The Emigrant Who Became a Town Mayor

A long and hard road to acceptance for a child who wasn’t supposed to be born. Against all odds, he fought just to survive, yearning for love and acceptance.

Throughout his life, he has been protected by a Higher Order, guided by faith through trials from Communist oppression to freedom, and into unexpected success.

Through hard work and dedication to his community, he rises to become their Mayor, a testament to his resilience and the unwavering support of his Protector.

Elephants in My Salad

Have you ever wanted to get away from it all and escape to the wilds of Africa?

Well, this writer did!

At the age of 48, she sold her successful South African company to self-build a house on a 4,500-hectare private game reserve in Botswana. Just four hours of electricity a day, no phone, no gun, no fences to keep predators or elephants at bay, and no vet, doctor, dentist, or supermarket within 120 miles!

Told with humour (and a taste of just how life-threatening the bush can be,) this collection of personal experiences gives you a real taste of belonging as an integral part of wild Africa.

Be immersed in tales of:

• Wildfires, droughts, and being marooned by rain-swollen rivers!
• Being charged by angry elephants and being caught between herds of elephants while on foot!
• Being adopted by a one-tonne land antelope and a two-week old baby elephant!
• …and how often Caesar saved the day!

Plane Speaking

For the last decade of his career, Peter dedicated himself to traveling the globe, attempting to show that shared information benefits the entire company more than isolated data. However, this book isn’t about his professional mission; it’s about the adventure of travel itself.

Travel is divided into four essential parts:

1. Planning the trip.
2. Getting there.
3. Being there.
4. Getting home.

While all four parts are covered, it’s ‘Being there’ that takes center stage, as that’s where the real excitement happens.

Peter’s journeys through diverse countries, encountering different peoples, cultures, and landscapes, only deepened his love for travel and humanity. Yet, post-9/11, the joy of travel has been marred by the extensive time spent navigating airport security. Sometimes, it feels like more time is spent in airports than in the air.

Join Peter in rediscovering the joy of travel. Let’s bring the fun back into our journeys.

The Four Ships

Reflections on a Bathroom Mirror

The mirror has no preferences. Whoever peers into that pool of light sees a faithful image, albeit laterally inverted. The young boy had looked into the bathroom mirror perhaps a thousand times with casual confidence, but today, the reflection felt surprising and strangely alien. It had to mean something. Thus began a quest that spanned his entire life, filled with many kinds of adventures, both external and internal. His journey crossed continents and led him to explore the deepest places of the mind and heart. It required keen observation and demanded ultimate honesty. Sometimes he stumbled; other times, he rejoiced. Ultimately, his goal was to answer that age-old question: who am I and where do I fit into the scheme of things? This question is everyone’s question, and it suggests that by polishing our own mirrors, we might discover something wholly renewed.

Schizophrenic

Ally North's life is shattered by abuse at the age of eleven, but she refuses to fit the stereotype of a beautiful victim. By turns she is intelligent and funny, psychotic and violent. Cognizant of her symptoms of schizophrenia, she tries to control them with alcohol and drugs.

It's never wise to fight a passionate tomboy, and she finds support in her devoted father, Davey, and in her ex-teacher friend, Steve Hussy.

"Mangled characters living out their dead-end love affair; thwarted at every possible turn by alcohol, drugs and mental illness. The writing is lean and savage: they talk a lot about breaking free but their story is like that last drink of the night - spiked with barbiturates." U.V.RAY: "A CIGARETTE BURN IN THE SUN"

No I'm Not A Pilot

The Royal Air Force is one of the most technologically advanced armed forces in the world, with a reputation for fighting well above its size and weight. To most people the first thought they have about the RAF is about pilots and aircrew – quite right too. But for every one of the pilots to take off and deliver a mission successfully there will be a team on the ground making that happen, actually around twenty people for each pilot (which makes the aircrew a vital, but relatively small percentage of the entire force). The daring exploits of our aviators are deservedly well documented, but what about the hundreds of people on the ground that never fly in combat missions and yet enable every single mission to actually happen?

This book is a very personal and sometimes emotional journey giving an insight into life in the RAF from the late 1970s to the end of the century, for just one of the support trades – Trade Group No 1: the aircraft armourer. After all, as the founder of the RAF – Lord Trenchard is reputed to have said “without armament, there is no Air Force”. What the armourers say (tongue firmly in cheek) is that without armament, the RAF would be a glorified flying club!

