fiction

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
Eleanor Harriet Loxley

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
Post-War France: Two Familes, Two Secrets, One Tragedy

In 1950, when newly-married Nancy is taken to France by her husband Tom, they find themselves living next door to Monsieur and Madame Aubin, whom Tom knew during the War. Nancy is disconcerted to discover that the Aubins know far more about her new husband than Nancy does. She is homesick for England and after the birth of her first child the Aubins have to come to her aid. Tragedy stalks both families. Deep emotional scars inflicted during the war distort the two families’ responses to misfortune and loss - throughout their lives.
There seems to be light at the end of the tunnel when Nancy’s second daughter, Rosemary, sets out to unravel the mysteries surrounding her parents and the mysterious Aubins. Nothing is certain and the result is unpredictable.
Published: Dec 2020
Paperback: 260 pages
Price: £9.99
ISBN: 9-781913-425524

UK Only
£9.99 (+ £2.50 postage)
Number of copies:

Available on Amazon
Eleanor appeared in Essex, trained as a nurse in Surrey, read Psychology at Bedford College at London University and became a Clinical Psychologist in Birmingham. At some point she acquired a PhD in English Literature. She works part time, writes part time and gardens with gusto. She lives in Shropshire with several Siamese cats. She does not live with her partner because he has the house next door.
Self-Publishing town

Shropshire’s Covid Year

 

We’re planning a book based on the personal anecdotes of Shropshire people during the Coronavirus epidemic – tales of lock-down and of resiliance, of survival. to be published in March 2021.

Shropshire’s Covid Year will not be about medical disaster, sadness or bereavement although there’s been some of that; we’re looking for tales of triumph over adversity, of humour and of how some people found ways to get by. We’re talking stolen kisses, escaped otters, love among the bike sheds, ghost choirs, badgers around the brazier, football by moonlight.

The editorial committee is holding its first meeting on Thursday and we’ll be looking for submissions shortly.

fiction

Secrets from the Red Phone Box
Philomena Plunkett

Have you ever had unfettered access to people’s private conversations and lives!!
Here is your chance to enjoy fun and light-hearted good humour.
After years of listening to private unedited conversations from people from all walks of life the ‘Spirit’ of the Red Phone Box has a kaleidoscope of stories to tell. It has provided a red cloak of privacy, a safe space for humans to come and communicate with others, often letting their guard down and revealing a bit extra in the privacy of the Red Phone Box. My motto was always “what is said in my box stays in my box” That was up until 2020.
Finally with no holding back the Red Phone Box is spilling the beans to allow you into its world and the private world of its customers over the years.
The stories from telephone conversations that I was given unrestricted access to are amusing, happy, sad, and full of hope.
If you think the level of intrigue is reduced when I am reincarnated as a library, think again.
Published: Dec 2020
Paperback: 67 pages
Price: £5.99
ISBN: 9-781913-425586

UK Only
£5.99 (+ £2.50 postage)
Number of copies:

Available on Amazon
The library lends itself to a shadier side of the human nature, when we think no one is observing we can truly be ourselves and misbehave a little.

Philomena Plunkett was born and brought up in Dublin before embarking on the wider adventures of life. She took a psychology degree at Liverpool University and has roamed the world finally settling in England. She is a practicing psychotherapist, keen photographer, and avid observer of life.
livesinprint

Rescue Tugs at War – Dangerous missions in the 1940s
Stanley Charles Butler RNVR

RESCUE TUGS AT WAR

A Personal Account Of Life In
The Royal Navy Rescue Tug Service

Edited by Peter P Butler

 In 1940 Stanley Butler answered the call for merchant navy personnel to join the Royal Navy rescue tug service. For two years he served on HMRT Restive as second engineer, escorting convoys across the North Atlantic. The atrocious weather conditions and attacks by U-boats left many ships in distress. Restive also aided convoys from Iceland to Murmansk in northern Russia. Stanley Butler was usually part of the boarding party sent to assist these stricken ships and the casualty would be towed to either Iceland or the UK. In 1943 he was promoted to chief engineer and was transferred to HMRT Prudent, which was based in Durban South Africa until the end of the war.
Published: Nov 2020
Paperback: 149 pages
Price: £7.99
ISBN: 9-781913-425500
Available from Amazon

This very personal account gives a snapshot of his life in the 1940’s. Stanley recalls many humorous misadventures during shore leave, and gives some very detailed accounts of rescues he was involved with. There are wonderful descriptions of family life, and the difficulties of travelling by rail in the UK during the war. Stanley survived the war despite the many dangerous situations he was in. In an ironic twist of fate, his wife and child were killed in one of the few air raids on rural Cornwall.

