Other books that might interest you

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  Writing - Articles Blog Posts...

  Owen Jones

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  I hope that you will find the information helpful, useful and profitable. 
  More people are writing now than at any time in the history of civilisation. This is mainly down to education and more free time. The generation of the parents of the Baby Boomers was the first generation of mass readers – certainly in the West, and probably globally. Their parents could read, usually, but had no tradition of reading books. Instead, they read mostly newspapers. Their children had a better education, and picked up the reading habit from their parents. They were also encouraged to read books at school. The first generation where this happened. 
  Their children, the post World War II Baby Boomers, continued the progression and became avid readers. In those days, not so long ago, say, between seventy and thirty years ago, people wrote letters by hand. It was a long, but very pleasant, personal experience. Then the home computer, email, and the Internet began to spread among the masses, and pen and ink gradually became replaced with message boards, posting to forums and email. 
  Before this point, writing had been a special event for most people... thank you letters, postcards, birthday cards, and the odd personal letter home or to a friend. The home computer made it easy to dash off a quick note to someone. It took far less time to write and deliver, or have delivered by the post office. Suddenly, everyone began writing and posting to family, friends, strangers and even enemies. A barrier had been lifted – barriers of time and formality, perhaps. 
  A high percentage of those Boomers, compared with other generations, have gone on to write some kind of book, or ebook. So, the Boomers are the first generation of working-class writers, and their parents were the first working-class generation of readers.

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  Out of the Ashes - A Story of...

  Sallie Crotty

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  Out of the Ashes, an inspiring story of hope . . .With Out of the Ashes: A Story of Recovery and Hope, Sallie Crotty offers a profoundly moving memoir told with unflinching bravery and insight. Her compelling story explores a topic that affects us all: mental health. Detailing a mid-life descent into debilitating despair, she brings the reader on a deeply personal journey. She reveals her struggles, time spent in a psychiatric ward, and how lacking a clear diagnosis almost led to her death. She also describes how proper care and receiving the right diagnosis and treatment can provide hope, stability, and a path to happiness. This inspiring memoir will help remove some of the stigma surrounding mental illness and encourage those suffering to seek treatment. Crotty provides hope for the many individuals diagnosed every year, their loved ones, and anyone interested in learning more about the lives of those who live with mental illness.

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  Wintry Blue - From THE DARKEST...

  Christopher Golden, Tim Lebbon

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  Oliver and his daughter, Katie, are looking forward to visiting with Grandma and Grandpa. Ever since Katie's mother passed away, the holidays haven't been the same, but Oliver is determined to give his daughter a magical Christmas, complete with the woods, roaring fires and jolly snowmen. Little does he know, they aren't alone in this wintry wilderness. 
   
  While Oliver and Katie make their way along the icy roads, Dan and his girlfriend, Nadia, are experiencing a journey of their own out in the woods. The hike might seem like a romantic adventure to Nadia, but it's something far more important to Dan. He's on a quest to find the evil spirits hiding in this frozen landscape so he can become the hero who slayed the monsters. The voice in his head is insistent on the importance of his mission. But when Dan can't find any monsters to kill, it's everyone else who will need to be afraid of him and the darkness lurking within.

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  Finding Home - A Windrush Story

  Howard Gardner, Alford Dalrymple...

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  "A pioneering member of the Windrush generation of Caribbean migrants who marked the symbolic beginning of a multicultural Britain." - The Guardian
  RAF Veteran and Prince's Trust Awardee, Alford Dalrymple Gardner was one of the last living passengers to have travelled on the Empire Windrush.
  Now published in paperback, Finding Home is his stirring life story.
  
  On 22nd June 1948, the Empire Windrush sailed from Kingston, Jamaica, to harbour at Tilbury Docks. It carried 1,027 passengers and two stowaways, and more than two thirds of them were West Indies nationals. Alford Dalrymple Gardner was among them.
  
  Alford's story traverses both the uplifting highs and intolerant lows that West Indian migrants of his generation encountered upon travelling to Britain to forge out a life. From joining the British military during World War II to being forcibly deported back to Jamaica once it was won-only to come back to the UK when the government decided it needed him again-Alford witnessed milestone events of the 20th century that shaped the country he still lives in today.
  
