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News & Events

A round-up of book signings, author interviews, news and events.

Travels of a War Baby by Mereo Books

Helena Davies, born amid the most terrifying months of the World War II blitz, can look back on a long and eventful eight decades coloured by a vivid and eventful family life and a passion for travel. Her husband’s work took her to Africa as a young wife and mother, and they shared a fascination for seeing the world which led them to live in Cyprus and France and to visit Turkey, the Far East, India and Australia. John and Helena decided to spend their final years in their beloved Wales before, in widowhood, she finally settled in the Cotswolds. This is her story.

“A far-reaching travel journal covering a mass of diverse countries and cultures, with an honest and eye-opening portrayal of cancer and recovery.”
Yianna Theodorou, Cancer Research UK

All proceeds from the book will be donated to Cancer Research 

The Legend of Buratai by Mereo Books

The Legend of Buratai Volume 2 is the enthralling true life story in his own words of General Tukur Yusuf Buratai, the Chief of Staff of the Nigerian Army, who rose to legendary status by dint of
hard work, bravery, diligence, excellence and honesty. His journey through life is presented as an exemplary story for all who would aspire to follow his path.

“A fascinating book with a nice mix of military tactics and important life lessons from the mind of one of Nigeria’s most notable military strategists” – Susan Keillor, LSW, MBA,
freelance editor and writer.

“An unbelievable masterpiece, rich in history… children who read this will wish they had met General Buratai in person. This book is capable of reawakening patriotism to our fatherland.” –
Moses A. Uyang, author and humanitarian.

Read more about General Tukur Yusuf Buratai on Wikipedia here

A Flying Life by Mereo Books

8 times National Gliding Champion, John Delafield retired from his career in the Royal Air Force (RAF) with the rank of Air Commodore, but he was far from ready to hang up his flying helmet and joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve (Training) organisation to satisfy his desire to keep on flying. He had a passion for gliding that started well before he joined the RAF and later became well known in gliding circles by winning many competitions. His successes even earned him two entries in the Guinness Book of Records. This memoir is an entertaining and richly illustrated account of his flying career, from boyhood aeromodelling to designing and manufacturing modifications to enhance the performance of various gliders and, later in life, business enterprises.

Wood Carving – A Norwegian Textbook by Mereo Books

Acanthus remains a popular form of low relief woodcarving with a long history in Europe, especially in Norway, where the style also appears in their folk-art. It also has a strong following in the North America, having been assimilated from the “Norsk-Amerikan” community into main-stream woodcarving. It is the predominant influence in the Norwegian style of woodcarving with many regional interpretations and variations. The late Odd Fauske was an expert proponent of the style, reflected in the output of traditional wooden furniture and fittings from his workshop in central Norway. His knowledge and patterns did not pass with him at his untimely death, as he had earlier committed them to print to the benefit of the adult education program in Norway. With the support and assistance of his family, archival material from his work has been brought back to life and enhanced with a new English translation in this compendium of his work. Here you will find a treasure trove of carving patterns covering many areas of design; from furniture and fittings to architectural components, together with traditional Norwegian household items. This lack of project plans was recognised during the heyday of adult education (evening) craft classes in the 1970’s in Norway, with Amrud including a catalogue of mail-order patterns in the back of his classic book. This new book is based on Odd Fauske’s “Lærebok i treskjæring”, a compendia of project plans for woodcarving and folk-art published by Fauske in the 1970’s. Few of such classics were available in English, although some books have been published on the subject of the acanthus style. In Norway, many books have been published (including some pattern books) but detailed project plans are now hard to find as these books are long out-of-print. This new book includes Fauske’s full sized patterns for a variety of common carvings, 14 different spoons-carvings (many in 3 sizes), 8 different mangle-boards and a variety of previously widely used Norwegian household items from, a porridge pail to log a chair, plus a variety of panel designs, from small boxes to doors, together with patterns for carving a full sized linen chest and will provide plenty of inspiration for carving projects, from a simple key-rack to detailed plans for a traditional acanthus style mirror frame, together with many traditional Norwegian items of folk art, such as mangle-boards, spoons, ladles and furniture, fittings plus architectural items. All plans are reproduced full-size to enable them to be copied easily for personal use, either in the traditional tracing paper method (described in the book), by photocopying, or through scanning & printing by computer. This monochrome book was originally published in 1973 as an easy-to-use guide to support the teaching of woodcarving in Norway, with information and guidance for the beginner, taking them on to advanced level patterns by the end of the book. Iain Whittington has brought his experience of map production and the writing of woodcarving articles to the editing of the old material and has added a new introduction – a guide to the history and special place in Norwegian life for woodcarvings. Fauske’s work has been professionally translated by Evaline Whittington. With this new introduction on the history of carving in Norway, this book is putting Norwegian woodcarving into perspective in this updated and improved re-print of Fauske’s 20th century masterpiece. Computer graphics have been used to supplement some of the original drawings, to give a better impression of the final work. This is an enhanced facsimile monochrome re-print, providing a very economical book with a wealth of full sized traditional patterns, all with wide appeal to a range of amateur wood-carvers, spoon-carvers and folk-artists.

