Book review blog site, with some entertainment material from time-to-time.
Saturday 24 December 2016
That's Christmas: A Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all...
That's Christmas: A Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all...: Everyone at That's Chirstmas would like to wish our readers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and prosperous New Year. We would ...
The Enemy Within
For his debut novel former mining engineer Robert MacNeil Wilson gives his readers an exploration of the 1980s miners' strike.
It relates the story of Jim, who is a young colliery manager, an Paul, who is a miner, as together they battle to save their mine.
Half a mile beneath ground they face the miners' age old enemies, flood, roof collapse and fire.
However, the miners' strike drags them into conflicting sides of the conflict that tears asunder ties of friendship and of blood as friend is pitted against friend and family member against family member, rendering their pit village inot a battleground.
The novel also touches on the plight of the women of the pit village as they struggle to come to terms with the new reality that has been thrust upon them, as they struggle to make sense of what is happening and of the new reality that has become their life.
Based upon the experiences of Robert MacNeil Wilson when, as a young mine engineer of 24, he was, on more than one occasion, the only manager in charge when the mine was besieged by massed flying pickets.
The book is a riveting read and explains what happened and what went wrong. And who went wrong.
It costs £8.99, and can be bought here>>> https://goo.gl/zmYo4p.
The Magdeburg Relic
It is an occult novel following in the fine traditions established by one of the founders of this genre, the late Dennis Wheatley.
In fact C. M. Chadwick states: "My book is a serious attempt to write a heavyweight occult novel in order to continue Wheatley's tradition."
It is his hope and desire that the book will be an enjoyable read for those readers who like exploring paganism, black magic and folklore.
The novel is set in the mystical English county of Wiltshire and follows the story of a vicar, who is also an occult investigator, Callum Dood.
He uncovers the conflicting forces of devil worship and paganism.
Togetrher with a group of trusted compatriots, Dood fights with a Satanic cult for possession of the Magdburg Relic, the rediscovered relics of Adolf Hitler.
It is the intention of the cult to use them for occult purposes; It is the intent of Dood and his helpers to thwart them.
The action takes place in a variety of locations, including Nuremberg, the site of Nazi rallies and to a necromantic ceremony, where the soul of Hitler is raised.
The action then moves to a mysterious crypt beneath the former home of occultist Aleister Crowley where the battle nearly ends with the death of Dood and his plucky band of fellow workers.
Later they face, at Carn Brea, in Wiltshire, the opening of a gateway to the underworld through which the Satanic cult hopes to draw legions of the former followers of Hitler.
However, they were not counting on the fact that Dood would be able to recruit the assistance of a pagan group who still hold firm to the old religion and who still converse in the Celtic language of their ancient forefathers. They hold in veneration the Celtic god Taranis and together both groups work together to defeat the cult.
But will they succeed? Read this thrilling novel to find out!
This book is definitely in the tradition of the late Dennis Wheatley and the only way one can tell that it is not a book by Wheatley is that there are references to modern matters such as emails. And, yes, I do mran that as a complement to the author, C. M. Chadwick.
It is published in hardback by Matador at £12.99 an d you can buy it here >>> https://goo.gl/zmYo4p.
The Seven Letters
Claudette Bourvil is a timid country girl who, after her recruitment by the French Resistance, is directed to work in Paris, as an undercover agent within a bordello that is operated by the calculating and hard Madame Odile.
Whilst she is at the bordello of Madame Odile, Claudette meets and falls in love with one of the habitues of the bordello, a German Nazi officer, Fritz Keber.
He is a deeply complex man with secrets of his own, which, when she discovers them, absolutely horrifies Claudette.
The story progresses to England some seven decades later. It is 2014 and Connie Webber is a witness when her friend the playwright, Freddie March, ends his own life by suicide.
Matt Varney, a kindly stranger, who is also on the scene offers her his comfort and they become firm friends.
Matt offers to assist Connie in the task of sorting through Freddy's possessions and they discover a cache of seven letters which are the key to the mystery of his mother.
The letters lead them to Paris. There, they meet a former prostitute who reveals the story of a maid who worked at the bordello who was, in reality, an agent of the French Resistance.
Connie and Matt follow the trail to a quiet village in the Normandy countryside where they discover a terrible truth relating to the fate of Freddy's mother.
The book will be published in February 2017 at £9.99 by Matador.
It will be available for purchase here>>> https://goo.gl/zmYo4p.
The Universe is a Machine
In it offers a new and unique explanation of the science of what might have happened during the Big Bang, when our universe came into being.
It is a novel solution to the problem of where all the antimatter went after the Big Bang, why it is still in existence and the reasons as to why it has never, at least so far, been detected.
