Su Gutteridge’s grandmother Florence married Frank Ginns at the beginning of the 20th century and they soon had two children. But Frank’s health was being ruined by drinking, and when he became ill and died at the age of only 28, she married a local churchwarden, William Gutteridge. Florence and William found great happiness together, and worked hard to build up a successful funeral business, Ginns & Gutteridge, which is today one of the most respected undertakers in England. Having researched the early years of her family, Su has now written this intriguing dramatized account of the years when undertakers used horses and it was still unusual for women to have a hand in business.

This is the story of a life spent largely in the world of chemistry, mainly as a college or university-level teacher. It is also the story of an ordinary boy, a child of the war years, who rose from an unpromising start, leaving school at 16 with four mediocre O Levels, to become more successful and fulfilled in a career than he had ever imagined possible, eventually becoming a university professor. The book also describes the immense contribution made to our lives by chemical research and the chemical industry.

Susanne Defoe suffered parental violence and bullying at school on a daily basis throughout her childhood, finding comfort only with her pet rabbits: “One of my first memories was of climbing into the rabbit hutch and snuggling down into the straw to sleep… I just stayed there until they found me. I was only two and a half and I was missing for almost two hours.” Desperate to escape from her controlling father and ignorant mother, she found herself pregnant at fifteen by a boy who turned out to be a waster who spent all his wages in the pub. This is the story of how Susanne struggled to escape from a life of abuse, cruelty and ignorance to try to gain some self-respect and a decent life for herself and her four daughters.

Champion pigeon racer, lover of wild creatures and wild places, MENSA member, philosopher –in retirement Jim Emerton now devotes his time and energies to sharing his experiences, his observations and his expertise with others who share his interests and concerns. This is a collection of Jim’s more philosophical writings as originally published in MENSA publications, including the members’ periodical Cognito. They are in general his attempts, as he puts it, to ‘verbalise the unknowable’.

“I have had a great life… I have travelled a lot, run a business, been a salesman, I was a record-breaking shot and until I was 30 I had never been beaten at arm wrestling. Over the years I have developed my own personal belief system fusing science and art in philosophy.”