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"Oneness" The Unity of Opposites: Innovative Transformation
This book is a take on ‘Paradise to Hell’ real-life stories, about real-life under-performing businesses located in real-life countries, operating in real-life industries at a time of real-life challenges in the name of innovative transformation. My life as an international business consultant; Impresario. From India to Indonesia. From Bangladesh to Australia. From Silicone Valley to Malaysia. From the northern hemisphere to the southern hemisphere. From West to East. From on-shore to off-shore. From debt to equity, from low cost, low skilled staff, to high cost, high skilled staff. From single function to multi-function, from life to death. In the life of a ‘dare devil’, frequent flier, international consultant – in what seems like a personal battle with ISIS.
£23.99 -
A Day Out With The Boys
This is John Ingle's account of his life with 'two distinct minds': being misunderstood and misdiagnosed by the medical profession, and sometimes getting into trouble due to this medical phenomenon. However, his ability to communicate with his subconscious sometimes gets him out of sticky situations and has even saved his life, such as when he was stabbed five times. Ingle even has the ability to overrule pain.
As Ingle describes it, having two minds can sometimes cause utter confusion and mental despair that may end in self-harm or suicide.
John Ingle compares himself to Jesus and Joan of Arc while taking the reader through the journey of his life, compiled from many notes and medical reports over the years.
Meet the eccentric, spirit-guzzling Commander Dwarf who rampages through the pages, and other surreal and wacky characters like the snooker-loving Irish, Laura. This novel is a romp through Ingle's mind.£11.99 -
A Mile in My Shoes
Life is like a bus ride, people get on and off the bus throughout your life, some stay the whole journey and some just stay a short distance. Unfortunately, the first people to get off my bus were my parents! And I was only five! So my troubles in life started with abandonment, and then built up after a series of events which caused me to fall short on being a model student, an achiever, or an academic. Yet, somehow, I shone through and became an overseas resort controller for UK’s second largest tour operator by being reasonably competent in four languages.
I spent 11 years abroad running away from family tragedies and the decline of our family.
Then therapy, my saviour, with all of its revelations. The therapist knew what my troubles were before I met her, from my medical records. My story is a prime example of how uncaring parents can mess up a child’s life and how the effect can stay with the child for life. I am 63 now and still have to switch the TV over if there is any interaction between father and son.
It’s a bumpy ride, readers! But I am sure you will find it an enjoyable one.
£12.99 -
A Mother’s Worry
Immerse yourself in the riveting true story of a young maverick’s journey from the gritty slums of Melbourne to the elite ranks of Australia’s Special Air Service (SAS) during the tumultuous 1950s and 60s. Witness the struggles of his mother, wed to an abusive man, and how the hardships of his upbringing influenced his formative years. Leaving school at 14, he delved into the world of firearms and hunting by working in a gun shop, a precursor to his military service.
Enlist alongside him at 17 and endure the gruelling selection process and intense training regimen that propelled him into the SAS, Australia’s pinnacle military unit. Experience firsthand his arduous pre-deployment conditioning in the unforgiving terrains of New Guinea, and feel the adrenaline rush as he was thrust into the heart of the Vietnam War at just 19 years old.
Laced with unfiltered humour and detailing the escapades of the SAS’s hard-living, harder-fighting men, this memoir utilizes Australian War Memorial records to shed light on the innovative tactics and extraordinary kill ratios the unit achieved in Vietnam, despite their primary mission of intelligence gathering.
Chart his meteoric rise from Private to Sergeant in just one year, a promotion that garnered him both awe and animosity from older, yet less aggressive, SAS soldiers. Finally, accompany him as he navigates the tumultuous transition from battle-hardened warrior to peacetime soldier, facing the strictures of a by-the-book Regimental Sergeant Major upon his return to Australia.
£17.99 -
A Question of Belief
Belief is rarely pure and never simple. This book explores the particular perplexities of belief as experienced by one female vicar in the Church of England. To exercise a public and representational role within any faith community will always bring its own pressures and paradoxes. Here, the author acknowledges and explores her own questions, which cover a wide range of topics from politics to preaching; from science to suffering. A constant theme of the book is the relationship between fact and truth. Fact is, of course, an important vehicle of truth, but not the only one. Symbolism, metaphor, myth, the creative arts have all conveyed the deep truths of Christianity to the author, who remains totally committed to her faith. Perhaps unsurprisingly, however, she takes a non-literalist view of belief, which she accepts will not be shared by some fellow Christians. But in her experience and understanding, to follow Christ means to seek the eternal truth which he embodied, and which will always be more elusive and intriguing than a recital of fact. And – for the author at least – more joy-giving. This is a hopeful book!
