All posts by Sarah

belief, history, travel

Retraces the footsteps of St Columbanus of Bangor, a modern pilgrimage.
Barry Sloan

9781909644953
Why would a Northern Irish Protestant, raised in a staunchly loyalist community, hitchhike through Catholic Europe on the trail of medieval celtic monks? Why is the seaside town of Bangor in Northern Ireland largely responsible for Europe becoming a Christian continent? What role did an Ulsterman play in the creation of the European Union, and what can be done today to break down walls and bring people together? Who was Columbanus of Bangor and why are present-day librarians from all over the world indebted to him? Why does God not like zebras, has Murphy's Law anything to do with chaos theory, and why are the Germans the reason Ireland had to wait 1,900 years to get decent, straight roads?
Published:20th Nov 2015
Paperback:206 pages
Price:£9.99
ISBN:9-781909-644953

 Available from Amazon
and Kindle e-books


Answers to all these questions can be found within these pages, the story of the European travels of sixth-century saint, Columbanus - and of a twenty-first century sinner, the book’s author. Weaving history, politics, theology, and personal narrative together in a humorous and readable way, Sloan tells the fascinating story of Columbanus and his legacy in uniting Europe. Profound moments of reflection and insight are punctuated by hilarious episodes: of breakfast with Vikings, of an attack by monster bees - and lunch with a talking horse! When the Saints go Marching is funny, thought-provoking, informative, inspiring and challenging - and all without being preachy.

Barry J. Sloan, born in Carrickfergus in Northern Ireland, is married and has two children. He is an ordained Methodist minister, currently serving as mission partner with the United Methodist Church in Germany.
Reader Reviews...







artbooks

In Search of an Author
Lex Thomas

1Lex-Thomas
In Search of an Author is a collection of 62 fluidly drawn ink studies, individual drawings in their own right, but interlinked by the subject of belief and the stories we tell ourselves. Artist Lex Thomas examines unexplained natural phenomena such as the supernatural and paranormal as well as magic, cults and UFO religions. The effect is a non-textual, fragmentary narrative echoing the idea that ‘truth is in the eye of the beholder’. The title acknowledges the playright Pirandello, credited with breaking through the ‘fourth wall’ with his creation of Mirror Theatre.
Published: Jan 2016
Paperback: 124pages
Price: £12.50
ISBN: 978-1-911175-03-2

 Available from Amazon
Buy from YouCaxton
£12.50 (+2 postage)
Lex Thomas lives and works in London. Having read Sociology at the University of Greenwich Thomas studied Fine Art for three years at the University of the West of England and subsequently a Postgraduate Diploma at Chelsea College of Art. Since then she has exhibited in Europe and the States and widely throughout the UK including at the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition, the Princes Foundation Gallery, the Mall Galleries and Orleans House Gallery. Solo exhibitions have been Of Truth of Clouds, South Hill Park Arts Centre, Berkshire (2013) and Future Proof, Opus Gallery, Newcastle (2011). She has been shortlisted for the Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize, the Rising Stars Prize and won third place in the Woolgather Art Prize. Her work is held in private collections in the UK, USA and Germany as well as the Cill Rialaig Arts Collection, Ireland.

Visit the Artist's website


Look Inside
https://www.youcaxton.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/2.Lex-Thomas_In-Search-Of-An-Author-Artists-Book-2016.-Page3-730x1024.jpg
https://www.youcaxton.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/3.Lex-Thomas_In-Search-Of-An-Author-Artists-Book-2016.-Page13-730x1024.jpg
https://www.youcaxton.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/4.Lex-Thomas_In-Search-Of-An-Author-Artists-Book-2016.-Page2-730x1024.jpg
https://www.youcaxton.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/5.Lex-Thomas_In-Search-Of-An-Author-Artists-Book-2016.-Page9-730x1024.jpg
https://www.youcaxton.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/6.Lex-Thomas_In-Search-Of-An-Author-Artists-Book-2016.-Page26-730x1024.jpg

history, nonfiction

The Farmer, The Coal merchant, The Baker
Liz Barclay

9781911175285 In the fifties and sixties of the previous century the province of Gelderland gradually became the hub of the warmblood breeding world in the Netherlands. Stallions, such as Amor, Pericles and Voltaire, just to name a few, became household names whereas the local breeders using these stallions had no idea that, in a matter of just thirty or forty years, this would lead to the international fame of the Dutch warmblood of today. Liz Barclay grew up in Gelderland during that time and, having lived in the States before settling in Cornwall in the United Kingdom, she saw that what once was a local enterprize has now become a huge international business. As a horse trainer she worked in both countries with many warmbloods, who had the blood in their veins from stallions who, during her youth, did not live very far from her doorstep.
Published:July 2016
Paperback:124 pages
Price:£7.50
ISBN:9-781911-175285
Buy on Amazon
The stories of breeders Henk Nijhof and Johan Venderbosch and trainers Roeli Bril and Jan Oortveld, men she knew, or knew of, during her youth in Gelderland, give a wonderful impression, not only of how life was, but also how life changed. Starting with the breeding lines of Totilas and Valegro as the prime examples of the Dutch breeding success, the book, with Liz’s younger years as the common thread, gives owners of a Dutch sport horse anywhere in the world the chance to connect the breeding papers of their warmblood to this heartwarming tale of some brave Gelderland horsemen, who dared to stick their neck out, never shy of taking a little risk.
Liz Barclay grew up in Gelderland before settling on her smallholding in Cornwall. She has worked with horses for most of her life, which gave her the chance to know breeders such as Henk Nijhof and Johan Venderbosch and learn from trainers such as Roeli Bril and Jan Oortveld.
Reader Reviews...




fiction

Songs in the Key of Death
Seamus Carron

cover
The subject is MURDER.
The players include the Metropolitan Police, the FBI, a satirical journalist and a professional musician.
In the background a mysterious hidden manipulator pulls the strings of the establishment. More of a ‘why done it?’ than a ‘who done it?’ the story reveals a twisted thread of music, riddles and missing girls. A trail of smoke & mirrors leading toward an end game that questions: is anyone safe, will justice be done, can law and order prevail?