It is written in the form of a treatise which explores the so-called "smoking gun" of a clue that points to there having been a distinct mechanical process that took place during the aftermath of the Big Bang, superimposed, as Hughes argue, upon the thermodynamic and nuclear processes that are linked to the evolution of the early stages of our universe.
It is the current orthodoxy that the antimatter was utterly destroyed in the events of the aftermath of the Big Bang.
However, Cambridge alumnus and chartered engineer James Hughes argues that this was not the case.
He has a unique explanation to what happened to the antimatter, where it is and why it has not -at least, yet!- been subject to detection.
This paperback book is published in paperback by Matador at £78.00, though a Kindle version is available for £68.00.
It is available for purchase or download at our shop>>> https://goo.gl/zmYo4p.
Saturday 17 December 2016
That's Christmas: The Funniest Stuff
That's Christmas: The Funniest Stuff: This is the latest book from Colin West and it's going to be a must buy Chirstmas gift for the children in your life!" It's...
Under the Knife
A retired urologist with decades of experience in the UK and abroad, Gulzar Mufti brings his readers a wide ranging array of medical and surgical stories from all over the globe.
Some of the anecdotes are light-hearted, some dramatic, some tinged with sadness, but they are all very real examples of what happens in medical establishments the world over.
It also shows the human side of the doctors, the surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses and other healthcare professionals who look after patients to the best of their abilities and, sometimes who go the extra mile and then some in order to help the sick people who are in their care.
Read how Professor K was able to make a diseased appendix just 'pop out', how the Kashmiri barbers dealt with hair and also with other matters such as teeth, removal of earwax, draining of abscesses and circumcision, too.
Also read how a simple typographical error was, actually, quite well received and how not everyone a doctor meets should be fully trusted!
This book is a must buy Christmas gift for everyone involved in medicine and also, everyone else, too!
It is published by the Book Guild at the modest price of £8.99 and is available for purchase from our own book and gift shop here>>> https://goo.gl/AzQ0XD but please do remember you might need to use the express delivery option as it is so close to Christmas.
Portals of Discovery
Lord George Norrie has had a fascinating life. He has served as a member of the armed services as a soldier, worked as a horticulturalist and is, by inclination, an entrepreneur and has served as a parliamentarian.
In his memoir which is frank and honest, he raises some very interesting points. For example he argues that the choices that we make during our lifetime should not, usually, be considered to be mistakes.
He concurs with the Irish author James Joyce, they are not to be considered to be mistakes, they are, "portals of discovery," or gateways inot new worlds and are opportunities for bus to learn more about life.
Lord Norrie is a delight as he does not take himself too seriously and employs a self-deprecating wit and casts an eye on contemporary life.
He details the story of his life that begins in the Gloucestershire of the Second World War, to South Africa, New Zealand and the Middle East.
He shares with his readers an important account of the vital role that the House of Lords plays in the examination and reviewing of new proposed legislation, pointing out some changes that he was able to introduce to legislation as it progressed through the Upper Chamber on key environmental matters.
His time in parliament was brought to a somewhat abrupt termination when reductions in the number of hereditary peers allowed to sit in the House of Lords was reduced, but he is still very active in helping to look after the natural world.
The key themes of this memoir are self-knowledge and the importance of looking for new understandings.
It is published by the Book Guild and in hardback it costs £14.95 and is available here from our own bookshop and gift shop >>> https://goo.gl/AzQ0XD, but do please remember if it is a Christmas present, do please use the express delivery option.
Broccoli and Bloody-Mindedness
She was born prematurely and was not a wanted child, in army barracks in the year of 1931.
She had cerebral palsy, yet she had a mind that was sharp and she had what was described as "a sense of fun."
Her childhood was chaotic and tinged with rage, some naughtiness and a few escapades and narrow scrapes.
Somehow, and it has to be said, the odds were somewhat stacked against her, Antonia was able to attend university and after leaving university she took up a career as a teacher in London.
She discovered sex and found that she quite like it and, after a few exciting and exhilarating years she, perhaps unexpectedly, got married to Hugo.
This brought about adventures of their own, as Hugo took her off to live in the African country of Nigeria.
Some time later they move to South Africa where Antonia discovers apartheid and realises that she hates it, which brings her suppressed rebellious nature to the surface.
She decides that she will make her way into Black zones that are normally forbidden to white people.
How does she do this? By the simple expedient of selling coffins ad teaching black students.
The South African authorities find her attitudes if not in breach of the apartheid regulations, certainly somewhat disturbing so they "invite" the family to return to the UK.
Domestic tasks were beyond her -due to three small children- and she eventually suffers from a breakdown in her physical health, with resultant chronic back pain.
