only thought she has is that they should send it all to Honolulu.

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.

On the Eighth Day

Hi, browser! Welcome to the Pacific Northwest of Canada. If you buy this collection of an old man’s memories, you will not be purchasing a history book, or a novel, or even a biography. The old man once taught English at a small University in the hinterland mountains of British Columbia, the Kootenays. The old man has Parkinson’s, a disease with a sense of humour. Parkinson’s patients suffer hallucinations. Our sleep is tormented by pieces of memory that flash like bolts of lightning on a hot summer night. The book is a collection of twenty-six vignettes, numbered, mostly untitled, so you never know if the vignette will be funny, or sad, or shocking, or nostalgic. The old man is watching the last of his life crumble away.

Of Ships and Shoes and Scotland

The author is a Scot from the small (two shop) village of Whins of Milton, two miles south of the Royal Burgh of Stirling. He has always loved the sea and ships, and was master of the first Australian flag anchor handler, operating in offshore oilfields around Australia.

The book covers a wheen o’ topics – growing up in the Whins, then living in Australia, to which he emigrated in 1968 with his wife and family, to his wanderings in the countries of the Pacific Basin. Later, it also makes some comments on Australians, their character and contentment (and pride) as to who they are as a race of people, living under the Southern Cross.

Ships and the sea are never far away. Also part of this story is the Greek Tragedy of the demise of Alfred Holt, the author having been indentured to that heroic and exemplary Liverpool company as a deck apprentice in 1957. The note, Welcome to Country, says it all as to his worldview of Australians, an attitude almost Caledonian in its sense of directness and curiosity, particularly regarding the workings of the vast world which is all around us.

Nationality: Medicine

'Medicine transcends all barriers; it knows no frontiers, it respects all credos and, most importantly, it treats all human beings as equals. Despite the tremendous socio-economic inequalities that I encountered and experienced in each one of the four countries where I’ve lived and practised medicine (Peru, United States, Spain and the UK), I’ve always been proud to find that the Hippocratic Oath is unwavering and equally applied to all citizens. My identity never came from having a certain nationality, speaking a specific language or even from my family genealogy. It came (and still does) from the set of values that the medical profession professes and that I, as a doctor, hold close to my heart. These values are the building blocks of society; without them, everything else crumbles. My “nationality” is medicine and my allegiance is to the human race. The lives and the clinical cases in this book are all real and they tell the story of how the Hippocratic Oath prevails even in the most challenging conditions. They remind us that no matter how much adversity lies before us (poverty, socio-economic instability, lack of resources, etc.), with sufficient effort, creativity and perseverance, there is always light at the end of the tunnel. After all, altruism – the bedrock of medicine – is free of charge, independent of location and always available for anyone who’s willing to use it.'
Dr Carlo Canepa

My Young Life and Experience after 1945

“Mum, where is Dad, has he gone to bed?”

I didn't know where my dad had gone because he just disappeared. I should really have got used to my dad getting drunk because he seemed to spend a lot of time drinking. But when I think about it, his drunkenness didn’t bother me too much: it was the punching of my mum and myself that hurt me the most.

However, I did find time to have fun with a couple of friends that I had. The secret agent games that I invented from time to time coincided with the true-life games and excitement that I found along the way.

My Parents' Daughter

The mob bullying of an accomplished and expert senior secondary English teacher and Co-ordinator in a Victorian state school in Australia is re-told in My Parents’ Daughter giving a vivid insight into the hellish world of its victim. This first part of Victoria Hartmann’s Memoir is about workplace bullying by her four male principals, plus others, in the new millennium. This otherwise dark theme is re-told with good humour. Victoria’s intention is for her reader to laugh a lot outwardly but be moved inwardly to further discussions about this sinister blight on our democracies; perhaps even be moved to action and further the cause.

It shows how Victoria’s employer – the Department of Education, plus associated bodies, dealt with Victoria’s injuries and complaints. It questions accountability and equity or rather the lack there of. This memoir tackles head on psychological bullying and spot lights the notion that authority does not equate to honesty thus our need for external checks on governmental power brokers. The memoir’s intention is to enlighten and demands justice and change leading to prevention. It is a courageous effort by a courageous woman who owes everything to her genetics and upbringing. Please note that all names are fictitious but the content word for word true.

My Life, My Way. The Conditioning.

The meanderings and twists and turns of real-life told through the poetry of a crazy mind… or am I sane? You decide…

What if I told you all is not as it seems…

What if I told you this is the land of dreams…

Dive inside, come on, let’s see… the twists and turns of the life we see.