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Front Page, history

History of medieval Weymouth and its evolution as a trading port.
James Crump

9781909644809 Weymouth is usually thought of as a ‘Georgian’ town, but this book shows how much of the physical appearance of the town was determined many years before the arrival of George III himself. It examines the parallel histories of the twin towns of Weymouth and Melcombe Regis from the eleventh century to the end of the sixteenth, charting their rise and subsequent decline. It explains how their early growth was based on the great medieval trades of wool and wine and how growth was influenced by their connections with France which developed particularly in the years of the Angevin Empire. Their later decline was caused by the disruption of these trades and by the ravages of war in the Channel, part of the great conflict with France known as the ‘Hundred Years’ War’. In the midst of this the population was overwhelmed by the catastrophe of the Black Death.
Published:7th July 2015
Paperback:112 pages
Price:£6.99
ISBN:9-781909-644717
 Available from Amazon
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James Crump read modern history at the University of Oxford and taught school students, undergraduates and extramural classes for many years. Before moving to Dorset he has written on social and industrial history subjects mainly in northern contexts. He has been researching Dorset history for many years and is especially interested in the early history of towns.

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livesinprint

Playing The Grey Man – A memoir of police corruption, bullying, incompetence and nepotism
Robert Moon

RM-PTG-407 CS Cov 2c.indd When the rest of us run away, it’s the police officers up and down the country who run into danger and into some of the messiest and most tragic events imaginable. But there’s a price to pay. Robert Moon’s vivid description of how he left the SAS for a life in the Scottish police gives a shocking insight into the toll that police life can take on even the toughest individuals. At times funny, at other times almost unbearably sad, and often both at the same time, this heart-rending account will leave you with awed respect for the ordinary police men and women, the cops on the front line – and not a little concern about some of those higher up the ranks. When Robert Moon joined the police he was enthusiastic and idealistic; when he resigned and refused his long service medal, he was disillusioned and broken by a job that betrayed the public and had been betrayed by the managers who seemed to have forgotten how to look after the people who really keep us safe.

Other books by the same author...
The Grey Lodge
Published:Nov 2016
Paperback:290 pages
Price:£10.99
ISBN:9-781911-175407


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Robert Joined 23 SAS, became “Sabre”, and a squadron member for four years before accidentally joining the police.
He then walked, drove and ate ice cream in one of the toughest areas in Scotland for eight years before being exiled to the middle of nowhere. As the police changed from serving the public to serving statistics, he started to see a dark side to police-service and finally left the job, fed up of the corruption, nepotism and bullying, and after refusing his long-service medal. He now travels the world and complains a lot.
Reader Reviews...

Douglas Walker - The Sun Newspaper

Robert Moon has lived a full life. As part of the SAS he put his life at risk serving around the world.
After packing it in, he moved to the 'teuchter' branch of the Scots police expecting a simple life. Instead he was met by bent coppers and corruption dripping through the ranks from the highest echelons of the force.
Written with gallows humour, Moon is left deeply traumatised by what he experienced.
His description of front-line policing is too shocking to believe.
Just as well Playing the Grey Man is purely fictional ...

belief, Front Page, history

The story of Father Ignatius’s community at New Llanthony Abbey
Hugh Allen

9781911175230 To the diarist Francis Kilvert, his near neighbour Father Ignatius (born Joseph Leycester Lyne in 1837) seemed ‘entirely possessed by the one idea’ of introducing his distinctive version of the monastic life into the mid-Victorian Anglican Church. Rejecting any suggestion that he should temper his grand ambition by meeting comfortably protestant Britain half way, Ignatius endured ridicule, harassment and regular episcopal embargo, but persevered until his dying day with what he believed was his individually God-given mission. Ignatius’s enduring memorial is ‘New Llanthony Abbey’, an eccentric, now partly ruined Gothic extravaganza at Capel-y-ffin, a remote upland hamlet on the Welsh border. Monks and nuns came and went – some evidently pursuing a genuine religious vocation but failing to find it there; others apparently from less worthy motives.
Published:July 2016
Paperback:504 pages
Price:£18.50
ISBN:9-781911-175230
Available from Amazon
Hugh Allen tells the story of Ignatius’s community from its origins in early 1860s East Anglia to its migration to Wales in 1870, its history through the following four decades (including the controversial 1880 Apparitions), and its demise after the founder’s death in 1908. He also describes the later history of the former monastery, home in the 1920s to the sculptor and typographer Eric Gill and for many years to the family of his eldest daughter, and brings the story up to date with information about the Father Ignatius Memorial Trust and the continuing appeal of New Llanthony as a place of pilgrimage. The author is a longstanding member of the Father Ignatius Memorial Trust.
Reader Reviews...