Eventually Hugo leaves her and things get a little chaotic.
She finds that teaching is now too physically demanding and so she takes the decision to retrain as a psychotherapist, which results in more years of work that she found utterly fascinating and rewarding, in the main.
In later years she has campaigned for the re-legalisation of cannabis for medical use and when asked recently by her doctor how she had survived so long she responded with the improtal line: "Broccoli and bloody-mindedness!"
The book is illustrated with photographs and it is an autobiography that really shoulds be bought as a Christmas present for those who like autobiographies about real people.
It is published by Matador at £7.99 and is available for purchase here >>> https://goo.gl/AzQ0XD but od use the express delivery option if you ant it before Christmas.
The Conisbrough Chronicles
Seen through the eyes of several different narrators, we read the history of this great family as they amble through the last Millennia as they interrelate and interact with other families and characters, often with utterly disastrous consequences. Usually for them and not for the Conisbrough family members, however!
We see how the family participated -even sometimes if only in vaguely tangential ways- with the great and the good and the small and the not all that good, really, figures of British history.
We learn of what things were really like in the Middle Ages (it's filled with stuff you probably never knew until you picked this book up) the goings on (diverse and interesting) at the Court of Queen Elizabeth I, what the English Civil War was like (at least from the point of view of the Conisbrough family) and the dark doings that took place during the Industrial Revolution.
We meet greedy people, mad people, sad people and bad people and the third part of the book brings us right up to date with the relations between the Conisbrough family and the modern world.
And the great thing is? The entire book is all culled from the fertile imagination of McMullen Country, as the Conisbrough family is a work of fiction!
He reports, somewhat gleefully, that his "proof reader said she had never read anything like it!" which he, probably wisely, chose to take as a compliment.
This book will make a nifty stocking filler this Christmas so please quickly your copy from our book shop, here >>> https://goo.gl/AzQ0XD. Probably better to use "express" options for delivery, now.
That's Christmas: May it Please You, Madam
That's Christmas: May it Please You, Madam: May it Please You, Madam, by Neil Hickman, is just the type of book that I love. It is sub-titled a little book of legal whimsy and it c...
Salvage
In Dublin author's Bernadette Quinn's new novel, Salvage, she explores a situation of marital crisis and destruction.
Based on events from real life -not those of the author- the novel tells the story of a typical Irish couple, Pam Cronin and Pat McElroy.
They meet, by chance, at a seminar. He is a youthful and ambitious architect, she is an equally youthful and equally ambitious newly qualified medical doctor.
They meet again and quickly realise that they are falling very deeply in love and quite soon they are married and have two children.
However, their married life takes a change for the worse when Pam wishes to return to work as a doctor. Perhaps somewhat inexplicably, Pat forbids this from happening.
In order to appease her husband, Pam acquiesces to his arguments that she should be a stay at home mother and concentrate on raising their two children.
This is, however, the start of what eventually become serious problems within their marriage.
With the passage of time their relationship deteriorates more and more. Pam attempts to raise these important issues with her husband but he dismisses her concerns. As far as he is concerned they have the perfect marriage and any problems that Pam perceives are only within her own mind.
Perhaps in order to shock him into realising the severity of their marital disharmony, Pam suggests a trial separation, he is angry and very dismissive of the idea. But demands that if they separate, that he would seek custody of their two children.
Aware that their marriage is, in fact, dying, Pam realises that she must now make plans to create a new life for herself, a life that does not involve her husband or her children.
However, fate takes a hand when Pam is severely wounded when she attempts to save a child who is in danger of being run down by a bus.
She is alone in her hospital bed and she begins to think about her life and her family. Will she be able to continue with her life as a wife and mother or could she decide to carry out her plans for a new and different life, facing the world, alone?
This is an emotionally charged and highly realistic novel and will make an excellent Christmas present for those for whom Mills and Boon is not their cup of tea.
It is published by Matador at £9.99 and can be bought here >>> https://goo.gl/AzQ0XD.
They meet, by chance, at a seminar. He is a youthful and ambitious architect, she is an equally youthful and equally ambitious newly qualified medical doctor.
They meet again and quickly realise that they are falling very deeply in love and quite soon they are married and have two children.
However, their married life takes a change for the worse when Pam wishes to return to work as a doctor. Perhaps somewhat inexplicably, Pat forbids this from happening.
In order to appease her husband, Pam acquiesces to his arguments that she should be a stay at home mother and concentrate on raising their two children.
This is, however, the start of what eventually become serious problems within their marriage.
With the passage of time their relationship deteriorates more and more. Pam attempts to raise these important issues with her husband but he dismisses her concerns. As far as he is concerned they have the perfect marriage and any problems that Pam perceives are only within her own mind.
