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  Wild Seas Wilder Cities - A...

  Helen Salsbury, Richard...

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  Wild Seas, Wilder Cities is a ‘wild-seeded’ collection of short stories, poems, memoirs and environmental articles from 49 unique contributors, all concerned with showing the positive side of our relationship with the earth. 
   
  Thanks to funding from Portsmouth Creates, this audiobook features 50 different voices from across the Portsmouth community and beyond. Our readers range from teenagers to those in their nineties, including experienced actors, writers and volunteers from the public. 
   
  The many writers, poets and performers in this audiobook have given their work freely, so all profits are donated to the Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust for their Solent Seagrass Restoration Project. 
   
  Recorded at the award-winning Casemates Studios in Portsmouth. 
   
  Find out more at pensoftheearth.co.uk/audiobook 
   
  Reviews for the paperback: 
   
  ‘Calls to us in a rousing chorus of voices … a lyrical force for change.’ Nicola Chester, award winning author of On Gallows Down and Ghosts of the Farm. 
   
  ‘Bursting with inspiring and hopeful visions’ Carys Bray, author of A Song for Issy Bradley 
   
  ‘Mixing fact, fiction and poetry is such a good idea – we bear witness to the natural world in many ways, and the pieces come in all shapes and sizes, carrying messages of determination, love for nature, positive actions and the power of community.’ Sarah Jane Butler, author of Starling 
   
  ‘Full of love, enlightenment, practicality and poetry.’ Toby Litt, author of Patience 
   
  ‘A delightfully encouraging collection of writings on the ways we can help make the world wilder again, how we can change the narrative on climate change. Vibrant and alive, these are wonderful tales told of renaturing – of striving to support life in all its glorious forms on the earth, of restoring hope for the future.’ Dr James Canton, Director of Wild Writing, University of Essex

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  Into Light Volume One - Poems by...

  M. D, . Friedman

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  INTO LIGHT is the sixth poetry collection from the international, award-winning poet, musician and artist, M. D. Friedman, and is his first full-length poetry book. It reflects the experiences, observations, dreams and epiphanies of a lifetime, speaks quietly about the calling of the heart and loudly about injustices of the world. Eclectic in style and content, M. D. Friedman's poetry connects both the inner and outer realities of a life well-lived.INTO LIGHT Volume One: The Poems of M. D. Friedman, the audio book, contains the first 23 poems from M. D. Friedman's INTO LIGHT poetry book.  For all things INTO LIGHT, e.g., print, e-book, audio book, album, musical and video poetry rendentions, please see liquidlightpress.com/IntoLight.htm. These poems are the masterwork of a different kind of man than most men I’ve known in my 73 years. He is, as we used to say, "his own man." More than a disciple of some orthodox poetry "church," you'll meet a mindful, funny, wise and compassionate person in these texts, unafraid to speak honestly and vulnerably. From Li Po to Robert Johnson, memory care to contemporary politics, grieving lament to defiant slam, MD lays it all out about as clearly as a poet can while leaving enough tantalizing mystery to feed the reader's soul for days on end. He really believes "It is a miracle to be alive."! His poems encourage me to believe it, too!!~ wayne a. gilbert, poet and Colorado Governor's Creative Leadership Award winnerThis long anticipated poetry collection opens like a portal that will rainbow a monochrome world. Reminiscent of Rumi and Hafiz, you will taste the landscape with your tongue, unable to separate your own inner body from the mountains and sky you inhabit, “not the waterfall, but the water falling,” ... “no longer sculpted by gravity.” A love poem to life herself, you will want to take your time, savoring each languid line. “I am taken by how much I need this.”!Valerie A Szarek, award winning poet

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  The Satires

  Juvenal

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  The Roman poet Juvenal was the greatest satirist of Imperial Rome. His 16 satires encompass attacks on the immorality, abuses and hypocrisy of the Romans of his day. The last of the great Roman poets, he wrote between CE 110 and 130, his approach to satire coming close to modern expectations of the genre.
  Today, Juvenal is best known for the Latin quotations panem et circenses (‘bread and races’ – he stated that this was all the Roman populace desired) and mens sana in corpore sano (‘a healthy mind in a healthy body’).
  This audiobook, deftly delivered by David Timson, uses Niall Rudd’s translation, which preserves the style and metrical effect of Juvenal’s hexameters.

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  The Ballad of East & West - A...

