Echoes of the Past

Echoes of the Past is the moving and interesting story of what happened to Gloria Ifill when she left her home in Jamaica to travel all the way to the London of the tumultuous and vibrant 1960s.

Share with Gloria her stories of growing to maturity in the island country of Jamaica, during the 1940s and 1950s.

Life in Jamaica was one of strict discipline both at home and at school and in the society of Jamaica as a whole. And woe betide anyone who thought to buck the trend! It never ended well for them!

Gloria's life was filled with love and also some heartbreak, when it transpired that he boyfriend Glenroy (aka Glen) was already betrothed to another woman. A middle aged school teacher, who was much older than either Gloria or Glen. Almost old enough, in fact, to be Glen's mother!

It was a considerable period of time before Gloria felt interested in the idea of dating again. But, eventually, she did date again.

Eventually she fell in love with Tony, who she married.

But then Gloria decided to move to London during the height of the swinging sixties without her husband, catching the England fever that seemed to sweep the island.

She applied to hospitals in the UK to train as a nurse and eventually found herself in Lewisham in London, where she attended night school classes to learn English, typing and shorthand.

She left her old life in Jamaica behind and began to make a new life for herself in England, settling down there with her beloved Tony and raising three children.

Gloria was able to achieve her childhood ambition to become a nurse working at that profession for a number of years.

It is published by Matador at £9,99 and it's a book that will bring many smiles and some moist eyes as Gloria tells her amazing and heartwarming story.

It's available from the That's Books and Entertainment bookshop, which you will find just to the right of this book review.

Temples Along the Nile by Sarah Symons

Temples Along the Nile is a wonderful book by traveller and writer Sarah Symons.

It takes the reader on a gripping journey along the Nile, passing by and visiting all of the temples that are on the banks of this great river.

Sarah also shares with us facts on the Nile, both in recent times and in antiquity.

The book is copiously illustrated with photographs, mainly very effective black and white images, plus some colour,  that were taken by the author, although her vivid written descriptions also help to create a mind's eye image of what she is describing as she walks through and around the temples of the Nile.

There is also a very helpful map of Egypt.

From the first page, with a very evocative description of the arrival in Luxor, right through to the last page, the book is a detailed description of not only what the temples look like now, but what they would have looked like when they were places of worship for serious, devoted followers of the Egyptian Gods and Goddesses.

Readers join the author as she helps us marvel at the Colossi of Memnon (Kom el Heitan) The Temple of Hathor (Dendera) and The temple of Amun (Karnak) and many other of these ancient religious sites.

But she does more than that. Sarah Symons has taken a serious yet passionate look at the ancient temples of Egypt.

The book costs £14.99 and will appeal to serious and amateur historians, arm chair travellers and those who will be travelling to Egypt in holiday or to work on the archaeological digs in and around the temples of ancient Egypt.

It can be bought at the That's Books and Entertainment bookshop which is to be found to the right of this review.

Seventeen Gifts for Frannie and Jess

Seventeen Gifts for Frannie and Jess is a new novel by Nasser Hashmi.

It tells the heartwarming story of a strong and enduring friendship that grows between two Game Makers who meet as they are volunteering for the 2012 London Olympics.

Francesca "Frannie" Hartford has joined the team of volunteers, but she has just lost the love of her life, her husband and her Rock of Gibraltar, Donald.

Without his great support and love, can she still make it as a volunteer?

Despite her misgivings, she decides that she will still become a volunteer.

She meets a fellow volunteer Games Maker, Jessica. Jessica is different to Francesca. She is a young student, somewhat bolshy, very extrovert, outspoken and maybe a little bit intimidating to some as she can seem a bit overpowering.

But despite, or perhaps because of their difference,s they become very good friends.

Eventually Francesca realises that her friend Jessica is also suffering from a loss in her own life.

The novel is an intelligently and very movingly written exploration of their lives and how they interrelate with the other volunteer Game Makers, their own friends and family members and the other people they meet and get to know during the 2012 Olympic Games.

It costs £7.99 and will be an ideal novel to read this summer and during the 2016 Rio Olympics.

It is available via the That's Books and Entertainment bookshop, which you will find ot the right of this review.

Penny Farthing and the Man in the Moon

Penny Farthing and the Man in the Moon is a new fairy tale set in the recent past.

It is 1978 and in the tiny village of Pleasington, Lancashire, their lives a young girl called Penny.

Penny is a champion rider of her pink penny farthing bike which she spends her days riding through the village.

But she also has another passion, she loves to speak with the man in the moon.

She is a bright and keen young lady and she decides that she will participate as an official entrant in the very prestigious Pleasington Penny Farthing Race.

It won't be an easy race, for Penny will be competing against some first rate opponents, members of the elite Pleasington Penny Farthing Preservation Society.

But Penny decides that, with the assistance of her special friend, the man in the moon that she will have a good chance of victory in the race!

But who stole Penny's bike? What can she do about it? Can her friend, the man in the moon come to her aid?

The book is written for children aged 9 and over and it sensitively deals with the twin issues of autism and dyslexia that Penny has been diagnosed with. As has the author of the book, Mark Roland Langdale.

The charming illustrations are by Charlotte Walshe.

The book is published by Matador and costs £8.99 and is available from the That's Books and Entertainment bookshop, which is to the right of this review.

The Butterfly Within

The Butterfly Within is a remarkable tale of triumph and disaster of joy and heartache.

It tells the story of a truly extraordinary woman, Rachel Brown.

Rachel was already a shining beacon of inspiration to everyone. She was a highly dedicated Special Educational Needs PE teacher, inspiring her pupils to do much more than they or their peers and family members might have thought possible.