Perhaps in order to shock him into realising the severity of their marital disharmony, Pam suggests a trial separation, he is angry and very dismissive of the idea. But demands that if they separate, that he would seek custody of their two children.
Aware that their marriage is, in fact, dying, Pam realises that she must now make plans to create a new life for herself, a life that does not involve her husband or her children.
However, fate takes a hand when Pam is severely wounded when she attempts to save a child who is in danger of being run down by a bus.
She is alone in her hospital bed and she begins to think about her life and her family. Will she be able to continue with her life as a wife and mother or could she decide to carry out her plans for a new and different life, facing the world, alone?
This is an emotionally charged and highly realistic novel and will make an excellent Christmas present for those for whom Mills and Boon is not their cup of tea.
It is published by Matador at £9.99 and can be bought here >>> https://goo.gl/AzQ0XD.
Emotions of a Book
In a way that many might feel follows on in the tradition of Six Characters in Search of an author, the important 1921 play by fellow Italian Luigi Pirandello, this arguably equally important work explores the relationships between the author and the book that the author is creating.
Does the book have a personality of its own? Is it, in fact, a living creature in its own right?
Parisi argues that this point of view can be extended to all other artistic categories, the musical, artistic, dramatic, painters, sculptors and so forth.
Written by lecturer, teacher and a professor of literature, Emotions of a Book is a work that belongs on the bookshelves of anyone with even a passing interest in the arts and the meaning of life.
Although a work that touches on a great many different, yet, in reality, related themes (the arts, history, the nature of love and friendship, truth and so on) it is written in a style that is easily accessible by anyone who cares to read it.
The ideas that flow through and from this book are important and this book will make a excellent Christmas present for anyone who loves the arts and life in general.
It is published by Matador at £10.99 andis available for purchase here >>> https://goo.gl/AzQ0XD.
Sunday 11 December 2016
Rasmus
Rasmus. Exactly who, or what, is Rasmus?
He appears to be a TV visionary, a producer of reality television shows, but he has a desire to push, pull and cajole the genre to either scale untold heights, or to plumb the lowest levels of some post-Dante vision of Hell.
Take your pick.
His programming corrupts all who participate, all who watch it and his rivals in the television industry, worldwide.
Great and terrible things happen, people will die live (if you'll pardon that expression) on TV, celebrities will be consumed, no, make that celebrities will be eaten and all for higher ratings.
All culminating in Death Hunt compared by the bouncy Alicia McVicar, where the name of the game is delete or be deleted.
Of course, nothing like this could ever happen in real life. Or Could it?
Not for the feint of heart this book is published by Matador at £8.99 and will make a superb Christmas present who like their fiction to be thrilling, satirical and just a little off the wall.
You can buy it here from our own book and gift shop which you will find here >>> https://goo.gl/m5aVoo.
That's Christmas: The Primacy of Your Eye
That's Christmas: The Primacy of Your Eye: The Primacy of Your Eye is a fascinating book by author, artist and qualified art historian Allan W. Beckett. It is a handbook that belo...
That's Christmas: The Rhyming Diary of Jason Smith
That's Christmas: The Rhyming Diary of Jason Smith: If you have a teacher or a child to buy a Christmas present for, then you really should get a copy of veteran schoolteacher Trevor Cattell...
Snake Ring at Risk & Other Stories
The stories are aimed at children and contain good, positive moral underpinnings, but children of ages 9 to 99 (and beyond) will find these stories equally enchanting.
You will reads about the Witch that wasn't, the not stupid at all boy who should not have been called Pie, a kitten who was full of mischief, the mystery of what the old lady in black was really singing and that's all in the first story!
There's the exciting new game that Sammy invented for himself, which resulted in him working to free a planet from an influx of giant snails, but it was only a dream. Or was it?
There are stories of revenge that was misplaced and erroneous, and also what happened when the Snake Ring was at risk.
The book costs £7.99 and is an essential read for everyone.
It is published in January and you can pre-order your copy here at our book and gift shop >>> https://goo.gl/m5aVoo.
Mr Churchill's Driver A Murderer's Story
It is written by Colin Farrington and is a stunner of a debut novel.
The book is intriguingly described as being based on "real events" and "events that may be real."
It is July 1940 and Britain stands alone against the dark and brooding menace and threat that was Nazi Germany.
What if, the book posits, Britain's Premier, Winston Churchill, had met with the Irish leader Eamon de Valera?
What if Winston Churchill had agreed with de Valera to unify Ireland in return for the entry of the Republic of Ireland into the war?
Is it possible that they might have even discussed terms from Germany to bring an end to the war?
