Never Trust Professors

Never Trust Professors, Life and Death on Campus, is a novel by Donald Read.

Now, I say that is is a novel, but it seems as if it might make uncomfortable reading for some professors as it looks to be a little too close to the truth of saome of our higher seats of academe!

Blackchester University is a somewhat troubled place. There are problems on campus that are making life harder for both students and staff members.

The English and History departments are in a state of war, with the Professors of each department battling and bickering over student numbers and how to increase them.

And, once they have more students, they might like to work out a way to stop the female students falling in love, not only with their fellow students but with the teaching staff. Including the married ones.

And you know what journalists are like. Even a whiff of a sexual scandal at a university gets the prurient side of their dander up and you can almost write the headlines in your mind's eye now, can't you?

And parents read those headlines in the morning papers and fret and worry about what might be happening near or (God forbid!) to their precious little innocent child!

But who can the parents trust for a straight answer? Certainly not the professors for, as the headlines scream: "Never Trust Professors!"

The Daily Express even has a reporter embedded (if you'll pardon that expression!) in the campus.

But what about the stories behind the headlines? The truth behind the common room gossip, the veiled looks and tutting as a certain person walked by?

And what of those who should have known better, but acted as though they didn't?

What happens when a married woman becomes pregnant and the likelihood is that she has been impregnated by a professor? But unfortunately not the professor she is married to.

What would the press make of this scandal? And what of the poor innocent baby in all this muddle and drama?

And what happens when the situation escalates to outright violence?

The book is a satire, true, but it is very sensitively and thoughtfully written by a Professor of History who, like your reviewer when at university heard rumours and saw some rather strange goings on.

The book is £17.99 in hardback and is published by The Book Guild.

Becoming a Tree Poems 2007 - 2015

Becoming a Tree 2007 - 2015 is an anthology of the poetic writings of James Graham.

It is an interesting and eminently readable collection of poems from a poet who is clearly a deep and very perceptive person.

There are poems that are terrifying, others that are uplifting, some that are amusing, whilst there are some that are wacky and just a little bit off the wall.

Pathos, hope, glory, love, joy, fear, horror, humorous: To quote a saying of several years ago it can be truly said of the collected works of James Graham that: "All Human Life is Here."

Becoming a Tree, for example, takes as the genesis of the poem a quotation from Walt Whitman: "There was a child went forth every day,
And the first object he look'd upon, that object he became."

To become a squirrel and to become a tree... what a glorious thing that would be.

The poems are well though through and perfectly executed and perfectly realised.

I can heartily recommend this collection of poems.

It is published by Matador at a very reasonable £8.99 and is available from the That's Books and Entertainment online bookshop, along with Clairvoyance: Selected Poems 1990-2007 by James Graham, and hundreds of other books and DVDs of poetry.

His Life Was Revenge

His Life Was Revenge is a new crime thriller of a novel by a retired police detective Jonathan S. Harvey.

It tells the story of Adam, a former special forces soldier.

He learns of a brutal Brighton crime family who, it seems, can get away with everything, including torture and murder of innocent members of the public. without any fear of retribution or justice.

Adam decides if the law cannot, or will not, do anything about this sick crime family, then he will.

He joins forces with a former comrade and he researches the murky and deep underworld of the criminal fraternity of Brighton.

And decides to eradicate them one, by one, with each member of the gang to be dispatched in diabolical fashions.

However, it becomes obvious that a corrupt member of the detective force is attempting to help the gang discover who is targeting its members and to apprehend him.

But is everything exactly as it seems? And can revenge ever be fully justified, even if the target is an evil, wicked criminal gang?

The book is published by The Book Guild at £10.99 and is an exciting, gripping thrilling crime novel.

It is available via The That's Book and Entertainment online bookshop, which you will find on the right hand side of this book review, along with hundreds of other crime novels, DVDs, etc.

Transform Your Communication Skills Speak, Write, Present with confidence

Transform Your Communication Skills Speak, Write, Present with confidence is a book created by a master of the craft Steve Bridger.

The book aims to assist you to get where you need to be, where you should be, by stimulating positive personal change.

It distils the wisdom of 11 professional coaching experts and its aim is to develop your speaking, writing and presentational skills.

It promises positive outcomes in not only your professional life but also in your personal life.

It is a practical self-help book which imparts the vital knowledge and information in a fashion that is more conversational than most, eschewing the usual hard to understand managerial flannel that can, rather ironically, bedevil many books on improving communication skills.

You can learn to cope better with nerves before speaking engagements, learn how to craft presentations that will engage your audiences time-after-time. And how to develop writing skills that will enable you to produce clear, concise and effective communications whenever you need them.

The key selling point of this book is that it is not just one voice that you will hear, with only one viewpoint, you will hear from a total combination of 11 specialists who will be sharing with you their expertise, knowledge and experience in the 220 pages.

You'll learn about a wide range and variety of subjects, including NLP, how to make the best and most effective use of social media, and online presentation techniques and presentational skills from an outfit that employs professional actors to "work magic" on nervous or inexperienced participants.

