All posts by Sarah

fiction

English and History -Sex, drugs and Scottish fiction: a literary love story
Cait Woods

Head of English, Chris Elliot is struggling with his stressful teaching job at Aberlayne Academy, a High School in North-East Scotland. Caught in a downwards spiral of depression and self-doubt, he is horrified to learn that the student teacher to be placed in his department is an unwelcome figure from his past.
Ally McClay’s placement threatens the last threads of Chris’s sanity, especially when he brings with him a toxic and dangerous connection to the powerful Binnie family. For Chris, reconnecting with Ally also means facing a past that he has never come to terms with.
English and History follows Chris’s journey through the chaotic mess of his inner life via the haven of literature to self-acceptance and love.

Published:October 2018
Paperback:290 pages
Price:£9.99
ISBN:9-781912-419456
Available from Amazon
Cait studied medieval French literature to doctoral level and taught at Aberdeen University, before retraining as a Secondary School teacher. She lives in North East Scotland with her kids, cats and beloved Arab horse. English and History is her first novel.


Reader Reviews

Amazon Reader - Neil Curran
 Absolutely loved this book.
Read it in one day, which is quite unusual for me but I got so involved with the characters and their stories that I found it impossible to put down.
Highly recommended!

Amazon Reader - Lorna
 It was so easy to get into, in fact, so hard not to just at the collection office and read it!
Totally gripped me and kept me reading. Look forward to many more..
Read in a day - could not put it down.

Amazon Reader - Steven Woods
 Absolutely loved this book.
Read it in one sitting and loved every beautifully crafted sentence.
If you buy and read one book this year make sure its this one. A truly joyous read!

Front Page, livesinprint

Auntie Emmie’s Suitcase
Susan Davies

Emmie Chester died on 9th March 1988. For the previous ninety five years, she had lived a quiet life in Shropshire, looking after her parents and family and later her great-niece Susan Davies, but once, long ago she had lived a very different life. It was something she didn't talk about very much.
During World War One, she had served in France in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps and was wooed by a handsome Australian entertainer. She might have moved with him to Australia.
On Emmie's death, Susan found a battered old suitcase in the attic, which contained a jumble of her aunt’s letters, photographs, documents and souvenirs from that time. The suitcase revealed a life of comradeship, austerity, romance and also of sadness and it gave an insight into the changing role of women in society during the early twentieth century.

This is the story of Emmie Chester’s life in France told in words and pictures, as it emerged from the contents of a battered old suitcase.
Published: October 2018
Paperback: 64 pages
Price: £7.99
ISBN: 9-781912-419333

£7.99 (+ £2 postage)
Number of copies:


Available on Amazon

Following a long career in the Probation Service, Susan Davies now enjoys an active and varied retirement in Shrewsbury.
Reviews...

history

Ironopolis: Establishes Wolverhampton as the heart of the Black Country
Nick Moss

Nick Moss started to seriously research the history of Wolverhampton within a Black Country context around 2015, saving various articles for personal interest only. In studying local books about the Black Country, he was surprised to find a considerable disconnect between the views expressed by highly-respected local bodies such as the Black Country Society or some 20th Century authors, and those views expressed prominently in local newspaper archives or in books written during the critical 1800s-period - when the ‘original Black Country’ evolved both in name and as a physical entity.
Increasingly, he found strong evidence that fundamentally contradicts the now-widely accepted definition of the Black Country based solely on the existence of the thick coal seam. And Wolverhampton, once widely considered its original ‘Capital’ or ‘Metropolis’ has increasingly seen itself removed from Black Country history in recent years, and this work attempts to correct what he perceives as an anti-Wolverhampton stance and a misrepresentation of local history.
Published: September 2018
Extent: 474 pages
Paperback: £17.70
ISBN: 9-781912-419395
Available from Amazon
Nick analyses the different Black Country definitions, and clarifies the original, widely-accepted one which he proposes should still apply. Additionally, he hopes that anyone with an interest in Wolverhampton, will find it to be a detailed and enjoyable read, that in turn provides definitive but controversial and to some, surprising conclusions, that may cause considerable waves in some circles, and perhaps even kick-start a reappraisal of elements of Black Country history.
Reader Reviews...
artbooks

Story Telling Revisited
Alan Kestner


Alan Kestner produces paintings which are very detailed and superficially naive but which have sinister undertones.
They tell stories which are open to interpretation. This book has been produced to accompany his exhibition at the North Wall Gallery in Oxford.
Published:September 2018
Paperback:56 pages
Size:210 x 210 mm
Price:£10.00
ISBN:9-781912-419296

£10.00 (+ £2 postage)
Number of copies:


