All posts by Sarah

Terence Keyes: Imperial Disguises
Richard Whittingham

Terence Keyes: The Man Who Bought the Russian Banking System For Britain

Terence Keyes (1877-1939) was an important player both in the Great Game and latterly and crucially in the clandestine war against the Bolshevik regime in 1918-1920. This account concentrates upon his involvement in the First World War and then in the Russian Civil War.

Keyes was the mastermind of a British plot to seize control of the Russian banking system with the express intention of funding Counter-Revolution and overthrowing the Bolshevik regime. There were several attempts to achieve this, one of which only failed because of Lenin’s miraculous recovery from an assassination attempt and the murder of a British Naval Commander on the steps of the British Embassy.

Throughout this time, Keyes also had secret dealings with Lenin and the Bolsheviks, the details of which remain shrouded in mystery. He subsequently became one of the most important British advisers to General Denikin, the most important of the White leaders.
Published: Sept 2019
Paperback: 370 pages
Price: £14.99
ISBN: 9-781912-419586

£14.99 (+ £3 postage)
Number of copies:


Available from Amazon

Earlier in his career, Keyes was actively involved in combating Russian and subsequently German threats to British India and played a crucial but also deft role in defeating German schemes to precipitate full-scale rebellion against the British Raj.

Although little known, Keyes had a Zelig-like ability to be at the centre of events during some of the most dramatic moments of the early twentieth century.

Richard Whittingham has made use of previously unpublished archive material to put together the first dramatic account of an absorbing and complex figure.
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Discover Your Inner GPS
Karen O’Donnell

Discover Your Inner GPS
Karen O'Donnell

Following a near-death experience that left her contemplating her past, Karen O’Donnell set out with new determination to be seen and heard. The message?You don’t have to wait until some life-altering event forces you to wake up. The time to wake up is now.Have you ever wondered…Why does life seem to be passing me by?Why don’t I get the success I deserve?Why am I even here?These questions provoked a journey of self-discovery, resulting in a powerful system to explore your own life and experience it as you were meant to live it — with happiness, clarity and success.Discover Your Inner GPS is a simple and effective guide to personal transformation that will help you understand how you can change your life to one you desire and deserve.
Published: Aug 2019
Paperback: 204 pages
Price: £13.99
ISBN: 9-781912-419906


£13.99 (+ £2 P&P)
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Applying the strategies and techniques in this book, you will explore your inner world, uncover the beliefs that keep you on a road you no longer want to walk down and discover your true inner navigationalsystem — the key to staying forever true to you.Not living the life you’re supposed to be living? Discover your inner GPS and find the one that’s out there waiting for you. Even if you don’t yet know where it is...
The title is very appropriate as it is a map for inner well-being and development of the self. Karen’s extensive studies in various fields, make her the ideal person to lay out a map for those seeking fulfilment. The book is set out in various steps to be followed and worked at to develop a healthy and holistic lifestyle.
Dr. Frank McKenna
Reader Reviews...





A True story of Survival and Recovery
John Evans

Heart of a Cyclist
John Evans


The events or, to be precise, the event that took place on the 9th June 2013 changed my whole life without question, changed it physically, psychologically, and emotionally in every way. I would never be the same again!
This is the story of a journey back from the brink, a journey that I feel I was destined to take. I have tried to tell what I saw, and felt along the way, from the darkest of my days, staring death in the face, unsure of survival, to setting almost impossible goals; from talking to God and to my own inner demons; from the intensive coronary care unit to the high mountains of the French Alps.
It was a hell of a ride and the toughest of my life. It truly was a mountain to climb in every sense of the word.
“If only one person reads my story and takes inspiration from it, then my journey was not a wasted one.”
Published: July 2019
Paperback: 186 pages
Price: £8.50
ISBN: 9781912419869

£8.50 (+ £2.50 postage)
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The most awful loss imaginable…
Nick Jones

The most awful loss imaginable…

Two English couples, holidaying in Andalusia with their daughters, experience the nightmare that every parent dreads – one of the girls (Lucy) disappears.

Despite an extensive police search no trace of her is found and her distraught parents return to England.

But within a secretive convent beside Lake Lucerne, Lucy is being groomed for adulthood, soon to travel to England to live with the man described as her adoptive-father – the shadowy Aamir Kashani – in a luxury apartment in the City of London.