The novel is largely the memoir of William Gilbey. It commences with the story which had been told to him by Bert, his father.
Bert, it transpired, had been a driver for Winston Churchill. He claimed that he had driven the Wartime Premier to the Welsh port town of Holyhead for a clandestine meeting with the Irish
Taoiseach, Eamon de Valera.
William's own story is a little complicated because as the novel commences he has just been released from prison after serving 12 years for murder.
It is his intention to find out the truth about the life of his father who was also found guilty of murder, but who was executed for his crime and was notorious as being the last man to be hanged in Britain in 1964.
He also plans to go straight, but not before retrieving stashes of jewelry and cash secreted by his gang.
But his efforts are not going unobserved. He has raised the interests of three groups, the British Secret Service, his own former gang members and Irish Nationalists.
They believe that his father may have informed him of the existence of documents relating to secret peace negotiations and there's the other matter of antiques and money smuggled from Northern Ireland to England during the war years.
This book is published by Matador at £8.99 and will be available for pre-ordering here >>> https://goo.gl/m5aVoo.
That's Christmas: Chasing Cloud
That's Christmas: Chasing Cloud: If you have to buy a Christmas present for a lover of historical fiction, here's a book that will fit that bill perfectly. Chasing C...
That's Books and Entertainment: All About Cruising
That's Books and Entertainment: All About Cruising: All About Cruising is a new and highly amusing look at cruiseships and those who cruise around the world on them. It is a mixture of car...
That's Christmas: The Key to the Half Worlds
That's Christmas: The Key to the Half Worlds: Andrew Chaplin's debut children's novel, The Key to the Half Worlds, is published by The Book Guild at £8.99. It tells the excit...
Saturday 10 December 2016
That's Christmas: Deathling of Dorn
That's Christmas: Deathling of Dorn: Deathling of Dorn, by John Timmis, is an ideal Christmas gift for the lovers of Fantasy Fiction in your life. It tells the story of the ...
All About Cruising
It is a mixture of cartoons and the written word all crafted by qualified Yachtmaster and former Royal Navy member "Boz."
Boz takes a look at the history of cruiseships and holiday cruising, pointing out that perhaps the first cruiseship master was actually Noah? And that other early proponents of the cruising life were Polynesians, Vikings and the like.
He lets us look at what life is like on modern cruiseships from the point of view of the crew and the passengers.
He also, to coin a phrase, lifts the hood on the esoteric world of the Private Charter Cuisers and luxury full rigged sailing ships. Although he does say something about them that does, somewhat, dispel their mystique. But what this is you can find by buying this excellent book here >>> https://goo.gl/m5aVoo at £9.99.
It's a great Christmas gift for the armchair traveller or for those people who have been on, or who are going on a cruise.
That's Christmas: Hidden by the Leaves
That's Christmas: Hidden by the Leaves: Hidden by the Leaves is a new novel by S D L Curry, which draws upon his extensive knowledge of the history of Medieval Japanese society. ...
Cancer A Journey's End
In the year 2012, Tanvi Naik was given the diagnosis that she had breast cancer.
She commenced her course of treatment with hope and optimism and with a loving, caring family (her husband and two young daughters) she was firm in her resolve that the only option was her full recovery and that death would not result from her cancer.
She actually said: "That's for other people!"
However, the treatments for her breast cancer did not work and it was realised that her cancer was far more aggressive than at first thought.
Sadly, the major fear of the family came to pass, the diagnosis was that Tanvi's cancer was, after all, terminal.
But Prashant did not want the incredible story of his wife's brave struggle to go unrecorded and unnoticed, so he has written this book as a loving memorial to her fight against her cancer.
This book will be an ideal gift for anyone who has been touched by cancer or who needs to counsel or treat people who have cancer.
It is published by £8.99 and is available for purchase via our online bookshop >>> https://goo.gl/m5aVoo.
That's Christmas: The First English Explorer
That's Christmas: The First English Explorer: Ask most people who the first English explorer was and they would probably come up with a whole range of different names. But they would a...
Living With the Leopard
It is the follow on novel to Courting Rendition.
It relates the story of a young and recently wed couple, Tom ands Carrie.
They look to have a bright future ahead of them, despite the fact that they are both members of a religious sect that a concerned government has determined is "extremist."
They are inhabitants of a somewhat stable community so they are, to an extent, protected from the problems caused by poverty and discrimination in the outside world.
But when they are invited to become activists, they become targets of surveillance by the government.
They rapidly find themselves targeted by the Anti-Terrorists Task Force (the ATTF) and are bewildered by the changes in their once settled and ordered lives.
They find themselves involved with a group that organises an escape route to assist dissidents to escape the clutches of the government.
