Apple Cores and Mandarins

A few weeks after celebrating his 50th birthday, the author’s life was turned upside down. He faced contracting a life-threatening disease whilst on a trip to China. He collapsed on the flight home and was rushed to the hospital in London, placed in an induced coma for six weeks and ventilated as his lungs had stopped working. Facing a cruel recovery package, learning how to walk and talk again he was hit with the devastating news that his beloved wife had breast cancer. Dealing with the trauma of watching her battle the cancer, being told she had defeated it and then unexpectedly dying after three weeks from having stomach pains. This book outlines his life, medical struggles and battles with mental health. It also outlines practical ways to cope with mental health and trauma.

Applied Economics: Public Financial Management and Development

Applied Economics: Public Financial Management and Development is focused on economics applied to public financial management and development. It charts over 50 years of the author’s practical experience of economics and public policy in 60 countries on five continents, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe.
The book’s main focal point is on central and local government budgeting, tracing the progress of revenue aspects and expenditure allocation over time from inputs alone to matching these inputs to achieving and measuring service delivery in programmes. It also presents the assessment instruments that measure public financial management strength and weakness, with real-life illustrations of their application.
All of these instruments use examples from the countries that the author has worked in, demonstrating the conditions faced – mostly stable economic environments, but at times during periods of conflict and insecurity, as well as neighbouring geopolitical tension.These experiences have been gained from the author’s resident assignments and short-term visits (mainly multiple over many years) as a consultant for the IMF, World Bank, and bilateral development programmes as well as academic research.

Ark and Fliss

Felicity and Armand met in France in their teenage years. They bonded in friendship and fell in love after their first few years as students. Ark, as he was known, came from a complicated family background but had the courage to make his own decisions to change his university studies. They began their married life in London but soon moved to Surrey where Ark could follow his career in Art. Fliss enjoyed teaching French. They had to face some real sadness but they worked at making a life together and travelled to both Germany and Romania making lifelong relationships, before settling in Surrey to work through their spiritual life and their loving contacts with their extended family.

Armenians of Iraq

Armenians are one of the ethnic components of the Iraqi social spectrum. Nothing was known about Armenians of Iraq except as Christians or as migrants from Armenia originally. It is well known that the Armenians of Iraq are generally keen to preserve their Armenian ethnic and cultural entity and are usually peaceful and far from being involved in political conflicts and polarization. However, some people might imagine them living in the shadows or margins of Iraqi life, especially since there is a near-total absence of studies on Iraqi Armenians in the different fields of humanities and social sciences.

This gives us an impression of their conservatism and closeness, but this dissipates as soon as the researcher goes to investigate them.

This leaves us with a number of questions about the existence of Armenian people in Iraq. What is their relationship with the mother country, Armenia? What are the demographic characteristics of their population in Arabic countries? What are the social and cultural characteristics of their lifestyle in Iraq, including marriage customs? What were their roles in the development of Iraqi public life if they existed in Iraq? Do they have a conflict of social identity? All these queries are our current research concerns through which to introduce Iraqi Armenians to the reader and interested parties.                                    

Around the World in Several Ways

For most of us, the desire to travel and see the world is a natural aspiration and for those of us who can, it is an amazing experience. In the early stages of our marriage, my wife and I enjoyed several holidays with family and friends in Europe. It was when the spectre of cancer affected us both that we became more ambitious, more adventurous and determined to see as much of the world as possible whilst we still had time. For the past twenty-plus years or so, we have done just that. We have camped, cruised around the world, yachted, been on road trips, coached, skied, fly-driven and owned a house in Florida for eleven years. This is an account of our experiences full of facts and details, some funny and some serious, with dangerous encounters and amusing and irritating experiences when letting out our house in Florida. We have seen the iconic buildings of the great civilizations, the world’s great waterfalls, spent time with the Borneo headhunters, canoed part of the Amazon, encountered polar bears, a leopard carrying her cub, armed escort in Yemen, intrigue in China and interviewed Debbie Reynolds in Las Vegas. Furthermore, we’ve experienced being trapped by a hurricane in Florida, Olympic Games in Australia, death on a plane, suicide on a ship, terrifying gang fight in Kuala Lumpur, car crash in Florida, five road trips around America and much more!