£11.99 -
A Saving Grace
A Saving Grace unmasks the personal, sporting and the inspirational life behind the cycling world champion and Paralympic medallist.
Written off as lacking concentration, a dreamer and too slow as a school kid, the young Rik at the age of just 14 became hooked on cycling after watching a stage of the Tour de France during a lesson at school. Rik soon found that his day-to-day mobility obstacles would instantly disappear each time he climbed onto a bike, leaving him free of his disability.
Rik has become not just a sporting hero but also an inspirational figure to many. After more than a decade of competing at a professional level in the elite world of Paralympic cycling, Rik became involved in the education system as an inspirational role model where the challenges and pressures faced by young people of today not just socially but also academically were at the forefront of his next life chapter.
Having the mind-set of a champion athlete and carrying the ‘never give up determination’, Rik found a new passion in helping others only to be engulfed with mental health issues due to the frustration of the education system and students being neglected with harrowing events.
In A Saving Grace, Rik takes us on his exhilarating no-holds-barred journey and mayhem of not just his professional sporting career but also his inspirational work with the twists and turns that have imposed life-changing consequences.
£17.99 -
A Story of Hope and Happiness
This is a story of triumph over adversity – an absorbing, thought-provoking, sometimes amusing but often heart-rending account of British businesswoman Rosemary Bidwell’s struggles to set up and run an orphanage in Sierra Leone, West Africa, for orphaned street children – youngsters whose parents had been savagely killed in a truly awful civil war.
Read how, against seemingly insurmountable odds, Rosemary founded the Cotton Tree Children’s Trust charity in 2006 and set about raising thousands of pounds through donations, sponsorship, talks and myriad fund-raising events to give 20 African children a second chance in life.
Through her charity, Rosemary provided her charges not only with a roof over their heads, regular meals, clothing and general welfare and educational support, but love and affection.
Read, too, how Rosemary had to overcome all manner of obstacles on the way to achieving her goal: everything from corruption, bribery, fraud and interrogation by police for 11 hours without diplomatic representation to being falsely accused of child trafficking and suffering a suspected heart attack and having to be airlifted home.
Despite the trials and tribulations, Rosemary has overcome the many and varied setbacks she encountered over a period of 18 years. Today, thanks to her dedication, perseverance and Christian beliefs, the Cotton Tree children can now face the future with confidence and know that they have been given an opportunity to prosper in life that, sadly, has been denied to so many other Sierra Leone children.
£19.99 -
Adventures of a Cold-War Warrior!
This is a humorous – and at times, tongue-in-cheek – account of the author’s time in Her Majesty’s Armed Forces, from soldier to ‘rock ape’ (RAF Regiment), with a stint as a ‘penguin’ (steward) tucked in between.
Covering the period from 1966 to 1976, when the Cold War was still in full swing, the book tells what went on behind the scenes that the recruiting posters and adverts would never show you. Prepare to laugh, smile, shake your head in disbelief at the strange and at times downright crazy goings-on, as the author and his pals jump from one crazy adventure to the next.
This is not a book for the faint-hearted or easily offended. These are real characters that the author met, though some of the names may have been changed, as they say in all the best films, ‘to protect the guilty’! When reading, the reader is experiencing for themselves what is happening along with the author.
To those who have never been in the forces and don’t know the mindset of the military mind and reasoning of one who serves his country, the characters in this book may come across as having a beer-drinking, girl-chasing, cavalier attitude. Not true – but when single and in our late teens/early twenties and a product of the times, we lived life to the full, not knowing if the Cold War would one day turn hot…£15.99 -
An Autobiographical Meditation: The Dislodged Goldfish
In An Autobiographical Meditation: The Dislodged Goldfish, the journey traversed is as serpentine as the paths of life for those whose existence defies conformity. While some seamlessly blend into societal moulds, others are destined to a life reminiscent of a dragon’s breath: intense, fiery, and unyielding. The relentless trek through tumultuous trails and muddy roads can leave one spinning in disorientation akin to a dizzying dance with destiny. Just as a lunar eclipse graces the sky in rare moments, some lives unfold in realms where despair frolics freely, becoming an unwelcome companion. The clasp of misery, agony, and neurosis can be as tightening as a rusty wrench around one’s throat, relenting only in fleeting moments when the sun peeks through the clouds, only to retreat and reveal its countenance much later.