They even find themselves offering shelter to a person who is wanted by the government.
When Carrie falls into ill health they find that their benefits are revoked and they eventually come to realise that they are no longer able to know who, within their community, is trustworthy or not.
They find their religious faith and even their marriage is at risk and they conclude that their own escape is now the only valid option. But who can they trust?
Can they make one last, desperate gamble to achieve their freedom together?
This is an interesting and thought-provoking novel and will make an excellent Christmas present for the lover of cerebral fiction.
It is published by Matador at £7.99 and is available from our very own shop which you will find here >>> https://goo.gl/m5aVoo.
Monday 5 December 2016
That's Christmas: The Inventing Tubes
That's Christmas: The Inventing Tubes: The Inventing Tubes is a new book by Bryony Supper who, after surviving a career as a children's TV star, has reinvented herself as a ...
That's Christmas: Dead End
That's Christmas: Dead End: Dead End is a new crime thriller by novelist Daniel Pascoe. (You may well have read his previous novel The London Sniper, published last...
That's Christmas: Hoping for the Best
That's Christmas: Hoping for the Best: Hoping for the Best is an amazing debut book from Sarah Berryman -non-fiction, bless her!- about what it is really like to become the moth...
Sunday 4 December 2016
That's Christmas: Death in Winter
That's Christmas: Death in Winter: Death in Winter is a new crime novel from veteran crime writer Ian McFayden who is certainly going to please his fans and new readers alik...
That's Christmas: James and the Amazing Gift
That's Christmas: James and the Amazing Gift: James and the Amazing gift is a wonderful book that will make a stupendously great Christmas gift for young boys and girls. It is debut ...
That's Christmas: Beyond All Doubt
That's Christmas: Beyond All Doubt: Beyond All Doubt is a new crime thriller novel from the pen of Evesham author Paige Elizabeth Turner. Intrigued by the recent advances i...
That's Christmas: The Great Wizard Wars
That's Christmas: The Great Wizard Wars: The Great Wizard Wars is a fantastic new novel for children of 7 to 11 years of age and their mums, dads, grandparents and older siblings ...
That's Christmas: Georgina A song of youth
That's Christmas: Georgina A song of youth: Georgina A song of youth is a new novel by Cedric Paul Foster. It relates the story of Georgina, who is an extraordinary woman. She is...
That's Christmas: Love Across the Decades
That's Christmas: Love Across the Decades: In his new collection of short, romantic stories, writer Steven Baker (who we just met, you will remember!) has produced an entirely diffe...
That's Christmas: Battling Spirits and Kindly Hearts
That's Christmas: Battling Spirits and Kindly Hearts: Battling Spirits and Kindly Hearts is a new novel from author Steven Baker. It tells the story of young Londoner Michael Forbes. His was...
Friday 25 November 2016
That's Christmas: More Sherlock Holmes than James Herriot
That's Christmas: More Sherlock Holmes than James Herriot: More Sherlock Holmes than James Herriot is subtitled The Veterinary Detectives. Written by one such veterinary detective, Roger S. Winds...
Shifting Stories How changing their story can transform people
In his new book, Shifting Stories How changing their story can transform people, Andrew Scott, a freelance management training consultant and coach who has worked with top blue chip organisations and many universities during the past three decades, points out that you can help people change their story and, therefore, change themselves.
If your job requires you to help others to become more effective in a workplace setting, then this book will be of immense value and help to you.
It uses a completely revolutionary approach to addressing the life of your organisation in order for oyu to be better able to coach your staff members more effectively, boosting your team to work more successfully, deal with and resolve interpersonal difficulties, bring about change (by leadership!) and resolve conflicts.
Andrew began a five year process of examining the multitude of different approaches that are available, ranging from Narrative Theraphy to CBT.
He has created a synthesis which has brought about a new and unique method to assist people to re-write the stories within their lives which, Andrew, contends, impede and block their progress, their abilities and their effectiveness.
The book is broken down inot three distinct sections.
What's the Big Idea?
The ManyStory Approach in Approach in Practice
Concluding Thoughts.
Section one covers how everyone lives our lives through story, how problems could arise because of the stories that people have created, how people can make their stories come true, for good or for ill, sometimes, and how people can be helped to work with their stories to achieve better, more positive outcomes.
Section two deals with how the ManyStory approach can be applied. There are a number of very helpful case studies that explore and demonstrate all aspects of the system.
The final section, section 3, brings together everything that has been learned, but it also examines instances where the system has been seen to have not worked and he examines the lessons that we can learn from them.
The book will be a useful tool in the tool kit available to anyone in Human Resources, training, business coaching and management.