Stanley Butler grew up on a farm near Colchester with a passion for steam traction engines. In 1936 he joined the merchant navy as an engineer and spent the next four years in the Far East. Based in Japan for a year, Stanley made many journeys inland by train. During WW2 he served in the Royal Navy. After de-mob he worked in Caltex Oil Company in Dublin for 12 years. His next job was with British Coal. For this he moved with his wife and 3 children to Sheffield, close to the beautiful Peak District. Most week-ends he would bring his children and grand-children out on walks or visits to places of interest. It was a shock to everyone when he died suddenly at the age of 66.
Reader Reviews...

Dean Longley
Insightful personal account of life of a Navy Engineer during WW2, during the often treacherous sea condition combined with constant attacks to vessels. The personal feelings, thoughts and actions are well presented and the book is a joy to read. Recommended for all those interested in individual accounts and tales of WW2.

Kindle Customer
An excellent read, detail and story. Would make a great present for anyone interested in Rescue Tugs during WW2. Really an impressive read.

James, Sheffield
I like Stanley's way of writing and the little stories he included about the ships and places he visited as well as the technical details of some of the encounters with stuck ships. The way you finished his story of the U-boat was well evidenced. I would recommend it

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poetry

Silent Screams
Nubia Assata

Silent Screams
Nubia Assata

 Silent Screams is a radical insight to the trials and tribulations of young people, especially those intersecting ethnic minority groups. Positioned from an introspective standpoint, this anthology is able to open doors that would otherwise remain unchallenged.

An honest take on the battle with mental health, politics, and black family dynamics, likens the poet to an incredibly mature author. Unapologetic whilst also careful, powerful whilst also soft, Nubia leans on her own experiences to draw parallels between herself and her history. To ultimately look forward to the future proposing the question of where do we go next?
Published: Sept 2020
Paperback: 67 pages
Price: £9.99
ISBN: 978-1-913425-51-7

£9.99 (+ £2.50 postage)
Number of copies:



Available from Amazon
Nubia Assata is a young ,sixteen-year-old, up-and-coming author who integrates her intersecting activism for black consciousness and mental health through her work. She has used her experiences with mental health and racism, whilst being a young black woman in Britain as a springboard to open the conversation of what ‘Blackness’ means in 21st Century Britain and the world.
Reader Reviews...

Martin Glynn
This powerful and impacting collection is part of a continuing poetry legacy of black women such as; June Jordan, Sonia Sanchez, Jayne Cortez, Nikki Giovanni, and many other black women, whose poignant lyrical expression, with powerful social commentary, have formed the basis of liberating the many silent voices

Liz Pemberton
A raw and unfi ltered collection; Nubia’s poetry is fearless, it is tender, it is strong, and it is authentic

livesinprint

A Formidable Lady – A biography of Diana Gray
Kryss Forsyth

A Formidable Lady
Kryss Forsyth

 I would like to share with you, the reader, a portrayal of Diana Gray (1913 - 2009), a ‘formidable lady’ who I admired and respected for her capability, and strength of character.

I was pushing Diana in her wheelchair along the promenade, enjoying the late afternoon warmth from the sun, when suddenly she said, “I was abused, you know, when I was fourteen years old.
I am ninety now, and I’ve never told anyone.”

There had been no mention of this before, in all the years I had known her. I was shocked, surprised and sad, but also felt honoured she could tell me. I listened, and all that I knew about Diana suddenly began to fall into place, like a jigsaw puzzle.
Published: Nov 2020
Paperback: 84 pages
Price: £6.99
ISBN: 9-781913-425494

£6.99 (+ £2.50 postage)
Number of copies:
Kryss Forsyth born in Minehead in 1954, lived in Porlock until 1983, then moved to back to Minehead with her family, where she has enjoyed working as an artist and social worker for many years.
She lives with her partner David and, since retiring, they have been renovating their house on North Hill.
Kryss has two sons, and three beautiful grandaughters, who she loves spending time with.
She has also been a foster parent for several young people.
Family and friends are an important part of Kryss’s life.
She also likes a challenge, and writing a book was on her list.

livesinprint

An English Doctor in Japan
Gabriel Symonds

An English Doctor in Japan

This entertaining memoir takes the reader at pace through Dr Gabriel Symonds’s unusual career as an English doctor in Japan, but there is much to his story before he got there: hitch-hiking to India on leaving school, disturbing incidents in the dissecting room at medical school, the antics of an eccentric bisexual fellow student, trials of life as a junior hospital doctor, attack by a drunken Irish colleague, and work in ‘heartsink’ general practices in deprived areas of London.

Life in Japan is equally eventful, and includes encounters with incompetent physicians and a Japanese surgeon known as ‘the butcher’.

This is contrasted with the ‘ideal’ practice he eventually set up, the Tokyo British Clinic, where we meet a host of colourful characters: minor royalty, a clutch of ambassadors, visiting pop singers, and a famous pianist—as well as many ordinary patients with extraordinary stories.
Published: October 2020
Paperback: 268 pages
Price: £12.00
ISBN: 9-781913-425432

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


Available on Amazon

Of particular interest are Dr Symonds’s perhaps outspoken views on general check-ups, statins, animal experiments, psychiatry, and smoking.

