Life After Reconstruction

Life After Reconstruction is my story after genital reconstructive surgery. It follows the events of what happened in my life after I wrote my first book, Wings for the Butterfly, published in Germany and in Poland. After the book came out, I thought I would be famous on the spot. Instead, I ended up in a worse situation than I was in; from living in my own flat to being in a refugee home. In the refugee home, which was not supportive for the process of sexual healing after reconstruction, I met up with other forms of traumas, perhaps worse than my own. The result of the hostile environment in the refugee home was the tension that heightened the already frightened sexual restoration, leading to numbness once again and even more rage which eventually became uncontrollable. In order to understand myself better, I became involved with trying to understand the people I came to live with, trying to understand their problems, to the point of understanding that we are all looking for pure love that was denied to us in the formative years.

Love's Caravan

Everyone has an imagination, but how many of us can say we use it to its full potential? Not only Ibn Arabi, the “greatest Shaykh” of Sufism, but poets and mystics in every age have developed their imagination to the point where they can apprehend a silence that speaks in symbol and a dynamic stillness that can transform the world.

This journey starts from where we are as novice meditators in a bustling, distracted world and guides us into the mystical imagination with twelve short discussions, each illustrated by accessible, memorable poems. With creative challenges in each chapter, you can chart your own exploration by writing a poem, painting a picture, or making a piece of music using the suggestions as a starting point.

Stops along the route of this armchair pilgrimage include dreams, alchemists, Sufi stories, bardo states, angels, synchronicities, prophecies, a mermaid, and a well-known crucifixion. This book is for seekers, yogis, and believers of all traditions and at all stages, as well as those who simply want to better connect with their creative imagination.

Love? In A Cottage

Love? In a Cottage is the story of two middle-aged people from very different backgrounds who meet as the result of an advertisement placed in the lonely hearts section of a national newspaper. Marlene Sugden is a secretary working in London whose life has changed very much for the worse in a few months. Firstly her father, who she has loved and cared for over many years, dies then her best friend marries and immediately emigrates to Australia and, as a final straw, Marlene’s boss retires and her new boss is a snappy and difficult man. Marlene dearly wants a husband and a home to care for and in her desperation, she places an advertisement in the Evening Standard. “Lonely unmarried woman, good cook and homemaker seeks kind-hearted, single middle-aged man with view to matrimony if suited”. Deep in the Herefordshire countryside, Donald Evans sits reading a two-day-old newspaper as he eats his meal of baked beans straight from the tin. His eye is caught by Marlene’s advertisement. He is single, mid-40s and kind-hearted if it does not cost him anything. Donald hunts out a piece of notepaper, sharpens his pencil and replies to Marlene’s advertisement.

Loving Leadership

When leadership is powered by love, it can change everything…

In his second book, Michael Quigley presents a radical new model for leading using love as the driving force for your leadership. 

Michael will guide you in the six key practices of a loving leader: how to let go of enemies, grow and develop, embrace paradoxes, enjoy sacred relationships, think long-term, and produce meaning that truly matters.

This book contains a combination of inspirational true stories from the worlds of business and education, as well as key insights, unique strategies and frameworks – which you won’t find anywhere else. 

By combining the material in this book with the love in your heart you can become a true loving leader. 

Our world deserves a better kind of leader – are you ready to become one? 

Making Old Bones

Gramwell Glade is Making Old Bones.

A care home, purpose built around a Georgian folly castle façade in Essex, Gramwell Glade is making a fortune for business developer Akin Akindele who, armed with an MBA foresaw that high end care homes were going to return significant returns on his investment.

It’s Making Old Bones of Pauline Graves’ career since moving from hospitality to head up the staff at Gramwell Glade and putting her misplaced hopes in a liaison with Akindele.

It’s Making Old Bones of the dedicated carers who support its sundowners while supporting their own families on the small fiscal returns their efforts bring on the ‘living wage’.

It’s laying old bones to rest. For many of the residents their time at Gramwell Glade is their first experience of surrender when it comes to real life responsibilities. That onus now falls to their ‘children’ who now have their parents’ Powers of Attorney and who are handing over the funds that would otherwise satisfy a mortgage sufficiently large enough to buy their own castle.

If we know someone who works in the care sector or spends their twilight years in a home, if we visit family or friends who have moved on into residential care, make no bones about it, something like the Gramwell Glade experience could come to us all.

