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Journey for Life's Treasure Theresa Rhodes A poetry book full of treasures for the reader. The treasurers will make you laugh, feel happy, be thought provoking, bring you comfort and peace. The poet has brought to the fore front one poem which describes a person collecting water from the well and used this as a focus to use the proceeds from half of every book to fundraise for the charity CAFOD. She wants to do this as she believes that each poem has been written for other people’s enrichment. Details of CAFOD projects are found on their website cafod.org.uk |
£7.00 (+ £2 P&P) Available from Amazon |
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Journey for Life’s Treasure
A Reason to Love Them
Daniela Svampa Cowie
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As a result of the incredible response and feedback to my autobiography, A Reason To Love Me, I felt A Reason To Love Them to be the most logical follow up. Although not a sequel per se, the two are very much linked. Whilst offering further insight into my life experiences, with this book I aim to challenge views and beliefs by suggesting alternative perspectives, perspectives which have helped me heal and take my life back. Although it can be incredibly hard at times for us to love ourselves, it can feel almost impossible for us to love ’them’, those whom we view as the perpetrators. A lesson without which inner peace cannot be achieved. A book that offers techniques, methods and alternative perspectives which deal with overcoming trauma and abuse. From mental health to physical abuse the author through her own life experience as a survivor, with courage, love and acceptance, proves that nothing is insurmountable. |
£11.99 (+ £2 postage) Available from Amazon |
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Opium & Pagodas – Talk
Bob Fowke, YouCaxton’s Managing Editor, will be giving a talk entitled Opium & Pagodas Aspects of life in 18th Century India at the Church Barn, Bishop’s Castle, Sunday 23rd February at 2.00 pm, admission free.
In July 1775, Maharaja Nuncomar and Joseph Fowke were tried in Calcutta for conspiracy against Governor Warren Hastings. Nuncomar was hanged for a parallel offence; Joseph got off with a fine of fifty rupees. Two years later, Philip Francis, Hastings’s chief opponent on the Council and a friend of Joseph, was caught in flagrante with a ladder beneath the bedroom of beautiful Mrs Grand, who went on to marry Prince Tallyrand while he was foreign minister to Napoleon. Two years after that, Francis challenged Hastings to a duel but neither man knew how to shoot a pistol and Francis was wounded but survived. In the meantime, Joseph gambled away his second fortune and sailed for home, having sold his Stradivarius cello and complaining about the new-fangled music of Haydn.
Life for British residents in Calcutta in the late eighteenth century was incestuous but colourful. Bob Fowke explores some aspects of this exotic world in his illustrated talk.
Irish Tales from Coolshannagh
Christo Loynska
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The Untimely Demise of Friday the Pig Irish Tales from Coolshannagh Coolshannagh is an ordinary Irish village situated on the coast halfway between Dublin and Belfast. The villagers are pretty ordinary too; Father Joe, a clubfooted priest who likes to dance; Duffy the bar owner who runs a great pub; Stochelo a Gypsy bandolier and his mighty son Miquel; Eamonn McGarvey who loved his pet pig; Ludmilla the one handed Ukrainian Headmistress who escaped the anti-Jewish pogroms of 1881; Mary-Ellen the village elder, wise-woman, and nurse in the Crimean War; Vincenti Quilto the Italian Matchmaker and teller of unlikely fables; Father Dan, a guilt ridden whiskey priest decorated for bravery in the First World war and The Diabhal (Devil) also comes calling intent upon mischief. |
UK Only £9.99 (+ £2.50 postage) Number of copies: Available on Amazon |
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So, just an unremarkable Irish village going about its daily business; hum-drum times punctuated by birth, death, love, not much hate (except the Devil for whom hate is his only purpose). And every word is true… at least according to my father who came from Coolshannagh and passed these tales on! |
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Reviews... Debbie Turfrey - Authorised buyer 5 out of 5 stars Beautifully written Irish tale This is a wonderful book, a whimsical yarn which flows beautifully! In true Irish story teller style, the author weaves the threads of the story together. I would highly recommend it to anyone! |
The Hungry Crow
James S M Parker
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The Hungry Crow Through poetry and a mid-section collection of short stories, James S M Parker attempts to make sense of broken relationships, unrequited love and the absolute loneliness life has now brought him. Harsh, uncompromising and as always, honest, The Hungry Crow speaks from the heart, weeps from the soul and revels in something lost never to be found again. |
£7.99 (+ £2 postage) Available from Amazon |
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Duel between Warren Hastings and Philip Francis
In 1773, Parliament passed the Regulating Act: in return for a loan of £1.4 million, the East India Company agreed to accept a Governor General appointed by Parliament and Warren Hastings was appointed to the post. In addition, the Regulating Act called for the appointment of three counsellors whose job was to oversee the Governor General. Unfortunately, these cousellors were hostile to Hastings from the start, in particular Philip Francis (lover of Mrs Grand see previous email, re ladders against windows and Prince Talleyrand). Francis sought to undermine Hastings’s authority at every opportunity.