It costs £14.99 and is published by Matador. Copies are available for purchase at our own book shop at >>> https://goo.gl/qPctIy.
That's Christmas: Actual Reality
That's Christmas: Actual Reality: We have all heard of Virtual Reality, but what of Actual Reality? Cat Mantra has spent his working life as a journalist and as a perform...
The Adventures of a Mzungu
The book is a light-hearted and compelling look back at his times spent in Africa, whilst there for pleasurable travel and also for work.
He was a travelling novice when he first started his sojourns inot the African continent and he saw everything through the fresh and unjaded eyes of a travelling novice.
On his first visit to a shanty town in Nairobi, he was startled by a Masai security guard, enjoyed (if that's the correct word...) is first experience of public transport in Africa and managed to survive his first encounter with African wildlife. You will be glad to know that neither he, or the water buffalo, were any the worse for their mutual experience.
Throughout the coming years David met a great many interesting people, sometimes in hospital and prison visits, flew to and from a number of airports (an adventure in itself, to be honest) met even more wildlife (and, thankfully, continued to survive these encounters) and he even (somehow!) managed to survive his attempts at negotiating African traffic as a driver.
In 2007 he spent a year in Uganda, where he realised that there was a problem with the idea of arranging training for village church leaders. They had not the funding to attend training courses in distant cities, so David hit on the idea of bringing the necessary training to them, instead.
He found the required training course, found training to enable him to present the training courses and this is what he now does, taking the training to even the remotest villages where this training is desperately required.
This is a very inspirational book and it will make an ideal Christmas present for people who want to learn about travel and inspirational people like David Ardron.
The book isd from Matador and costs £11.99.
It's available to purchase at our own shop, here >>> https://goo.gl/qPctIy.
That's Christmas: A Cuddle of Cats
That's Christmas: A Cuddle of Cats: A Cuddle of Cats is the perfect Christmas present for all cat lovers, everywhere. It is written by author Heather Cook and it is copious...
Telling Tails: the Confessions of a Handyman
After living in Spain for several years British expat E. James Chapman has gathered a number of what he describes as "hilarious anecdotes" more, actually, than he could possibly hope to count.
In Telling Tales: the Confessions of a Handyman, he uses a mere seven of these hilarious anecdotes.
He points out that the majority of the stories actually happened to him and his family.
We read a compilation of seven stories that all, really, actually, took place in the southern Spanish area called Costa del Sol.
How did all this happen to him? Perhaps, upon quiet reflection, he might have had an easier life if he had not taken the expat career that he did. That of a property manager-cum-butler within the expat community in the costa del Sol!
In the pages of the book we meet a whole array of characters from the barking mad to the bewildered and from the lustful to the loony. But all, the author assures us, fictional! Of course...
We meet Helga, a sort of Viking troll, the mysterious signals used -or not!- by ladies who might be requiring some type of servicing arrangement, involving a certain brand of powder detergent or a brand of coffee much loved in Spain.
Learn what happened when the secret lift urinator was discovered and his utterly bizarre excuse for micturating in the lift of the complex, why a police officer got hit in a highly unfortunate part og his anatomy by a flying TV remote control, how the advent of a secret CCTV system gave one poor resident far, far more than he bargained for. Or even wanted, poor fellow. Three hours worth, apparently.
There are problematic building contractors, Pepe the plumber -who looked, or so we are told, more like a Chippendale, than a plumber- and a whole host of other characters.
You might like to buy this book as a Christmas present. But if you do, buy two copies, one for you, too! It's published by Matador at £8.99 and includes some amusing line drawings, too.
You can purchase (and his first book) it at our very own shop, right here >>> https://goo.gl/qPctIy.
The Wolf of Dalriada
It is set in 1793 and deals with the problems faced by Scottish landowners set against the backdrop of the painful and bloody revolution that was then sweeping through France.
If there is one person who is set to ride out these mighty and powerful forces for change, then it would be Malcolm Craig Lowrie. Otherwise known as The Wolf of Dalriada, a man who was a legend within his own lifetime.
The clearances in remote Argyll are causing horrors and heartaches for the populace and they are calling out for justice.
A beautiful and mysterious Frenchwoman is living under the malign thrall of the man who captured her, Sir William Robinson, a man whose debauchery was well known throughout the area.
His people need his protection. But can The Wolf of Dalriada prove equal to this challenge? Can he protect his people? Can The Wolf of Dalriada smash his enemies who, ruthless as they are, threaten to destroy all who are in their path?
And what about the debauched and wicked Sir William and his captured Frenchwoman? What is to become of them?
The Wolf of Dalriada is the start of a series of chronicles penned by debut author Elizabeth Gates and it is ideal for those who love their romances to be well written, historical and exciting.