Lucy determines to trace her real parents and devises an ingenious escape plan, to free her from her captor’s grasp.

Published: Sept 2019
Paperback: 192 pages
Price: £8.50
ISBN: 9-781912-419807

£8.50 (+ £2 postage)
Number of copies:


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Twins
Professor David Waugh

Twins by Professor David Waugh
When Daniel looks at his reflection in a mirror in a shop he notices something unusual – his reflection is not dressed the same as he is!

This book tells of the adventures which Daniel and his double, James, have when they decide to swap lives.

There are twelve stories: one written by David Waugh, and eleven others written by year five and six pupils from Our Lady and St Joseph, Brooms RCVA Primary School. David Waugh is Associate Professor at Durham University School of Education. He has written more than forty text books for primary teachers, as well as six novels for children.
Published:15th June 2019
Paperback:138 pages
Price:£5.00
ISBN:978-1-912419-82-1

Available from Amazon

David is Professor of Education at Durham University School of Education. He has extensive teaching experience in schools and universities. Having taught in four schools in East Yorkshire for fourteen years, latterly as a deputy headteacher, he took up a post as lecturer in English for ITT at University of Hull in 1990. He went on to lead the PGCE course, which achieved successive "outstanding" grades from Ofsted in 2004 and 2007, and became Head of Department of the Centre for Educational Studies in 2005. In 2008, he became one of two advisers for primary ITT for the National Strategies, working with universities and school-based training providers throughout England. His role included professional development for tutors and teachers; working with trainee teachers; organising and presenting at conferences; producing e-learning resources; leading projects on literacy, inclusion, and mathematics; and liaising with other agencies, including TDA, UCET and DCSF. In 2013, David was awarded a faculty prize for his outreach work in Primary English, which includes delivering lectures to students in schools, followed by students working one-to-one with pupils putting theory into practice.

The Roaming Revelator
Mark Huck

The Roaming Revelator
Dan is a man at a fork in his life looking for answers, debating if his life has been worthwhile. Troubled by his past demons which torture him mentally and drive him to problem after problem. As he tries to outrun his past and find his future, the history of troubles are chasing him down - he must now face them head on.
A life's journey played out in front of your eyes with all the twists and turns in the search for answers. His only true friend is his motorbike, carrying him to his mental escape, until his revelations bring back the pain.
Dan has suffered the pain that drives him to be destructive and despise the past, present and the future of the modern world.
As Dan twists and turns through this winding road of life, he flees aboard his one true friend, literally trying to outrun his past and silence it, lost in the wail of exhaust noise from his motorbike.
Publication date: 15th Aug 2019
UK Price: £8.99
ISBN: 9-781912-419852



Price £8.99
plus £2.50 postage (UK only)

Number of copies:

Available from Amazon

Mark Huck was born in the 1970s, growing up in the fast paced 1980s living an adrenaline filled life, with sports and fast cars; as his life became more complex he found his solidarity in the simplicity of the open road and the world of motorbikes.
After leaving school with barely any qualifications his love of engines led him to become a vehicle mechanic, a love that would never leave him, drawing him more and more to the world he now lives in; as he moved into the world of teaching mechanical studies, he put right the poor education by completing as many qualifications as he could.
As children came a long, responsibility beckoned, life was happy and quaint, but the desire for adrenaline always bubbled. Now with all 3 children having jobs and lives of their own, Mark and his wife are living a fast paced adrenaline filled life and a desire to escape the “norms” of society.
Roaming Revelator is Mark’s first book of a trilogy, a story inspired by real life stories and events that have only happened in the depth of imagination.
Reviews...

5 out of 5 stars
Hard to put down.. you want to keep reading..
Absolutely love this book ..it had my attention from start to finish
Now I’m waiting impatiently for the next book



Peggy Seddon of Middlewich 1914-2009
Sue Wincent-Dodd

Peggy was born on the eve of the Great War and lived well into the 21st century. She grew up in rural Britain when horses jostled with cars on the streets and the country had not yet broken with the values of the previous century. Many of her experiences were shared with other women of the time. She saw her young husband leave Britain for the next war and did not meet him again for several years. She gave birth to her children when peace was new but England was a ravaged country with rationing still in place. Peggy also experienced difficulties and tragedies that most of us are spared. She faced these challenges in her own unique way with the help and support of her sister and friends and carved out a life for herself and her children that was very different from that of her younger years in Cheshire. Her privileged childhood endowed her with the knowledge of her own worth, but equally the understanding that every individual is entitled to a good and fulfilling life.
Published: May 2019
Paperback: 292 pages
Price: £12.00
ISBN: 9-781912-419692