The Church Times
In the midst of the burgeoning religious fervour of 19th-century Britain, the tragic-comic figure of Joseph Leycester Lyne [Fr Ignatius] must surely represent the epitome of … the “virtuoso religion” of some of its more enthusiastic and eccentric characters. As such, a book like Hugh Allen’s has been lacking for a long time….. The whole work is forensically researched, meticulously referenced, and fluently written – a winning combination that makes it as enjoyable as it is useful – and the footnotes are often as interesting and informative as the main body of the text. Lyne was either a faithful thwarted prophet or a volatile pious lunatic. Perhaps he was a heady combination of both; but Allen leaves that judgement to the reader, and does so in a masterly fashion. This book has been well worth the wait.

William Davage, New Directions, December 2016
‘An enjoyable, constructive, detailed and compelling study … This is a substantial and significant book, well-researched, rooted in thorough archival sources and attractively, if weightily, presented … comprehensive in its scope, measured and considered in its judgements.'

News Letter of the Anglo Catholic History Society, Autumn 2016
Much meticulous research has gone into this substantial book … Hugh Allen has utilised a wide range of archive relating to Ignatius himself and the community and its associates across the whole the chequered range of its history … All in all this book is a fascinating compendium of information about a bizarre and ambiguous monastic experiment.

fiction

Josie
Catherine Trimby

9781911175308 Josie, a quiet and timid thirty-two-year-old, lives alone. It is a boring and predictable life but overall it suits her - until she meets Mike. His unexpected and unwanted advances cause her to panic and the result is a devastating accident. Josie is prosecuted and receives a prison sentence of twelve months. Finding herself serving her time in a women’s prison in the Midlands, she is initially terrified of the other inmates and tries to keep her head down, but things don’t work out as planned. To her surprise she makes friends but she is also subjected to further trauma. While dealing with the aftermath of a hostage incident she has to face up, for the first time, to events in her own past. The resulting self-knowledge empowers her. She approaches the end of her sentence and begins to look at life differently, envisaging a new and rewarding future.
Published:July 2016
Paperback:196 pages
Price:£10.00
ISBN:9-781911-175308
Available from Amazon
Catherine Trimby was born in Shropshire. She spent five years at boarding school in Surrey and then trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. She worked for several years in repertory theatre before joining the BBC Television Drama Department. She has three grown-up children and lives with her husband in Shropshire.
Reader Reviews...

Shropshire Star 22 September 2016
In more than thirty years as a magistrate in Shrewsbury Catherine Trimby faced many difficult decisions, some of the most agonising of which were whether or not to send a female offender to prison ... Josie is not based on anybody but is an amalgam of 100,000 true-life events, drawing on thirty-four years in court.

fiction

The Shropshire Stalker
Nick Jones

9781909644380 A tense psychological thriller… Mild-mannered book dealer Anthony Metcalf, and his actress wife Barbara, are receiving unwarranted attention from a sinister source: a witch. Their supernatural visitor is not the conventional hag with a black pointed hat, but the stunningly-glamorous millionairess Eva Carlssen. And her broomstick is a silver German sports racing car. Initially dismissing her claims of magical powers as bombast, Anthony begins to take them more seriously when he witnesses a tragic accident at a local motor race meeting. He is convinced it has been caused through Eva’s spectral interference. With the stability of his marriage undermined by Eva’s relentless pursuit, intrusive text messages and phone calls, Anthony Metcalf’s life is suddenly shattered with a late-night visit from the local police ...
Published:July 2016
Paperback:180 pages
Price:£8.99
ISBN:9-781909-644380
Available from Amazon
Nick Jones has spent his life connected with buildings. Initially working as a surveying assistant on a major tunnelling project under the City of London, he moved into architectural journalism, working for a publishing group which was part of Express Newspapers. He first edited specialist supplements for the weekly newspaper Building Design then later became Editor of the conservation monthly Building Refurbishment. He has contributed to many other architectural publications. His debut novel ‘King’s Cross’ was published in August 2015. The writer now lives in Herefordshire. Contact the author at www.ampersandworld.co.uk
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Front Page, history, nonfiction