This compelling book paints a rich and unusual reflection of the characters & events, their unfolding meanings filled with irony & satire.
Published:1st Nov 2015
Paperback:742 pages
Price:£14.99
ISBN:9-781909-644700

 Available from Amazon
and Kindle e-books


Seamus Carron studied Linguistics at University in Dublin then worked in the Foreign Office including several overseas postings with the Diplomatic Service. Leaving his career behind, he turned his hand to a wide range of adventures. He died at the young age of fifty-seven.
Reader Reviews...

R Gilbert - A Pacy Thriller - 30th August 2016
An entertaining and pacy thriller from a first-time author with obvious talent as a storyteller.
Sadly the novel is published posthumously meaning that this is the only glimpse readers will get into the mind and imagination of someone who clearly had a gift for writing and story development. Recommended.

D A Grieve
Not the genre of book I would normally read (ie murder mysteries) but I am glad I picked it up.
It is a big book that keeps you engrossed from the first page right through to the last.
A true 'Hard to put down' book .

history, livesinprint

Was it Yesterday
A. M. Bown

Was it Yesterday When he volunteered in 1914, A.M.Bown was a twenty-year-old scholar at Oxford studying science. He became an artillery subaltern and remained one throughout the First World War, being wounded twice and gaining the Military Cross for bravery. This book, although fictionalised, grew out of his personal experiences and is a vivid and authentic, if fictionalised, account. He tells of ordinary day-to-day incidents, some amusing, some frightening, and gives a sense of real lives - and real deaths. He keeps throughout a respect for his fellow soldiers, saying: “So this little team in khaki stood waiting for the starting gun … in the greatest game of all, and whatever share the fields of Eton may have had in any winning of it, that same share must be credited to the back alleys and the cinder patches, the parks and the recreation grounds which had been the nurseries of most of those who stood together in that forward line, picked to play for England”.
Published:3rd August 2015
Paperback:218 pages
Price:£11.99
ISBN:9-781909-644595
 Available from Amazon
and Kindle
Buy from YouCaxton
£11.99 (+ £2 postage)
Profits from this edition will be divided between the Royal British Legion and Trinity College, Oxford, a scholarship to which gave the author his start in life.
Reviews...

Times Literary Supplement
“No synopsis of the movements and adventures of that battery could give an adequate impression of the scope of the book and quotation will do it less than justice. In style it is simple, light yet adequate; the humour is never forced and the ever present sense of tragedy is never unduly emphasized”.
fiction

Flamingos over the Yorkshire Moors
Fay Carr

Fay Carr_Flamingos over the Yorkshire Moors_Cover As a young child living in Rome, Gabriella knew only the comforts of life and the love of a dedicated family. But her cosy world was disrupted by events that at her tender age she could not understand. During her growing years she recaptured in far away Africa the joys and happiness of life that also paved the way to a happy marriage and the fulfilment of motherhood. But another chapter of life was to begin and in Yorkshire she fought the hardest battles of them all.

Fay now lives in Yorkshire which she has made her permanent home. She is a keen club bridge player which takes her to play in different parts of England and Scotland. She now enjoys holidays mainly in Europe.
Published:15th July 2015
Paperback:208 pages
Price:£9.99
ISBN:9-781909-644762
 Available from Amazon
And Kindle
Buy from YouCaxton
£9.99 (+ £2 postage)

Reviews...

nonfiction

Paw Prints on My Heart
Molly Jean Rowe

9781911175704 Shy, the traumatised Labrador rescued from a puppy farm, arrives on the brink of a breakdown. Several months after losing their German Shepherd, Molly and her husband John decide to look into re-homing an elderly dog or a dog with special needs. Along came Shy, a six year old Labrador, terrified of people and desperately in need of a loving home. It was never going to be easy taking on such a very needy dog.
Paw Prints on My Heart lets you share the first twelve months of the journey that turned this little dog’s life around. It’s a very personal and true story that has been written to encourage people who are thinking about adopting a rescue dog, to open their hearts and let a sorry little soul in.
Published: June 2017
Paperback: 200 pages
Price: £8.50
ISBN: 9-781911-175704

Available direct from the author
£8.50 (Free Postage)
Number of copies:



Available from Amazon
Molly Jean Rowe is not a celebrity or a writer; she’s a housewife, a wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother who loves her family and has a great love of animals especially horses and dogs. At an early age in Molly’s life her father brought home a collie puppy. It was the runt of the litter and Molly fell in love. They were inseparable. This marked the beginning of her love for dogs. Throughout her life, Molly has had many dogs, most of them rescue dogs. She has given them a loving home for life. Molly was never able to own a horse until she was in her mid-forties but since that time she has owned six horses and has never sold one of them; just like her dogs, they have a home for life. She loves riding and showing her horses in hand and has many rosettes. Writing her first book was not easy but Molly wanted people to understand the ill treatment that takes place in some puppy farms and the trauma that many dogs suffer, in the hope that it will contribute in some way to their welfare.
Reader Reviews...

Uncategorized

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
Pay with PayPal
£6.99 (+ £2 postage)
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.

Reviews...