UK Only
£12.00 (+ £2.50 postage)
Number of copies:

Kindle Available on Amazon

Sue Wincent-Dodd was brought up in Cheshire and Shropshire soon after the end of the 2nd World War. She studied at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne before teaching English in Germany, France and Sweden. She moved to Sweden for good at the age of 28 to work for the Swedish International Aid Agency (Sida). Having retrained in Sweden as a librarian, she worked and taught at the University of Uppsala.
Reviews...

My Parent’s Darkroom
Reinhard Tenberg

Jonas inherits an old cigar box from his parents containing relics which transport him back to his childhood.
However, it also contains some sinister items – a page torn out of his mother’s 1945 war diary, as well as his father’s 1939 ciné film and an undeveloped film roll.
What will these sources reveal? And where is the rest of the diary? Who has hidden it all these years and why?
Librarian Bettina reluctantly helps Jonas to discover the shocking truth about his parents’ role under the Nazis.
But what secret is she hiding from Jonas?
Will their love affair endure?
Published: April 2019
Paperback: 250 pages
Price: £9.99
ISBN: 9-781912-419715
Available from
The Great British Bookshop
and
On Amazon

Reinhard studied English Literature, Linguistics and Politics and taught at the universities of Bristol, Palmerston North (NZ), Middlesex and Cambridge before joining the Foreign & Commonwealth Office where he spent the latter half of his career. Reinhard writes full-time now. He also writes short stories and poetry and has now embarked on his second novel. He continues to live in Cambridge.
Online Bookclub - Official Review:
My Parents' Darkroom by Reinhard Tenberg
4 out of 4 stars


"I don't know what you did in the war, Dad. I was always afraid to ask--all of us were--and now it's too late. However, I'm certain the war left deep scars on you--not just physically, but it changed who you once were. And, since you are a part of my history, I need to find out more about you."

After his mother is placed into a care home, Jonas inherits a wooden cigar box containing relics from his parents' past. The box includes some trinkets that trigger memories from his childhood, but when he discovers a 1945 page from his mother's war diary, an undeveloped film canister, and 1939 ciné film, Jonas realizes how little he knows about his parents' history. In the suspenseful historical fiction, My Parents' Darkroom: Developing the Past, by Reinhard Tenberg, Jonas tries to unravel the family secrets surrounding his parents' involvement under the Nazis during the war. In his search for answers and the rest of his mother's missing diary, he falls in love with Bettina, who seems to have her own secrets. Can their love survive the shocking truth?

Not only is the 189-page book well written and flawlessly edited, the author skillfully pairs strong characterization and a suspenseful plot. The page-turner is written in the first-person narrative from the perspective of Jonas, a professor at a London university, who teaches post-war German history. As is often the case with brothers, Jonas and Helmut are polar opposites. Jonas is compelled to find out the truth about the degree of his parents' involvement with the Nazi Party, while Helmut prefers to let sleeping dogs lie. However, both brothers are relatably flawed and believable. When Bettina enters the story, the author reveals layers of her character over the course of the story.

I most liked the suspenseful aspect; Jonas was so driven to find out the truth about his parents that it elevated the plot to a mystery that was hard to put down. Each time a question was answered; another took its place. Why was the page torn from his mother's diary, and where is the rest of it? Who are the people in the photograph with his father? Does Bettina know more than she is letting on?

There honestly isn't anything I disliked about the book. Although I tend to prefer mysteries with tidy endings wrapped in a bow, I found the not-so-wrapped-up ending satisfying, as it prompted the hope of a sequel. I'm pleased to rate the book 4 out of 4 stars. I recommend it to both fans of historical fiction and suspense lovers. However, I caution sensitive readers regarding references to the Holocaust, although they are not graphic in nature. Due to the subject matter, profanity, and a few sexual scenes, the book is intended for a mature audience.

Posted by Cecilia_L (Member of the Month) 08 Jul 2019