A round-up of book signings, author interviews, news and events.
When the sudden death of Ellie’s husband ends her dull and disappointing marriage she finds herself unexpectedly adrift and unable to see any future – until she accepts an invitation to stay with her successful elder brother in France. Fired by the challenge of dealing with his arrogant and condescending wife, and intrigued by the local village community, she discovers qualities she never knew she had, and encounters people she had never dreamed of meeting…
Thomas Kearey, born in Dublin in 1791, left home in 1813 as a young man of 22 and trained as a smelter in gold and silver. He set out to seek his fortune in London, knowing he might never see his homeland or his family again. Thanks to his determination, charm and intelligence, he found success, security and love, and founded a dynasty. This is the true story of his life and times, researched, reconstructed and colourfully told two centuries later by his great great- grandson Terence Kearey, a keen historian.
A story of hope and passion, based on historical fact
In his first book, Pulpits and Plain Sailing (2017), Kevin Cooney related how he had taken his business from a back-garden engineering shop to the biggest independent supplier of stainless steel rails and fittings for yachts in the UK. Once the business was well established and his son James could take the helm, Kevin found more time to indulge his own passion for sailing, and in recent years he and his wife Ann have spent every available moment sailing the Atlantic from east to west in a succession of yachts. This book, based on the diary Kevin has been keeping for nearly 50 years, tells of long days riding the waves in the Caribbean sun, evenings yarning with fellow sailors, storms and shipwrecks, along with the continuing story of the company he founded, Cooney Marine.
Welcome everyone, to the world of illustrated humorous (or possibly
philosophical) poetry. The current book is the fourth in a series that
began with ‘Rhymes for no Reason’, continuing with ‘Rhymes of the
Newfangled Mariner’ and ‘The Curse of the Square Crow’.
We are aiming to continue a tradition of such writing, which seems
to be in danger in this strange new world of digital downloads and
Bluetooth, of dying the most undignified death of a thousand or so
cuts. The solution of course is to breathe new life into the stricken
patient by the simple means of ink, paint and paper. In an even older
tradition, it might have been ‘stone, scissors and paper’, but alas that
does not usually result in a book.
It would be a shame, surely, not to be able to read about a new kind
of umbrella that can help you to make a cup of tea in a completely
original and unexpected way, at the same time saving on your
water bills – or how to settle the question of whether you are really
a divine being, presumably in disguise, and no matter what your
other half has to say on the subject. On the other hand, we reveal
the little-known secret of baby beets, which are so often discovered
languishing in jars in a supermarket setting; they come to us by a
very strange process indeed, which is presented here for the very
first time I would imagine. I doubt whether this kind of revelation
is likely to find its way to the Sunday papers, but surely it must be a
close-run thing.
Have you heard the strange story of the vicar of Stiffkey, and how
he managed to depart this earth at the hands (or perhaps paws, or
even jaws) of a lioness? It is a small, but amazing part of the story of
our lives in these islands.
There again, did you realise how important the humble doorknob
is in the diagnosis of disease in our doctors’ surgeries? I do regret
having to ‘spill the beans’ on this one, but it had to be done I think.
In any case, this phenomenon has been recognised as important
from the early days of medicine, for example Doctor Finlay, or at
least since we had knobs on our doors! Handles are also good, but
do not have quite the same magical aura of course.
I must just mention a final thing of some importance: how to rid
your bedroom of mosquitoes in the summer; surely nobody wishes
to be plagued with these rotten insects. The solution to this may
involve a trip to Tibet, but it will be well worth the effort, as you will
see. You will not see this on a comparison website, I promise!
There are many other curious situations and ideas described in
the thirty-three poems, each of which has its own illustration in full
colour by the well-known brilliant French artist Reine Mazoyer –
and for those people whose native language is French, we have, as
in ‘The Curse of the Square Crow’, provided French explanations of
the poems, towards the end of the book.
We wish you a happy time as you grapple with some of the
strangenesses of our lives today – or was it yesterday?
The true story of Mary Jane Dodds “Married twice, buried twice and both her husbands hung.”
Linda Dodds came upon the extraordinary story of Mary Jane Dodds, while researching her husband Ian’s family tree. When she learned that someone in the family had been “married twice, buried twice and both her husbands hung”, she had to investigate. The result is this fascinating and tragic story from rural North East England in the early years of the twentieth century.