By May 1780, Hastings had had enough. He decided that it had to be death or victory. He insulted Francis in a memorandum to the Council; Francis took the bait and challenged Hastings to a duel.
At 5.30 am on 16th August the two principle members of the Calcutta Council met in the grey light of morning on the Alipur Road, both middle-aged, neither of them with much interest in exercise or fighting. Francis had never fired a pistol before and Hastings could remember doing so ‘only once or twice’. Their seconds measured fourteen paces. Hastings defered his fire while Francis misfired twice. The third time they both fired simultaneously. Francis narrowly missed but Hastings’s bullet struck Francis on the right side and lodged under his left shoulder blade. Francis called out ‘I’m dead’ and fell to the ground.
‘Good God, I hope not!’ Hastings called back and hurried over. Having checked on the damage, he rushed home in his palanquin and sent for the surgeon general and his own doctor. Philip Francis staged a remarkably swift recovery but he left for England that December.
Writer’s Lodge
After much planning, we have finally started work to convert some redundant commercial buildings in Bishop’s Castle into a Writer’s Lodge, intended to compliment services already provided by YouCaxton. It will involve the conversion of a Victorian slaughter house and a medieval barn to provide space for seminars along with technical facilities and self-catering accommodation for aspiring writers.
Writers will be able to participate in courses, retreats, seminars and one-to-one tuition on a wide variety of pre-publishing issues. They will also be given access to the expertise at YouCaxton Publications for help with book design, as well as planning, publication and distribution.
Central to the project is the creation of a two-bedroom cottage and studio, both with lovely views over the south Shropshire hills and this is the renovation work which has now started. We expect it to be finished before the swallows return in June.
We also have a new member on the team, Caroline Denham, to oversee the project.
Mistress Whiddon -The Memoirs of Nora Basset of Umberleigh
Joanne McShane
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Mistress Whiddon The Memoirs of Nora Basset of Umberleigh Young Nora Basset has no memory of her father, John, as he died when she was very young. Her first years are spent at Umberleigh in Devon with her family. When she is three years old, she meets her grandmother, Honora Lisle, who has returned from imprisonment in Calais and has been tragically widowed. Nora and her grandmother form a close bond, as the child unwittingly assists the older woman to come to terms with her loss. The following year, Nora’s mother, Frances Plantagenet, remarries. Her new husband is Thomas Monk of Potheridge and the family leaves Umberleigh to begin their new life. Nora spends a mostly happy childhood at Potheridge until she is called away at the age of eighteen to become a companion for her grandmother who has once again been visited by sadness. The bond between the two women becomes stronger than ever. |
UK Only £14.99 (+ £3 postage) Number of copies: Available on Amazon For Australia and USA, order from Amazon.com | ||||||||
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When she is twenty-seven Nora meets William Whiddon, the love of her life. They marry and the next years are blissful ones for the two soulmates.v
When tragedy strikes, Nora must find a way to move forward in her life. The story is set against the backdrop of life in Elizabethan England and the continuing saga of the Basset family. |
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