Look Inside
https://www.youcaxton.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/AK-front.jpg
https://www.youcaxton.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/16_midnight_hour_153_cut-1000.jpg
https://www.youcaxton.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/The-tree-of-life_cut-1000.jpg
https://www.youcaxton.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Garden-of-Mirthly-Delights_cut-1000.jpg
https://www.youcaxton.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/girl_and_gipsy_cut-1000.jpg
https://www.youcaxton.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Garden-of-Mirthly-Delights_cut-1000.jpg

Front Page, livesinprint, Sport

Atlantic Lady – The oldest woman to row any ocean
Dianne Carrington

In the spring of 2016, recovering from burn-out and depression after many years in the NHS, Dianne Carrington was ready for a new challenge.
So when the phone rang and an old friend asked if she was ready to row the Atlantic in the Talisker Whisky Challenge, how could she say no?
She had always had an interest in outdoor activities and a big project like this was just what she needed to get back on track. Or was it? To row the Atlantic at any age is an undertaking beyond most of us but for a team of women in their sixties, and that was the idea that her friend was suggesting, it seemed almost impossible.
After all, the Talisker Whisky Challenge is one of the most demanding competitions on this planet.
Published: October 2018
Hardback: 156 pages
Price: £9.99
ISBN: 9-781912-419494

£9.99 (+ £2 postage)
Number of copies:


Available on Amazon

At twenty-one I was in the Olympic squad for white-water slalom canoeing but left to take up my career. I taught outdoor pursuits for ten years by the sea. I've always loved the sea and canoed on it almost daily, challenging my limits. Then learnt that I couldn't have children and I trained as a nurse, working my way up the career ladder in the NHS. At fifty-five I had to end my career prematurely after I burnt out, having given more than 100%. I lost confidence and my body was racked with pain; I was in a bad place. A team of wonderful people helped me get well again and I wanted to give something back. What better way than to raise money for charity and go back to the oceans that I love? Life is too short to not live it to the full. I set out to gather a lovely team of ladies as close to my age as possible who would be passionate about rowing across the Atlantic with me. I wanted to inspire women and show them that we are never too old to do what we want to do. I wanted to help them embrace the courage to leave sight of the shore and to accomplish great things.”
Reviews...

Front Page, history, Reference, Sport

The Great War’s Sporting Casualties:International sportsmen who were killed in the Great War
James Holder

The Great War claimed the lives of many professional and amateur sportsmen, including over three hundred who had represented their countries in one sport or another.
The Great War’s Sporting Casualties contains details of the sporting achievements and, where known, the circumstances of the deaths of those international sportsmen who were killed in the War or died as a result of injuries sustained in the War. It also contains details of nine other sportsmen who were killed in the War but who, although they did not represent their countries, did achieve something exceptional either in sport or in war.
Included amongst those listed are twenty-two Olympic gold medallists, twelve who captained their country at rugby, two who won the Tour de France and one who was a four-times Wimbledon champion. Also included are the three international sportsmen who won the Victoria Cross, one of whom was the only person to win two Victoria Crosses for deeds during the War and the fifteen who won the Military Cross.
Published: September 2018
Hardback: 502 pages
Price: £25.00
ISBN: 9-781912-419418

£25.00 (+ £3 postage)
Number of copies:


Available from Amazon

James Holder was born in Somerset and, after reading law at Cambridge University, practised as a solicitor; he now works as a consultant. He is passionate about sport and has always taken an interest in family history much of which involves relations who were fortunate enough to survive the Great War. He and his wife have four children and one grandchild and live in Oxfordshire.
Reviews...

Andrew Brown, Oxfordshire

This is an impressively comprehensive guide to how the Great War led to the loss of so many top level sportsmen. While that in itself is not surprising –it led of course to the deaths of people from all walks of life-it is a stark reminder as to how many young, talented people were lost in the prime of their lives. The book focuses on international team sports - football, rugby and cricket - and Olympians and it is interesting to see the different rates of losses; for example, the worst hit proportionally were rugby players and Scottish rugby players in particular. The author surmises that this could be because a higher proportion of rugby players were privately educated and as a result officers who led from the front.

As well as the many fascinating and tragic individual stories in the main section of the book, I also enjoyed the appendices. One gives useful summary accounts of the many different Great War battles while one also details the losses by the internationals which they played; of the 30 players who participated in the January 1913 Scotland versus France rugby international, 14 were to die in the subsequent conflict.

history, livesinprint

Tales From The Archive: Reading University Wives’ and Women’s Club – 1948–2018
Margaret Houlbrooke

Reading University Wives’ and Women’s Club
1948–2018
The journey travelled by the University of Reading Women’s Club has mirrored the individual paths taken by very many women between the late 1940s and today.
This book brings to life the archives of seventy years and through them it is possible to note the changes in women’s lives and attitudes.
Tales from the Archive is invaluable for the social historian as well as a memento for all Club members old and new.
Published: Sept 2018
Paperback: 160 pages
Price: £10.00
ISBN: 9-781912-419487

£10.00 (+ £2 postage)
Number of copies:
Reader Reviews...