  In the context of a supposedly 'post-Imperial' Britain where the lives of West Indian migrants hang precariously on the whims of the Home Office, Alford's heartening testimony is a celebration of those who endured hardships so that generations to come could call this place home.
  
  Today, Alford's portrait is a part of the Royal Collection Trust as commissioned by King Charles III in 2023, and he is a regular face and voice on the likes of The BBC, Channel 4, Sky News and more as his story continues to embody for all, the spirit of joyous resilience.

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  A Respectable Woman - From their...

  Kate Chopin

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  Katherine O'Flaherty was born on the 8th February 1850 in St Louis, Missouri to parents of French and Irish descent. 
  At age 5, she was sent to the Sacred Heart Academy and, apart from a 2 year period at home when her father died, remained there until graduating in 1868.  Whilst there she began writing and became an avid reader of almost anything that crossed her path.   
  Kate married Oscar Chopin in 1870 and the couple moved to New Orleans, and later to the rural setting of Cloutierville, Louisiana to raise their 6 children.  
  In 1882 her husband died leaving her in a deep trench of debt.  Despite her best efforts to turn the businesses around they were sold, and she moved the family back to St Louis and the financial help of her mother.  Sadly, her mother died within the year.  Kate, now struggling with depression, pushed herself to write and gained a local reputation as a writer of short stories that captured the local color and vibrancy of her surroundings. 
  By the early 1890’s her short stories were published nationally.  With this widespread audience also came negative reviews, controversy, and cries of immorality as themes such as interracial relationships, the rights of women and other burning issues of the day were written about. 
  Despite the criticism, which unnerved her, she continued to write though in the main her works, around 100 short stories and two novels, were not attributed with any literary worth. 
  Kate Chopin died from a brain haemorrhage in St Louis Missouri on the 22nd of August 1904.  She was 54. 
  For much of the 20th Century her work was forgotten and out of print.  It was only in early 1970’s, with the rise of feminism and the call for a more just society that she was given the status her works had long described and shone a literary light at.  She is now safely revered as one of America’s great authors.

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  A Profitable Weakness - From...

  George Gissing

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  George Robert Gissing was born on November 22nd, 1857 in Wakefield, Yorkshire.  
  He was educated at Back Lane School in Wakefield. Gissing loved school. He was enthusiastic with a thirst for learning and always diligent.  By the age of ten he was reading Dickens, a lifelong hero. 
  In 1872 Gissing won a scholarship to Owens College. Whilst there Gissing worked hard but remained solitary. Unfortunately, he had run short of funds and stole from his fellow students. He was arrested, prosecuted, found guilty, expelled and sentenced to a month's hard labour in 1876. 
  On release he decided to start over.  In September 1876 he travelled to the United States. Here he wrote short stories for the Chicago Tribune and other newspapers. On his return home he was ready for novels. 
  Gissing self-published his first novel but it failed to sell.  His second was acquired but never published. His writing career was static.  Something had to change.  And it did. 
  By 1884 The Unclassed was published.  Now everything he wrote was published. Both Isabel Clarendon and Demos appeared in 1886. He mined the lives of the working class as diligently as any capitalist. 
  In 1889 Gissing used the proceeds from the sale of The Nether World to go to Italy. This trip formed the basis for his 1890 work The Emancipated. 
  Gissing's works began to command higher payments. New Grub Street (1891) brought a fee of £250.  
  Short stories followed and in 1895, three novellas were published; Eve's Ransom, The Paying Guest and Sleeping Fires. Gissing was careful to keep up with the changing attitudes of his audience.  
  Unfortunately, he was also diagnosed as suffering from emphysema. The last years of his life were spent as a semi-invalid in France but he continued to write. 1899; The Crown of Life. Our Friend the Charlatan appeared in 1901, followed two years later by The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft. 
  George Robert Gissing died aged 46 on December 28th, 1903 after catching a chill on a winter walk.

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