Out of The Dark by Mereo Books

Making the best of a life with limited vision.

Robert Netherway was born blind. His earliest memories are of having his sight partially restored by pioneering eye surgery, enabling him to do simple jobs on his father’s hill farm in Devon. He attended a school for visually impaired children and trained successfully for a career, although in later life he has had to deal with losing his sight again. In this book he muses on the trials and tribulations of life with and without the power of vision.

Double Vision by Mereo Books

Three brutal killings, three fake identities. Can a blind detective unravel a tangle of underworld connections to solve three vicious crimes?

When the body of a young man is washed up on the beach in the quiet coastal town of Helmsmouth, blind ex-detective John Steadman has a brutal murder case to solve. When another murder victim is found in the same place, the crime turns into a challenging case of false identity. And then a third body is found,
locked inside a freezer in an abandoned warehouse… Steadman knows the murders must somehow be connected to each other, and to a local restaurateur
who is also a known drug dealer and brothel keeper, but is someone else working behind the scenes to stop him unravelling the case?

Another page-turner from Jake Buchan, author of Blind Pursuit and Second Sight, the first two John Steadman crime thrillers.

And The Little One Said – by Mereo Books

With a foreword by acclaimed, award-winning TV writer Tony Jordan Liz Coffey’s  story is funny, shocking, tragic and heart-rending.

Liz Coffey once had seven brothers and sisters, but today only she and one brother are left. Thanks to ‘an insane series of cruel blows’ variously involving illness, accidents, mental health mismanagement and suicide, not one of her other siblings made it past their sixties. And yet through it all, the love, life and laughter have shone through – sometimes, it has seemed, from beyond the grave. This Is Elizabeth’s funny, shocking, tragic, heart-rending story. “It struck me, at an early age, being the ‘little one’ of the family, that there was a high probability my dearly loved brothers and sisters were going to die before me. I didn’t expect it to happen quite so soon, and quite so tragically.”

More Sauce, Madam?

Geoffrey Paris spent four decades working in the hotel and catering business, looking after everything from washing dishes in a back-street pub to supervising five-star banquets at luxury West Country hotels. He has seen it all, from drunken porters, fraudulent proprietors and incompetent waiters to con artist customers, prima-donna pop stars and millionaires – and he wouldn’t have missed a minute of it. A frank, colourful and highly entertaining account of what really goes on behind the scenes in hotels.

Escape from Uxbridge – by Mereo Books

When Stephen Jones felt the urge to take a look at the world before settling into a humdrum job in West London, he decided to apply to become a VSO volunteer in Zambia. That experience opened his eyes to life beyond Uxbridge and fed a wanderlust which would never leave him. He went on to spend the best part of 30 years working on overseas projects, mostly in developing countries. This afforded him the opportunity to learn about the fascinating people, cultures, politics, agriculture and much more of these farflung places, while seeking viable development schemes funded by international aid agencies. This book is an enlightening and entertaining account of his adventures in more than 70 countries, from Nigeria to Nepal and from Afghanistan to Chile, Pakistan and Russia.

A Jolly Life – by Mereo Books

Charles Theophilus Hahn, born into the English upper middle classes in 1870, was a cleric who worked in industrial towns in Yorkshire, in Southern Africa as a missionary and as an army chaplain in World War One. He loved adventure, travel and nature, and promised himself that he would have a jolly time. He left journals, sketches and watercolours which are the basis for his story, written by John Odling-Smee. The idioms and expressions in the journals recall the times in which he was writing. Many of the watercolours were inspired by the wildflowers and scenery of Africa. Taken together, his writings and paintings provide a fascinating picture of an interesting life in England and Southern Africa in turbulent times