Then there was the fact that she is also a highly successful and much decorated British Triathlete, having competed in a stunning 13 marathons in a variety of very different locations all over the world.

She also represented the UK at trhe Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Florida back in 2007. She then went on to become a GB Triathlon Age Group Triathlete and became our National Champion.

But that isn't where this book starts. It begins with two momentous events in Rachel's life. On day in 2005 she had a call from God to serve him, perhaps as a vicar. She researched how she could train to become a vicar whilst continuing her work as a teacher.

But then, a few months later, she received a diagnosis that was to change her life, a challenge that was the biggest challenge in her life to date. She was diagnosed with a brain tumour.

She wondered if she should put her idea of a religious calling on hold whilst she battled the tumour? But quickly she realised she would need to continue with both.

Rachel was convinced from the start that what was afflicting her was a brain tumour. But it took the medicinal profession a year in which three GPs and a visit to A&E blamed her symptoms on stress, on her training, on migraines.

They dismissed her concerns.  Apparently she had none of the "classical symptoms" and "looked too fit to be poorly."

During an appointment with Rachel's GP when Rachel told her doctor -as is her right under the NHS- that she wanted to be seen by a neurologist.

However the GP wanted Rachel to see an "eye man."

Rachel decided to take matters into her own hands and it took a private appointment with a neurologist to diagnose that she did, indeed, have a tumour that was growing behind her right eye.

It was a so-called benign tumour, but it was starting to press on the surrounding tissues. She decided to give it a name and so it was that Tommy became a major and very unwelcome part of Rachel's life.

She knew that her life was going to change for the foreseeable future.

She had a great support team,  there was 'her' Tim, her family and friends.

But there was something more, there was the iron will that made her a great triathlete. Rachel knew that she could use this inner strength to help her fight this new battle with Tommy.

During her journey Rachel found that there were many people who she could rely on for their support, both from her family, her friends and colleagues and her fellow athletes.

The book is not written in chapters, instead it is broken down into Parts, some very short, some a little bit longer.

It tells of the most important race in her entire life, the race to recover from her tumour.

It also tells what happened next and reveals something of her plans for the future.

Have these events changed her? Yes. And, it would seem that Rachel feels these changes are for the better.

She met a wide range of characters throughout her treatment, such as a lonely man who just wanted to play chequers, a female sex pest and some other interesting patients, all who had their own story.

It is a very well-written book and is friendly and humorous.

It is published by the Book Guild at £9.95 and can be purchased through the That's Books and Entertainment book shop, the entry to which you will find just to the right hand side of this book review.

This book is a must have for anyone who has been diagnosed with a tumour, or who had a family member or friend so afflicted.

It will also be very useful for Doctors, nursing and care staff who work with such patients and for hospital and council libraries, too.









    

White Horses, poems by Garfield Taylor

White Horses is a collection of poems by Garfield Taylor.

They are nostalgic and haunting pieces of poetry written by the author and largely taken from his memories of his beloved town of Scarborough and of other towns and locations in and around the coastal areas of the North of England such as Northumberland and Yorkshire.

However there are also fleeting glimpses of other far away places such as Cornwall and Cumbria, Lancashire and even Italy.

The poems are all deeply evocative and draw on a very deep well of the imagination and memory of Garfield Taylor for their inspiration.

There's the White Horses, of course. Then we meet McFee, with his highly effective, yet incredibly dangerous, foray into the world of homemade explosives, the penny that should have been a Pound, the cry of the gulls, the discover or non-discovery of sea holly on the beach, skipping and other fun on Shrove Tuesday (it appears that Shrove Tuesday is a much more fun day in Scarborough and its environs. Just read the poem on page 4 to learn what you might have being missing all these years!)

There's much romance in this collection of poems, the romance of the sea, both wild and tranquil,  the romance of beaches, of the coast, of seaside towns and of people.

There are stories both known and unknown, of the winter winds and the summer breezes, a multitude of ideas both old and new.

This delightful book of poems is published by The Book Guild at £12.99 in hardback. It's available from the That's Books and Entertainment bookshop, to the right hand side of this review.

The Arbitrator

Jim Brown had it all, he was a highly skilled and highly successful administrator, but he has fallen a long way and now, aged 153, he is languishing in prison, dying of a very nasty drug habit.

His crime? Apparently tax fraud. But the reality is that he has was jailed for killing a number of people on the planet Levita, after he met the gorgeous Narissa.

But then, the governor of the prison had called him from his cell. It appeared that he could still be of use to the authorities.

For after a reprieve he is to leave for the planet Pirrus in a distant solar system where he will serve as an arbitrator to try to bring an end to a rebellion and bring matters back under the control of the government.

Should he successfully complete his mission, he would be able to earn enough funds to begin the process of regenerating his body.

However, is all what it appears to be? The situation on Pirris is very finely balanced and things seem to be slipping out of Brown's grasp.

But at about the same time as he thinks that his task has been successfully completed, he meets with Gina, who is the child of one of the rebels. And he discovers through her that there is a plan by outside forces to launch an invasion of Pirrus.

But something is wrong within his own organisation. Is an insider working to make sure that his mission meets with failure? If so, who are they? What are their motives?

Can Brown thwart them and turn the tables on them and on those who are plotting against Pirrus?

The novel is fast paced and filled with characters that are flawed, but still for all that, very human indeed.

Brown is a ruthless and cynical man, yet can even he find redemption and a sense of worth?

But there are secrets that concern Brown that even he knows nothing of.

his is an exciting novel in the fine traditions of the space opera genre, yet interleaved with a great deal of philosophical speculation.

It's published by Matador at the price of £9.99 and will make an ideal gift for the science fiction fan.

You can buy it at the That's books and Entertainment book shop, which is located to the right habd side of this review.