A new start, a new home, a different life; the pleasant village of Craddle seemed an ideal place for Will Fisher to start again. Here he would be able to forget the trauma and unpleasantness of his past and replace his anxiety with hope for the future. Which was why he did not mind when he and his neighbour became involved with a riddle which would test their ingenuity to the limit.
Their mission to find certain missing artefacts and work out who might have taken them became an absorbing challenge. Despite certain romantic complications getting in the way, and a perplexing lack of clues, Will was determined to play detective and solve the mystery.
After all, what harm could a little detective work do?
When Nancy Lockhart takes a secretarial job with Gordon Mackenzie, a wealthy East Lothian businessman, she soon finds he is expecting rather more from her than shorthand and typing. She is made increasingly uncomfortable by the obvious jealousy of his daughter and the unwelcome advances of one of his male staff, but she enjoys the job and needs the money. Then romance comes into her life and everything changes… The second story, Dancing in the Wings, is a short tale based on the author’s real-life experiences as a young woman.
In his first book, ”Better than Rich and Famous”, Nicholas Brown told the story of his youthful days working with VSO in Papua New Guinea. In this sequel he relates how, on his return in a salaried position, he continued in helping to develop the handcrafts sector.
Life was not so carefree this time; with independence around the corner, these were uncertain times. Yet alongside the business of travelling to remote villages to help the locals, the adventures continued: surviving storms on the high seas, having fun at parties, climbing mountains in tropical heat and rain.
The Value of Journey relates the remarkable time Nick enjoyed working in an extraordinary country in transition, in witnessing a diversity of cultures there and in travelling through parts of Asia. This is a story of both the idyllic and the traumatic, the reality of having a good time and the virtue in doing good and ultimately better understanding what is important in life.
Würdest du auf deinen Körper hören, wenn er dir sagt, dass du wandern gehen sollst? Amelia Marriette hat es getan. Und genau das hat ihr Leben komplett verändert. Amelia arbeitete in ihrem Traumjob als Kunstkuratorin in einem Museum in South Devon in Großbritannien, als sie nach sieben Jahren ihren Job verlor. Es folgten Depression und gesundheitliche Probleme. Aber ihr Leben wandte sich zum Besseren, als sie zufällig die österreichische Künstlerin Katie traf, mit der sie Liebe finden sollte. Das Paar zog nach Kärnten in Österreich und in Katies Heimatstadt Bad Sankt Leonhard, wo Amelia beschloss, ein Jahr lang jede Woche denselben 21 Kilometer langen Wanderweg zu absolvieren. Ihre wöchentlichen Wanderungen wurden zu einer Reise der Selbstfindung und führten sie zurück zu Gesundheit und Erfüllung.
Dieses Buch erforscht die Wunder der Natur und der Flora und Fauna der Kärntner Region. Aber es ist so viel mehr – ein Tagebuch über die Entdeckungen, die im Wechsel der Jahreszeiten gemacht wurden, und eine großzügige und ehrliche Autobiographie. Ein Buch über Amelias Liebe zu Kunst, Musik und Shakespeare, das Poesie und Fakten zusammenfügt.
Walking into Alchemy: The Transformative Power of Nature, die englische Version des Buches, wurde 2019 von Mereo Books in Großbritannien veröffentlicht; Seitdem ist es ein virtueller Begleiter für den Wanderer und ein Handbuch fürs Gehen geworden, das Menschen auf der ganzen Welt hilft, mit Absicht und Zweck zu gehen.
“Ein großartiges Buch! Amelia lässt uns nicht nur die Schönheit unserer Heimat mit neuen Augen sehen, sondern nimmt uns mit auf ihre Reise.” Evi Unterluggauer, Bad Sankt Leonhard, Carinthia, Austria
“Geleitet wird die körperliche Handlung von einem spirituellen Impuls. Eine wundervolle Lektüre”
Goodreads
A young agriculturist’s experiences working in pre-independence Basutoland
In 1960, a youthful Robert Lawton left agricultural college with a passion for farming and a desire to see the world and find out how agriculture was done in other parts of the globe. The opportunity came two years later, when he was offered one of the first graduate opportunities ever arranged through the then brand new Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) scheme. His destination was Basutoland, in Southern Africa. In this book, Robert Lawton tells the colourful and entertaining story of what happened when he got there.