The Servant of the People

This book describes the 18 years during which Den Dover had the privilege to serve the people of Chorley, in Lancashire, as their Member of Parliament. He entered Parliament in 1979 when Margaret Thatcher became the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and left in 1997 when Tony Blair won a massive victory for New Labour.

Where the author has omitted to mention certain happenings, it has been in an effort to focus the minds of readers on the important matters – not to obscure what really happened. Indeed, Den’s main aim has been to allow readers to make up their own minds on the very important principles, procedures and proceedings described.

Underpinning everything else is the overwhelming requirement for elected representatives of the people to act in the best interests of all their constituents. They should never seek to benefit, financially or otherwise, from being granted the greatest honour in life, namely to work on behalf of their constituents.

At all times, elected representatives must listen to the needs of the people they represent and deal with their problems to the best of their abilities.

Growing Up in Wartime London

A country at war is very different from one at peace, a range of social changes quickly emerge. Men are conscripted into the armed forces and are replaced by women. The economy is rebalanced towards defence, and towards the production of war materials. Food and all basic commodities are controlled, and their consumption is rationed. The national culture changes.

The second World War which engulfed the UK and indeed many other countries had all these features, and much is known about the political, social and economic changes of those years in the UK from the adult perspective. Less is known about their effect upon children, and children’s perception of the times.

So how did youngsters adapt to the outbreak of war in September 1939, and what did they make of all the changes? Which were the most significant for them and what attitudes and activities continued as before? The author of this brief account was seven years old in 1939, and with his younger brother lived through the war years in London. The book provides vivid descriptions of life in wartime London as experienced by these two young South London boys, with their fears and excitements, their mischief, and what they made of the changing social environment.

The People -V- The Mercedes Benz Looter

The July 2021 South African civil unrest was a wave of chaos that plagued the provinces of KwaZulu Natal and Gauteng. Political contempt and social outrage sparked unprecedented violence, lawlessness, mistreatment, and a devastating communal divide. It cost South African citizens lives, safety, jobs, and pride.

During this time Mbuso Moloi’s once unheard-of name would be headlined alongside the infamous ‘Mercedes-Benz Looter’ after he was caught on camera allegedly looting a Woolworths store in Durban. The nine-second video featuring him emptying goods into his silver Mercedes-Benz would go viral overnight on all social media platforms, radio, news broadcasts and print media. The ‘Mercedes-Benz Looter’ would seemingly ignite a match to the prepared firewood that was set up all over South Africa and its people.

Public opinion, political games, honesty, and humanity are questioned in this biography following this personal yet excruciatingly public case of the ‘State v Mbuso Moloi’, but as it would become: The People v The Mercedes Benz Looter.

La Metisse

Elizabeth’s tale begins in the colonial embrace of British India, 1936, where she was cradled in privilege and steeped in Christian tradition. At nineteen, she veered from the path expected of her, embarking on a bohemian chapter that defied her upbringing. Yet, the winds of change ushered in a period of stability when she married her soulmate. Embracing the joys and challenges of motherhood, Elizabeth raised eight children, overturning the preconceived notion ingrained since childhood that she would never work. Her life’s journey defied expectations, from a teenager’s rebellion to a dedication to family and work that spanned from the tender age of 16 to the seasoned age of 70.

Endeavour to be a Cornish Fisherman

In his first book, An Unlikely Cornish Fisherman: The Early Years, Michael related his memories of having his first rowing and sailing boat ‘Hilda’, on his 10th birthday and of the period of his youthful years up to the summer of 1963.

Endeavour to be a Cornish Fisherman is a sequel in which Michael relates his story from 1963 through the following years until 1972. His is a unique story, in which he shares his transition from a successful Guided Weapons Draughtsman employed by the Admiralty to become a member of his father’s crew on the 35ft Looe fishing vessel ‘Endeavour.’ (FY 369).

Michael describes his inner fears and his fight to prove to his family/ peers that being a 7th Generation fisherman was in his genes. His story takes the reader through the death throes and the final demise of the once vibrant Cornish Pilchard Industry in Looe. This story includes the personalities and elderly crew members with whom Michael came into contact. Interspersed with many comical moments are graphic descriptions of some dangerous encounters that befell the ‘Endeavour’, which all fishermen face in their everyday job.