It is published by Matador at £8.99 and makes an ideal stocking filler for the lover of historical romances.
You can purchase it here>>> https://goo.gl/qPctIy.
Rescuing God From Religion
She points out that, throughout the history of the human race, God or Gods have played a key role.
From her position as what she calls a "nontheist" she has written a book for those people who are wavering in their religious beliefs in a "creator-God" as she puts it.
They might feel a requirement for security, both of an intellectual and/or an emotional nature that can arise from the belief in a loving, personal God.
It might be hard, she argues, for individuals in these circumstances to question their faith and to, ultimately, reject their religion.
The purpose of the book is to encourage such sceptics to build their own idea of a God which can provide comfort and consolation but in a way that negates what she describes as "the burden of religious dogma."
It's an interesting book which costs £9.99 and is published by Matador.
It is available for purchase here>>> https://goo.gl/qPctIy.
Thursday 24 November 2016
That's Christmas: Peggy
That's Christmas: Peggy: Peggy is the story of a little girl called Susan. She loves ponies. But she doesn't have one of her own because her father cannot af...
That's Christmas: The Haunted Painting on the Wall
That's Christmas: The Haunted Painting on the Wall: The Haunted Painting on the Wall is a new spooky novel for children from the imagination of author Devika A. Rosamund. Tracy and Sebasti...
Rethinking Psychotherapy
Rethinking Psychotherapy is a new and very thought-provoking critique of the current mental health system and how psychotherapy is practiced.Paul Hingston originally trained as a lawyer who began working in the financial sector.
He became used to working within a business environment that promoted and celebrated a culture in which a clear focus was maintained on the problem at hand. That also gave great value to the concept of the well-reasoned argument.
After Paul decided to embark on a radical re-think of his career path and to train as a psychotherapist, he was shocked and horrified to discover that there was no such culture within the field of psychotherapy, at all.
Over the last 15 years Paul has been employed as a private practice therapist who has also worked as a front line manager of mental health service providers.
The experiences that he has gained, plus his previous nine years during which he trained at some of the UK's top mental health institutions have combined together to enable him to offer a critique of modern psychotherapy that is worrying, challenging and yet, ultimately, inspiring.
He calls into question some dearly and long-held beliefs. He challenges the efficacy of using a diagnostic approach to the problem of everyday unhappiness.
He also questions the wisdom of, in effect, choosing to label as symptoms of mental illness what are, he asserts, merely perfectly normal and natural reactions to the challenges of life.
Paul believes that modern psychotherapy has it all wrong. Therapists should not, he concludes, provide treatment or encourage introspection. Instead, he avers, they should help clients to learn how to cope with and come to terms with unusual and/or distressing circumstances that they find themselves in by referencing them to a wider social and personal context.
The book will be of great value to all people who work in the field of mental health. It is published by Matador at £9.99 and is available for purchase here >>> https://goo.gl/qPctIy.
That's Christmas: The Film Director's Wife
That's Christmas: The Film Director's Wife: We all love a good autobiography, especially if it can shed light on the lives of the rich and famous from the perspective of someone who ...
Wednesday 23 November 2016
Calling Time
Judith Hereford witnessed terrible cruelty being meted out to elderly people when she was in his first job as a young woman.
So she feels compelled to bring this issue to the attention of others.
(EDITOR: Recent reports of the jailing of two young women for acts of gross cruelty to elderly women at a carehome mean that, sadly, this book is of special relevance and should be read bearing that in mind.)
The novel draws on her own experiences and touches on a wide variety of highly emotive and equally important concepts regarding the provision of care for the elderly.
It follows the lives of two entirely different people, starting in the New Zealand of the 1950s.
There's Kristine and Angela.
Angela is concerned about the quality of life afforded to the elderly. So he decides to take matters into her own hands and kills four of the patients under her care to "put them out of their misery."
But it all goes wrong when a fifth victim causes questions to be asked into the matter.
As a result, Angela is frightened and decides to resign from her position.
However, Kristine is a model carer who would not dream of murdering those vulnerable elderly people who have been placed in her charge.
But after moving to the UK, Kristine finds that looking after her own mother-in-law is much more difficult than she could have imagined.
Eventually she realises that she cannot cope and takes the decision to have her mother-in-law placed within a nursing home.
The novel makes clever use of a variety of voices -care staff, residents, the matron, etc. to tell the story of how things can, and sadly, do, go so badly wrong with the residential care for the elderly.
This novel is published by Matador at £8.99 and is a very creditable debut novel. It is to be hoped that This is only the first of many novels from Judith Hereford.
It is available for purchase from our bookshop which you will find here >>> https://goo.gl/apr0hq.
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