The different voices combine to create a range of diverse yet dynamic knowledge resource.

It costs a very reasonable £9.95 from Matador and is an utterly indispensable book that should be in the resource library of any businessman, businesswoman and entrepreneur.

It is available from the That's Books and Entertainment bookshop, along with hundreds of other business books and DVDs. The bookshop will be found to the right hand side of this book review.

Ripples in a Pond

Ripples in a Pond is the début novel by Educational Psychologist and teacher Sheila Shaw.

It tells the story of retired deputy head teacher Sarah Chilton.

She is very proud of her son, Jamie. He is far ahead of his fellow pupils in a number of subjects such as reading and writing and general knowledge.

She is confident that Jamie will sail through school without a care in the world.

But, somehow, during Year Two, it all began to rapidly and catastrophically wrong.

It becomes clear that, although he is of above average intelligence, his social skills are lacking,

He begins to fall behind his peers and begins to show problems with following instructions and he finds it hard to relate to his classmates.

Unfortunately they encourage his erratic and strange behaviour and his teachers merely dismiss  him as being difficult, rude and disruptive.

But Sarah cannot believe this of her son who had, at least initially, shown such promise.

She endeavours to discover what has happened to Jamie and what is causing his erratic behaviour.

Sheila explains: "Children with social communication disorders (or semantic/pragmatic) are very often misunderstood. They all too often end up with an inadequate education, find they have problems and difficulties in their communications and interactions with other people.

"As a result in later life they can find it harder to sustain employment. I believe that raising awareness of this issue within the community is of vital importance. I think that this novel should be on the bookshelf of every teacher and ever doctor."

This book is published on March 28 and is published by Matador at £9.99.

It can be pre-ordered at the That's Books and Entertainment bookshop which you will find to the right hand side of this book review. That's Books and Entertainment concurs with Sheila Shaw, this book does belong on the bookshelves of all teachers and doctors.

Sandra and the Flying Elephants of Belfast

Sandra and the Flying Elephants of Belfast is a wonderful biographical book by Darrin Wedlock.

The book tells the story of Darrin's mother, Sandra, and how she coped with the Belfast Blitz.

When her father left the family home in Northern Ireland to fight against the Nazi German army he gives his daughter an order. He charges her with the important job of looking after her mother and her little brother, Billy.

She sets to the task with great gusto, but she has to do this against a backdrop of the Nazi blitz that severely damaged Belfast, being strafed by the Germans, nearly drowning, but fortuitously saved by a Gypsy, getting burns and also suffering the ignominy of having her hair turn green!

The book that Darrin has written is filled with moments of high drama (such as being strafed by a Luftwaffe pilot) but also the ordinary and the mundane events and the funny and amusing happenings that run together to make up a person's life.

In this case the life of his mother Sandra. The family, including grandparents, were close and they looked out for each other, especially during times of danger, such as the blitz aimed at destroying the docks and the Harland and Wolff yards.

Only this time the house of Sandra's family was subject to a direct hit, luckily when the family were out of the house. But even so, they lost everything, not even one piece of crockery survived.

The book has some lovely photographs that certainly made much to the stories contained in it.

The family moved to a cottage in Bangor which was owned by an aunt where Sandra made friends with a sickly rat.

Did her dad return safely? And as for what a flying elephant might be and why there is a picture of Sandra on board a ship, you will have to stump up your £8.99 to find out.

The book is published by Matador and is available through the that's Books Bookshop, just look for it on the right hand side of this review.

Gnomes an adult 'airy tale

What happens when worlds collide?

When the world of the modern, physical realm and the world of the realm of magic collide?

Well, you'd expect all sorts of mayhem to start happening. And you would be right.

For that is the starting point of the book Gnomes an adult 'airy tale, from author Paul J. Elliot.

James and Alison Allison had a perfectly normal and perfectly happy life together.

Well, that was the case until, well, until the Gnomes turned up.

The Gnomes. Happy go-lucky  little chaps (well, with one notable exception, of course!) who live with a Princess and work down the mine, right?

Wrong. Very wrong. For these Gnomes are not friendly or happy go-lucky little chaps.

These Gnomes take over the home of James and Alison and spread misery and destruction as if they were frightened they might be going on ration any time soon.

There is Cedric, who is a philosophical and compassionate sort of chap, Joshua (who is grumpy by nature, if not by name), there is Archbald who is inventive and quite clever.

Then there is Florence (who flirts. Perhaps a bit too much?) and Ernest who is moody and a bit touched and his wife who is very bored and perhaps also board as she is as thick as one.

But why are the Gnomes really there? What, as every good method actor wants to know, is their motive?

Are they there to just have a good time by stirring things up and generally causing a whole lot of chaos and consuming vast quantities of alcohol?

But what if there is a different, rather more sinister motive for their presence, for their behaviour?

And exactly how much devastation could they bring about?

(EDITOR: Please note this is, as the title states, a tale for adults)

It is available via the That's Books and Entertainment book shop, you'll find it to the right of this review.)