Although it may raise a few hackles, he does not shy away from discussing controversial issues such as circumcision, female genital mutilation, and his critical observations on terminal care in Japanese hospitals.
Reviews...

5 out of 5 stars What is your doctor really thinking?
Reviewed in Japan on December 14, 2020
Verified Purchase
I've always wondered what goes on inside the head of a physician. Obviously professional ethics prevents them from discussing patients and their problems by name. But Dr. Gabriel Symonds has found a way to tell his story while maintaining confidentiality, and it's quite a story. Only a small number of foreign physicians have practiced medicine in Japan during the post-WW2 period, and even fewer (if any) have spun together such an informative package. Symonds, a London native, has strong feelings about various aspects of diagnosis and treatment, and doesn't pull any punches when it comes to discussing shortcomings of the Japanese health care system. The result is a book that is inspiring, entertaining and enlightening. What's more, An English Doctor in Japan turned out to be a great read while stuck at home during the pandemic!
Sport

Racing in the time of the Super-Teams
Edited by William Fotheringham – lead cycling writer at The Guardian

In 2021 the bike racing season returned to “normal” after the Covid-19 pandemic, but the racing kept up the same frenetic tempo that had stunned fans and media in 2020. There were new stars and old, unlikely comebacks and improbable upsets, drama, suspense and controversy. From the team behind the lacourseentete.com website, this is the must-have review of a rollercoaster year.
OJ BORG
NICK BULL
PETER COSSINS
WILLIAM FOTHERINGHAM
AMY JONES
MATT MORRIS
SOPHIE SMITH
JEREMY WHITTLE
SWPIX.COM
Published: Nov 2021
Paperback: 244 pages
Price: £13.99
ISBN: 978-1-914424-34-2
Available from lacourseentete.com/shop/
Meet The Team

OJ Borg is the lacourseentete podcast specialist. A broadcaster of long standing who is currently with BBC Radio Two, when not out on his bike, OJ is a long-time cycling fan who was for many years the presenter of the BBC Radio podcast Bespoke.

Nick Bull was drawn to cycling aged nine when the Rochester International Classic World Cup race took place on local roads in 1997. He joined Cycling Weekly and Cycle Sport as a reporter in 2011, and went on to become the magazines’ news editor. A regular contributor to BBC Radio 5 Live’s BeSpoke cycling show, he is also the PR & digital manager for the Tour of Britain and Women’s Tour races. He tweets @nickbull21.

Peter Cossins devoured Phil Liggett’s reports in his dad’s newpspaper in the 70s and began work at Cycling Weekly as the magazine was preparing to launch Cycle Sport. He was procycling editor between 2006 and 2009 and currently specialises in writing books about the sport, having started as ghost writer on Stephen Roche’s Born to Ride. Twice an award winner for his books, Pete currently lives with his family in the Pyrenees, with an office overlooking the Prat d’Albis climb.

William Fotheringham is lead cycling writer at The Guardian, having covered 26 Tours de France before retiring from front line duty in 2017. A former writer at Cycling Weekly, he helped launch Cycle Sport before founding the monthly procycling together with Jeremy Whittle. His best selling books include Put Me Back on My Bike: in search of Tom Simpson (2002), Fallen Angel: the Passion of Fausto Coppi (2008), and Merckx: Half-Man, Half-Bike (2012).

Amy Jones is a freelance writer based in Girona, Spain. She primarily covers women’s cycling and is passionate about equality in sports. She contributes to Rouleur, Cyclingtips and cyclingnews.com and is also the editor of Women’s Cycling Weekly, a newletter covering the week’s news and content from the world of women’s cycling which can be found on Substack at mamilrepeller.substack.com.

Matt Morris is a Shropshire based designer who started his own company in 2008 and has worked with cycling brands Orbea, Scott, Bianchi and Viner as well as a number of bluechip companies and the Lawn Tennis Association. Like many, he was drawn to cycling by Channel Four’s Tour coverage and currently enjoys thrashing his gravel bike around the lanes.

Sophie Smith has been covering cycling since 2010, beginning with regional newspaper the Geelong Advertiser. She joined SBS in 2011, then moved to the UK to work freelance in 2012 before returning to Melbourne where she is a regular contributor to cycling magazines and websites; she has covered the Tour de France nine times.

Jeremy Whittle began covering cycling in 1993, for Winning magazine, where his first assignment was interviewing a Texan upstart named Lance Armstrong. He has covered the Tour de France for 25 years, for the Times and currently for the Guardian, and joined William in launching procycling in 1999. His books Bad Blood and Racing Through the Dark (with David Millar) were shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year. SWpix.com provide lacourseentete with photographs; they are an independent mainly sports specific picture agency, whose live and archive imagery appears in national and regional newspapers and across many digital platforms.

The swpix.com archive holds nearly a million images; for more information contact Simon Wilkinson on simon@swpix.com