Crossing the Yellowstone

Based on diary entries, news articles, published sources, interviews, and personal memories from the author and other family members, Crossing the Yellowstone: The Saga of a Montana Ranch Family is a classic American drama of challenges met and legacies left. In 1894, Andy Mercer journeyed on horseback from Missouri to the Great Plains, with plans to homestead in the West. Crossing the Yellowstone is a love story of land, family, and one man’s dream. This narrative tells a true story set in the American West in the early 20th century, illustrating the core values of the settlers: independence, determination, and respect for the land.

Andy’s love for Florrie, an English nurse, turns tragic when she dies, leaving him alone with a motherless infant, Russell. The child grows from a lonely schoolboy to a reluctant cowboy and eventually must choose whether to stay on the family ranch or strike out in search of a different life. Despite the challenges of the drought during the Dirty Thirties and the Great Depression, Andy’s legacy has endured for three generations on the Montana ranch near the Yellowstone River.

A Shower of Shite

A Shower of Shite offers a gripping biographical narrative that charts the tumultuous journey of two parents as they navigate through a relentless storm of trials brought upon by their children. Their story, akin to the dramatic arcs of a British soap opera, unfolds with tragic twists and turns, an unceasing cascade of events that would seem overdrawn if not for their stark reality. These challenges, though uninvited and not of their own making, are met with a resilience that speaks to the profound sense of duty and unwavering compassion inherent in parental love. It’s a testament to the silent oath etched in the very fabric of biological bonds, a commitment to defend, sometimes even the indefensible, against the odds, all told with a humourous look back at life events faced by the family.

From Istanbul to Haifa

This book is based on the true story of five siblings who played pivotal roles in the most significant political and historical events that unfolded in the Levant region between the years 1890 and 1948 CE. These events were instrumental in the emergence of entire nations in the Middle East, the collapse of others, and continue to be the primary influence on everything we have experienced and are living today.

Within the pages of this book, we traverse a diverse geographical and historical landscape encompassing the Levant, Egypt, Iraq, the Arabian Peninsula, Turkey, and Iran. We witness the Arabs’ attempts to realize their dream of building an independent unified Arab state, The alleged efforts by the superpowers of that age to undermine and thwart their aspirations were akin to conspiracies against their dreams, and the establishment of the Zionist entity in Palestine. The reader is taken through historical events starting from the Balkan Wars and the fall of the Ottoman Empire to the establishment of the Arab state, the correspondences of Hussein McMahon, the role of Lawrence of Arabia, the Sykes-Picot Agreement, and the onset of French and British mandates, culminating in the founding of the Zionist entity.

It is worth noting that the information presented in this book is documented from the memoirs left by the five siblings, testimonies from many who lived through those times, and various historical sources. The information is presented in a captivating and dramatic narrative, bringing the characters to life in vivid detail, allowing you to experience history as if you are living it in all its intricacies.

The River Never Left Her

In present-day Zürich, an American expat, Emily Benz, buys a set of personal archives at an online auction, setting off an investigation into the life of a British woman raised in the early part of the twentieth century in China. What seemed like an innocuous tin of bonbons sold by a grandson soon turns into a can of worms that can’t be closed again, revealing family dysfunction that stretches back generations, a fairy-tale childhood, four marriages and a liaison. Emily must reconcile the woman’s adult biography with the vivid memoir of China seen through the eyes of a child. This most unexpected memoir moves between China at the turn of the last century, scandal in the high society of 1920s England, and a tenacious widow living in the Switzerland of today.

Bess of Hardwick: Myths & Realities

Unravel the complexities of Bess of Hardwick, a figure shrouded in myths and misconceptions since the 17th century. Bess of Hardwick: Myths and Realities takes an unconventional approach to biography, meticulously separating fact from fiction through rigorous research and probing questions.

Did Bess really meet her first husband in London when in service to Lady Zouche?

Was her second husband compelled to relocate north because she missed her Derbyshire roots?

Was she born in 1527 and what about the mysterious lead coffin said to house her body for three months post-mortem?

Does the famed ‘Eglantine Table’ in Hardwick Hall truly commemorate three marriages?

Explore these questions and more, including the compelling enigma of Bess’s granddaughter, Arbella Stuart, and her claim to Elizabeth I’s throne. Was Bess a unique dynastic powerhouse, or was she simply a woman of her time?

Ideal for both newcomers and those already acquainted with Bess’s story, this illuminating book also contains an Appendix that suggests Hardwick Hall may harbour an unidentified portrait of Sir Thomas More.