From its infancy in the 1980s to its vibrancy today
Asia’s Financial Industry

9781911175414 The development of the financial industry in Asia has been a history of boom and bust. Over the past four decades, it has transformed from its infancy during the 1980s to the vibrancy today. Looking back at his career from a new joiner in the industry to regional executive with several custodian banks during this period, the author has captured in this book many interesting stories, episodes and events in this fascinating process of development, from the perspective of a custodian, to add some colourful dimensions to the financial history of the region.
Published:July 2016
Paperback:246 pages
Price:$16.5
ISBN:9-781911-175414
Available from Amazon
Based in Hong Kong, Lawrence Au is a seasoned professional who has been at the forefront of Asia’s financial industry for more than thirty years. A pioneer and thought leader in the securities services area, he has been instrumental in building several custodian banks' businesses in the region. Under his stewardship as the Asia Pacific head with BNP Paribas Securities Services and Northern Trust, he took the custody franchise of the two banks off the ground to become a leading service provider in the market. Lawrence frequently speaks at conferences and features in industry publications, and was named Custodian Leader of the Year 2012 by Asia Asset Management and Custodian Banker of the Year 2013 by The Asset. Lawrence was presented Lifetime Achievement Award by Asia Asset Management in 2016.
Reader Reviews...




nonfiction

Did the Right Sperm Win?
Vinette Hoffman-Jackson

9781911175124 You were born a winner! Over one million sperms had to race against many obstacles just to create you. Simply put, it means that out of these millions of possible choices, you were created and it must be for a reason. You must have a purpose and you should be working towards fulfilling that purpose. However, if you have decided to just waste your time and do nothing then you really need to ask yourself ‘Did the right sperm win?’ or would it be better had another sperm won and you never existed? There are no accidents or coincidences in life. Everything happens for a reason although sometimes we tend remain on the lowest level, the literal level of life. This book includes thirty, short, inspiring stories, anecdotes, poems and reflections, designed to motivate you to think and find messages in everyday occurrences. You were born a winner; now start acting like a winner!
Published:May 2016
Paperback:152 pages
Price:£6.99
ISBN:9-781911-175124
Available from Amazon
and Amazon Kindle Books
V F Hoffman was born in Jamaica but she has lived in the UK for the past twelve years. She has worked in the educational sector for over twenty years in various leadership roles and has been consistently judged as an outstanding classroom practitioner. She enjoys reading, writing and the occasional game of chess. Vinette is a multi-award-winning motivational speaker and regularly writes motivational articles published in magazines such as Blackbright News. She is the single mother of three boys and considers her role as mom the most important thing in life. Vinette worships at Miracle COGIC in Bedford.
Reader Reviews...

Bradley Henry, Missuagua, CANADA

I think this is awesome. I've only got positive praise!!

Katherine Anderson. Luton, ENGLAND

Simply amazing. Really gave me some food for thought.

Nicola Llewellyn. Ocho Rios, JAMAICA

Gave me a whole new perspective on how to look on things

history

Peace and War A New Look at World War 2
Rudolf Raimond

In this exhaustively researched account, Rudolf Raimond examines the steps leading up to World War II and describes how the initial conflict expanded from western Europe to consume almost the entire world.

From careful examination of source documents, including the speeches of several of the main protagonists - in particular Hitler, Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill - he establishes that the steps to war and its continuation were far from being entirely the responsibility of the Germans and shows that pro-war elements within the British establishment were a significant factor in the ensuing tragedy.

He also looks at war crimes committed by the various belligerents and, while not in any way exculpating the Germans for the atrocities of the holocaust, shows that guilt is more evenly spread than is at present widely assumed.

A fascinating new look at World War II.
Published: March 2019
Paperback: 502 pages
Price: £19.99
ISBN: 9-781912-419913
Available from Amazon
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