  Rudyard Kipling

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  Joseph Rudyard Kipling was born in Mumbai, India on 30th December 1865.   
  As was the custom in those days, he and his sister were sent back to England when he was 5.  The ill-treatment and cruelty by the Portsmouth couple they boarded with Kipling said contributed to the onset of his literary life.  
  At 16 he returned to India to work on a local paper where he was soon contributing and writing.  It also exposed him to the issues of identity and national allegiance which pervade much of his work.  
  In 1886, his ‘Departmental Ditties’, collection of verse appeared in print followed by 39 short stories for his newspaper over only 8 months.  These were then published as ‘Plain Tales from the Hills’, shortly after his 22nd birthday.  
  He continued his prolific pace of writing before being dismissed in a dispute and, taking his pay-off and the profits from the sale of some publishing rights, decided to return to London, travelling via Rangoon, Hong Kong, Japan and the United States, all the while writing articles, and arriving at Liverpool in October 1889. 
  Over the next two years he saw further works published as books and in magazines, as well as a nervous breakdown for which he was prescribed a sea voyage, to South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and India.  
  Happier times came with marriage to Caroline Starr Balestier in January 1892.  The honeymoon began in Vermont and ended in Yokahama where they heard their bank had failed.  They returned to Vermont and settled.  Caroline was now pregnant and he was planning the ‘Jungle Books’.  
  A failed arbitration between the US and England resulted in an argument between Caroline’s brother and Kipling, and then his arrest.  At the hearing he was mortified by the exposure of his private life and after settling the matter they returned to England and life in Torquay.  ‘Kim’ was published in 1902, and ‘Just So Stories for Little Children’, a year later.  
  In 1907 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature with the citation “in consideration of the power of observation, originality of imagination, virility of ideas and remarkable talent for narration which characterise the creations of this world-famous author”.   
  When the Great War erupted, he scorned those who refused conscription.  His son enlisted and was killed at the Battle of Loos in September 1915, at 18, an exploding shell had ripped his face apart.  This death inspired Kipling’s writing thereafter, but the tragedy broke his life and by 1930 his prolific pen had almost ceased. 
  Rudyard Kipling died on 18th January 1936 from a perforated duodenal ulcer.  He was 70.  His ashes are buried at Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey.

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  The Territory of Understanding -...

  Haneesh Khani

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  Sounds are born out of silence, And movements out of stillness.Poetry is the meaning leading to the eternal, And the poet's soul strives to create a union.For not everyone can touch the depths, Getting into the streams of life.The whirlpool of fate, sometimes as a gift, Takes us straight to the door of heavens.Sometimes the poet's hand,Playing between the lines with silence, Touches the soundless strings, Revealing the depth of the hearts.I sincerely wish you, dear reader, to discover this real treasure hidden in your heart.These poems reflect us.Mikhail ZheltikovRussiaDr Han transforms warmth into this lyrical tapestry. Perhaps you are searching for sustenance in your life, maybe you are getting lost in this modern world.May this book fill all the emptiness in your heart and accompany you for who you want to be.Not every question has an answer in life, but still lie down, feel the words, and listen to the echo in your soul.Enjoy the journey, your journey.Chloe Cheng, HongkongReading these poems after the end of my day was a breeze of fresh air. Like a light soft hand touching my heart with love.I ended up having a beautiful smile on my face which made me tear up and I thought to myself, this is how easy the poet can spread some kindness in the world and almost heal someone's heart even for that little moment.The poet explores love within oneself. He pays attention to how the person delves into self-discovery and introspection about what should be our most rewarding life approach.He clearly is choosing to live a beautiful life full of simple but precious little moments. He emphasises the happiness within ourselves and the happiness that we share with others that is all we are.It is an internal journey of self-loveDeysi Ramirez Portugal

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  The Beekeeper of Aleppo

  Christy Lefteri

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  'I was scared of the bees at first, but now, they make me feel alive. They are like a society in complete harmony with itself. Not like people at all, but maybe what people have the potential to be.'
  Nuri is a beekeeper; his wife, Afra, an artist. They live a simple life, rich in family and friends, in the beautiful Syrian city of Aleppo – until the unthinkable happens. 
  When all they care for is destroyed by war, they are forced to flee. On their terrifying journey, they must face the pain of their immeasurable loss alongside incredible danger. Above all, they must keep going in order to find each other again.
  Nesrin Alrefaai and Matthew Spangler's adaptation of Christy Lefteri's compassionate and beautiful bestselling novel The Beekeeper of Aleppo premiered at Nottingham Playhouse in 2023, directed by Miranda Cromwell. It was revived in 2026 for a tour of the UK and Ireland.

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