Art, Design, Craft, Beauty and All Those Things…

Responding to many recent calls for redress and restitution, Richardson summarises the historical and current situation and attributes its problematics to the fact that theorists and historians have taken the concept art as a generic that includes both design and craft – which are actually and validly distinguishable from art by application of the concept function/al ­– or else ignored the two entirely. Considering the concept function/al, he maintains, calls into question the view that the three may be sub-classes of the one class: whereas in a work of art, typically there is a resolution of the tension between form and content, in works of design and craft the resolution is between form and function. How this recognition can clarify the issue informs the entire book.

The book’s other major thesis is the realisation that aesthetic values are inherently human and that, therefore, they apply not only to art but to life in general. Far from being frivolous or a mere ‘emotion’, the aesthetic is a sense of equivalent psychic status to sight and hearing ­and, like them, is employed at almost every moment of our daily lives – which fact grounds art, design and craft deeply in human life. This is reflected in the universal use of the human form (including the exhibition of sexual characteristics) in art.

The eternal conflict between making art and making a living from making art is examined and contrasted to the rarely-recognised, but positive, role of design in planning and industry.

Richardson also critiques common theories of representation and composition, including ‘creativity’, Albertian perspective and scientific and geometric theories of beauty and composition; also the relevance of the camera and the computer in the field.

Aussie Men Are the Pits

Trying to figure him out? Copping the wide-eyed stare across the room? Haven’t heard from Mr. Super-intense? Sick of never being asked for a simple coffee? Don’t worry. You’re not alone. And it’s not your fault. It’s his.

Authentic Church

If you had a blank sheet of paper and were going to describe what church should look like, what would you include? Why has the make-up, of what we generally understand to be church, diverged so significantly from the kinds of people that Jesus hung out with? For very few of them would easily fit into most churches today. This book is an attempt to consider this and whether or not the Anglican parish system still has anything to offer by way of a way forwards as the numbers of those attending church in this country still continue to decline. This book attempts to describe our experience as members of St Paul’s Church here in Cambridge, as the theology that underlies it emerged in our midst on our journey together and as it is summarised so succinctly by Luke in Acts chapter 2 verse 42.

Autism... A Mother's Story

Autism is a life-long condition that affects how the brain works. It is not an illness and therefore cannot be ‘cured.’ Some may show traits but never be diagnosed as being autistic.

Autism… A Mother’s Story is a heartfelt account of a mother’s journey with her autistic son which spans almost 28 years and covers the huge ups and downs of this complex condition.

This is a memoir that gives hope to those caring for anyone with autism or for anyone wanting to know more about the challenges that face carers and the assistance that is available.

A Concrete Bridge on Wooden Pillars

A Concrete Bridge on Wooden Pillars is a collection of opinions and wishes presenting how the African rural masses, who are the largest economic contributors, think how their rural problems can be resolved politically, socially and economically.

It is a culmination of the author’s early experiences of rural living. As a young boy he wonders why young men have to be hunted down by tax police in order to pay tax. He is intrigued and troubled by issues surrounding tax and the many difficulties of rural living, including poverty, hunger and conflicts.

The author ascribes all these problems to the destruction of rural environment that has been enhanced by incompatible models of rural habitation with changed demographic and economic models. He suggests neglect of the rural by successive governments whose erroneous policies have resulted in skewing of resources towards the cities and their exportation are to blame. He also argues that this has been made worse by continued use of carbon copies of western governance systems that provoke adverse political and social issues that create the environment not conducive to investment.

The author suggests that African governments need to develop adaptive governance systems and tap the eager and willing human resource that is desperate to escape poverty in order to achieve credible development.

Baby in Sync

Miranda Thorpe, an experienced psychotherapist and grandmother, offers us a unique book about a valuable parenting skill that is rapidly being lost around the world. The simple technique of early and gentle toilet training (Elimination Communication) is a traditional method of using observation, timing, sounds, and intuition with minimal use of nappies (diapers). This ‘dance’ between the caregiver and baby results in a stronger ‘in sync’ bond that then helps the baby to become more in tune with their own body and feelings. Miranda reveals how this early toilet training practice is an invaluable key to deeper and healthier relationships. In this important book she integrates the physical, emotional, environmental, and psychological facets of this fascinating topic.

Baking with Melanie Andrews

Melanie Andrews is a Professional Chef and Masterbaker and the recipes included in this book are her award-winning recipes from the highly successful “Scottish Baking Awards”. Melanie Andrews is the Founder/ Director of these awards in Scotland and she produces an easy guide to successful baking, whether you are baking for the first time or a seasoned baker. In her own words – you cannot fail to bake well if you have the right teacher and the right recipe. Melanie Andrews is at the top of her profession through talent and passion for the first love in her life – baking.