Enigmas Fragments

Books are written to find a self space. That is why I am offering you a shelter. Poems that enhance your Spirit, lift you up and give you light and Love. Take them by heart and use them as a helping Hand. My Poems should be used as a source to rejuvenate your Spirit and especially Spread Love. Love is Light. God is Love. The source and the beginning and the end.

The Year of a Million Dreams

We’ve all heard of Disney World – the most magical place on earth, and the magic and the mystery that surrounds it. We’ve all at some point dreamed of visiting. But what about the people that have actually worked there?

The Year of a Million Dreams will take you on a rollercoaster ride through the author’s personal journey following his year working on the International Cultural Representative Programme at The Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. Experience this fun and personal recollection of navigating the challenges of moving to and working in a foreign country, whilst trying to keep the magic alive.

From befriending beloved characters to creating incredible magical moments with guests, this honest and inspiring insight into living and working at the place where magic lives is filled with heart-warming moments, and truly unforgettable experiences!

Step in to a literal Year of a Million Dreams!

Twelve Great Scots and Their Roots

Twelve Great Scots and their Roots brings together People - the Great Scots, Place - where they were shaped and flourished, and Fame - their legacy.

None of the Great Scots was born great. There is no Robert the Bruce here, no Mary, Queen of Scots. (Although Robert III and James I get a mention). There are four knights in the list, but they all came from modest beginnings and made their way up the greasy pole by native genius and hard work. Two of the Great Scots are still alive, and it is particularly satisfying that Dr Jim Swire and Lockerbie are given close attention.

The Great Scots selected may be celebrated in their own fields and internationally, but some may be new to some. All are interesting in their own way, but one or two pose a puzzle. Who turned geology upside-down? What has number 38 in the Periodic Table of Elements to do with a little Highland village? What is a thrum? What do a great Canadian city and an obscure hamlet in Mull have in common?

Familiar or not we have twelve interesting places with twelve interesting – and sometimes unlikely – stories behind them.

A feature of the book is its emphasis on first-hand observation and thinking for oneself – based on evidence. Consequently, each chapter has a trail, so that the reader can check the veracity of the author’s stories and even be inspired to cover the ground.

Wild Imaginings: A Brontë Childhood

This book will take you into the lives of the six Brontë children who were raised in Haworth Parsonage on the edge of the West Yorkshire Moors. Discover the world of a Victorian childhood and how the children dealt with isolation, the harsh education system and death. Read about how the children used the graveyard surrounding their garden as a playground and how they found solace in making up stories of imaginary islands, kingdoms and people. Reality and imagination mingled and spread so that they lived in a fantasy world of ghosts, horror, religion, disease, war, scientific discovery, love and humor; here anything could happen. Learn about the background to the childhood of those who were to become such remarkable authors. This book is as accurate in its factual content as it is fascinating in its fantasy.

Use By Date

Sheridan has no time for anger or regret. She often says that life is moving forward, not looking back, that is why our eyes are in the front of our head, not buried in hair on the back of our skull. She often felt, when dealing with her mother’s anxieties and her father’s absences, that she was the grownup in the relationship.After you have read the way her father and mother treated each other, you might rethink your own relationships.Sheridan has captured the essence of being a child with humour and pathos.Enjoy the ride. It’s a rollercoaster!

Understanding Illness

This book is part memoir and part case studies drawn from the author’s working life as a medical student, general practitioner, counsellor and psychoanalytical psychotherapist—a career made even more difficult than usual by ill health. Kidney disease started in her 20s, sight loss in her 30s, so that she was unable to carry on with clinical medicine and had to retrain as a psychotherapist, and heart disease in her 40s. In spite of all that, she battled on with great determination and humour, and became a loved and respected member of staff in a great teaching hospital. She worked extremely hard on ‘my book’, as she always called it, and finished it just two months before her final illness started.

The Hop About

A man, an amputee, a dual amputee, wanders the West alone on half of a foot to discover what life has to offer. He takes off, running the only way he still knows how, in a car. A car procured from selling his prosthetic leg (the expensive one) on eBay.This true tale follows him on an adventure to angelic views in Zion National Park, to the top of the world in Death Valley, to mingling with the rainbow people, to pushing himself around in a wheelchair on the streets of Las Vegas, Nevada. The story turns back to how he found himself ‘hopping’ about and the drug addiction which caused it.While purposely estranged from his family, he learns mingling with others to accept differences and to resist judgement. Also, the deep importance of family. And most importantly that ‘we are not defined by our mistakes’.