Master Builders

Chris finds himself in a foreign environment and form, ten light years from Earth after his untimely death. His mentor, Brian, explains the new order of things. He discovers that he is now in a mechanical shell and bemoans his loss of some body parts. Chris joins three other junior builders, that have been tasked to seed the universe with newly tailored and tested sentient beings. Chris gets into trouble with the Sentient Species Test and Evaluation Facility management but is then instrumental in saving Earth from an Orion reptilian attack. He interacts constructively with the galactic federation based in the Pleiades, leading to the resurrection of an old treaty between Earth’s United Nations and the federation.

Memories and More

The basic idea of this book is to share life experiences, and thereby give comfort and encourage smiles, by showing my own and others’ reflections on different life-situations. I am sure that many of them are comparable to those that occur in your life, or to others around you. By sharing experiences, we all learn something. Women are probably sharing thoughts more often than men. Many of the events in this book have also been discussed in female groups. They have not all been personally experienced by me but are the consensus from these fruitful discussions. Now I am pleased to share them with you. Among the experiences discussed in this book: heartbreak, the #MeToo movement and my own experiences, divorce as its complication as a parent, and my own thoughts about the pandemic. I also share with you my thoughts about the aging process that we all must endure, if we are lucky enough to live that long, since life is still a gift given to us all. We ought to remember that and enjoy the journey.

Mischievous Benjamin Does It Again

Benjamin was a lonely child; never received love, didn’t know how to give it. He only gained attention by being a very naughty and unruly boy. It meant the townsfolk had no time for him; they never had a chance to see his inner beauty and thoughtfulness until one eventful night!

Benjamin was brought up by his older brother, after an accident involving his parents. He moved in with his brother who lived in a magical town. He refused to be like the townsfolk, and liked laughing, poking fun, and ridiculing them.

Modern Age Slavery

Modern Age Slavery is a marvellous opportunity for people to find out some of the most hidden, uncensored truths about a seaman’s life on board cruise ships. This poignant memoir will open a sensational perspective about the cruel operational standards of cruise line companies globally. It is an excellent chance to sneak “behind the curtain” and taste the actual bitterness of the seaman’s life, understand the big picture, and realise what the cruise liners are hiding under those glorious, sensational sailing lights. This inspiring book will also help you overcome your most significant life obstacles personally; it will motivate you to become more resilient and search deeper for your inner strengths and undiscovered potentials. After reading some eye-opening chapters, you will be motivated to keep pushing your limits in life to the next level, regardless of any difficult circumstances or adversity. Modern Age Slavery breaks the silence about many irregularities in the cruise ship industry. Behind those glorious and shiny lights of the guest area at the cruise ship, a dark part of the slavery regime still goes unnoticed and is kept away from the public. This book will give you an opportunity to discover the deviant daily life at sea.

Mother Nature and the Agent

Mother Nature has issued human beings various warnings over the years, some subtle, some not so subtle; messages she intended to wake us up with, ones that would stop us from directing the planet onto a path that, some say, might already be irreversible.

Unfortunately, these messages have largely gone unheeded up until now, which is why Mother Nature has decided to create something new: an Agent that is absolutely unpredictable. Her hope is that humanity will finally wake up and not only begin to preserve the planet, thus saving it from death and destruction, but bringing us humans back to the knowledge that we are one regardless of race, class or colour, and that by working together we can finally attain our freedom.

Mother Nature and the Agent is about paying close attention to the greatest signs she has ever given us, so we can ultimately bring about change and welcome in a new era.

Mr Naughty Nine Legs

“Hi, I’m Mr Naughty Nine Legs. In case you haven’t guessed, I’m a spider with nine legs. Yes, you read it right, nine legs! I get into all sorts of trouble. I’m a very naughty spider. I see you have my book in your hand. Why not open it up and take a look? Read about my adventure if you dare. I meet my biggest fear, maybe it will give you a scare.”

My Favourite Colour is Seven

“It’s okay.”

7-year-old Alfie just lost his mummy and he is pretty sure she is not coming back. Alfie is struggling to understand if what he feels is okay. He is unsure how to ask about something he cannot name.

One day, after school, Alfie decides to be brave. He asks his teacher Mr. Miggins, "is it okay?"