While the poet’s disposition has been a subject of much discourse, An Autobiographical Meditation delves into the lesser explored abyss of insanity that lurks beneath the veneer of brilliance in some of the most gifted minds. Our planet, in its endless spin, has been a silent witness to the unfolding drama, as it spirals forward with each turn of fate. Through the lens of autobiographical reflection, The Dislodged Goldfish invites readers to a voyage through the undulating waves of life, where calm and storm are but two sides of the same coin.
£11.99 -
Beauty Won Me Over
Few people know any scientist(s) or what scientists do. Beauty Won Me Over: A Scientist’s Life is a deep dive into the life of Carl McDaniel, a developmental biologist. He became an academic scientist because his best friend in college recognised the scientist in him even before he himself did. Being severely cross-eyed and blind at birth meant he had no depth perception. Running became his sport and the ‘race’ a metaphor for existence. Running taught him that the real essence of living life well and to its fullest was giving body and soul to all one does. Working as a postdoctoral fellow in Ian Sussex’s lab at Yale University, he chanced upon the observation that Nicotiana tabacum plants counted nodes (the location of a leaf) as the means for deciding when to flower. Twenty-five years of research elucidated the fundamental elements of this process. Beyond doing science, academic scientists teach, provide service to the scientific community and the general public, as well as bring their perspectives of science to them.
£11.99 -
Breast Cancer Smiles
On a cold day in February, 2018, Shazia goes from a tennis court in the morning to a hospital in the afternoon where she is diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer. As her journey unfolds, humour becomes her crutch, writing becomes her tool and a powerful connection to her South Asian roots becomes her purpose.
This isn’t a tale of cancer and the devastation it undoubtedly brings. It’s the story of a life-altering journey enriched by time. Shazia tells a tale of re-birth swathed in love, humour and pain. She unveils the shame of breast cancer in her birth culture that is killing women before their time. In her birthplace, Pakistan, cancer is casually known as ‘the kiss of death’.
For Shazia, it is quite the opposite. This is life through a different lens and a questioning of the status quo. Her musings provoke debate and challenge existing beliefs, holding up a different mirror to society. These chronicles are written during 18 months of chemotherapy, sepsis, surgery and radiotherapy. They are written with hope and an intermittent smile.
£10.99 -
Broken Roads Lead Me Here
Broken Roads Lead Me Here tells the true-life story of a boy born into unimaginable abuse in Glasgow in the sixties. By the age of eight, Colin had been abandoned by his mother and continued to be sexually, physically, emotionally, and spiritually traumatised by the man she left him with. Blunted by severe trauma, Colin went through one unimaginable nightmare after another, each more traumatising and soul shattering than the last, with no one to tell and no way to understand why. He wondered as he drifted through life, what was to really become of him? Or his half-sisters? All the while, deep down, sensing that one day it could be his last.
At fifteen, he was thrown out of school, and at sixteen he was sent to prison. Colin survived rejection, abandonment, homelessness, gang wars, addiction, mental illness, overdoses, suicide attempts, and abusive adult relationships. But it always seemed as if he was living on borrowed time…
Even as he started writing his memoir, Colin had suffered a stroke, and near his recovery’s conclusion was then diagnosed with what was initially suspected as pancreatic cancer. While Colin’s diagnosis was eventually re-assessed as not immediately life threatening, it did leave him with a series of conditions which would continue to limit the quality of his day-to-day life. His illnesses and his experience of this instead of instilling a sense of profound hopelessness surprisingly led him to a profound sense of inner peace, clarity, and re-awakened purpose through his renewed faith in the real presence, love, forgiveness, and grace of God. His is a miraculous story of faith and redemption.
Colin Mackell is a husband, father, and grandfather. In his professional life as Psychotherapist, he has helped people who struggle to overcome drug and alcohol addiction, and helps them find new meaning, and explore new life paths. He is also the founder of Chrysalis Supported Association & Group CEO of Chrysalis Group Services, providing homes and support to some of life’s most vulnerable and disadvantaged people.
£14.99
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