From Crawley to Carlisle a trawl around league two

Chris Upfield, who is a dedicated Portsmouth FC fan has decided to write a book which is a humour filled observation of the experiences of fellow fans of lower league football clubs.

Chris invites us to join him and his family and friends as they journey to  faraway places (Well, what passes for far away in Britain)  as they follow their beloved Pompey (Portsmouth FC) and the variable successes or otherwise of the team that Chris (on page one, mind!) cheerfully describes as "the team with the worst away record in the league. Even so, on this particular occasion hey'd managed to give poor old Cambridge a 6-2 drubbing. Away to Cambridge.

Chris' style is humorous and quirky. Within the first couple of pages he manages to find himself wondering what difficulties a Cambridge support with one tooth might have with the pronunciation of certain letters of the alphabet, how a toothless Spanish could ever get served when he was attempting to order a beer, or how a toothless German World War 2 officer could have ever convinced a POW that they had ways of making people talk.

He also wondered if the local taxi firm has been taken over by South-west Trains, after waiting for a taxi in the freezing cold for the best part of an hour.

His group had decided to splash out on a hospitality package for the match with twelve tables crammed into a room the size of an office, where everyone was entertained with a football quiz sheet consisting of ten questions.

There then followed a three course meal of mushroom soup with bread rolls (thought to be of the "bake in the oven" variety) eaten well before the 45 minute late soup, in order to stave off the temptation to resort to cannibalism, the soup was described as lacking in mushrooms and having "a tarmac sort of hue."

The main course was a steak and stilton pie (light on the stilton) with tinned peas and a bowl of vegetables believed to be frozen, which was totally inadequate for a table of 11 hungry adults.

The lemon dessert, however, was described as "passable."

Chris then turns his eye to the other VIP guests and notices former stars form previous footballing eras, then there was the report on the match with the surprising 6-2 result.

The rest of the book follows Chris and his party of family members and friends as they travel around the country from football club to football club, taking in cities such as Carlisle, Crawley, York, Oxford, Ipswich and the like.

The book is a good and amusing read for diehard football fans and those with only a passing interest in the "beautiful game." Especially for those who follow teams in the lower leagues.

It is published by Matador at £8.99 and is available for purchase here https://goo.gl/wdCFDG.

Successful People Management

Successful People Management is a new book that takes the reader through the many years of managerial experience gathered by the late David Griffiths.

In fact he finished the book only a very short time before he died, so this book is a fitting memorial to him and his life's work.

In his book Griffiths focuses on the key aspects of the managerial process, studying and examining the basic principles that underpin all management practices.

He also takes pains to stress the absolute importance of good interpersonal relationships between managers, colleagues and staff.

It also offers a wealth of advice that is both practicable and also highly valuable on what not to do, how not to behave, plus advice on what to do and how the good manager should behave.

He believes that the skilled manager should be able to promote positive responses from both colleagues and business clients. And in this book he gives you the tools to ensure that this happens.

Amongst the wide range of topics covered are sales skills, the art of negotiating, undertaking appraisals and meetings.  

All topics are covered in a way that shows a depth of knowledge and understanding that adds much to the value of this important managerial work.

The book is subtitled "Life skills for managers" and amongst the key topis covered are body language, communication skills, team work, dealing with problematic staff members and much, much more, besides.

The book is illustrated with some amusing, but telling, cartoons by James Richardson, a freelance illustrator.

If you manage people, or if other people manage you, then you need to buy a copy of this book.

It is published by Matador at £9.99 and it will be £9.99 well spent, as it will be a worthwhile investment in your future.

You can buy copies here https://goo.gl/wdCFDG.

Listening for Water and other stories

This is a collection of 19 short stories by author Sandra Wallman.

From the cordial, formal and ludicrous (the authors' words!) interaction between the female protagonist and the old man in the van (complete with his dirty long johns) in the first story, Hitchhiker to the paternalistic eye of Lord Russell as he watches over everyone from children to street people, to tourists, students and office workers,  as they are involved in the Square Dance.

The stories are all real. That is not to say that they are all guaranteed to be 100% genuine incidents, but that they all pass what editor and writer Richard Ingrams used to describe as the "smell test."

They all smell real, having been lovingly and carefully crafted by a master of the short story, Sandra Wallman.

However... however, there might be more than that to some of the stories as they are based upon genuine incidents and are inspired by the lives of people she knows. Names and some fine details have been changed to protect the innocent.

A randy. elderly man, the honouring of the death of a neighbour in France, the horrific moment in time captured forever in the minds of a group of people in San Francisco who witness the plunge of a girl from the iconic Golden Gate Bridge. (Reviewers' note: At least 1600 people have thrown themselves from the bridge, although the true figure is unknowable for several reasons.)

The stories are all perfectly formed, microcosms of life.

Sandra Wallman is Professor Emerita in Anthropology at University College in London, and her anthropological eye has been put to very good use with her first collection of short stories. Hopefully she will be writing more, soon.

It's published by Matador at £7.99 and can be purchased at https://goo.gl/wdCFDG.

Hanuman

Hanuman is another in the brightly illustrated and well-written books in  the "Amma Tell Me" series written by Bhakti Mathur and illustrated by Maulshree Somani.

This is the first of a series of three books that tell the story of the character Hanuman, and the Hindu festival of Durga, introducing younger children to the Hindu religion,  yet doing so in a way that is not preachy and also fun.

Bhakti uses rhyming prose to tell the story of Hanuman, from his birth to his attempt to eat the sun (he mistook him for a juicy mango!) his attack by Indra and his miraculous recovery with divine power, strength and intelligence, when Indra repented of what he had done.

And how he forgot his powers until they would be called upon again.

The book helps youngsters to learn about characters from the Hindu religion, such as Anjana, Brahma, Indra, Shiva, Vaanars and Vayu.

It is a colourful, large format book published by Anjana Publishing and is available for purchase here https://goo.gl/wdCFDG.

For the Last Time They called him a murderer

This is a novel by Janet Kelly which looks at the life of a man who is just coming to the end of his life sentence for taking the life of another person.

Alan looks back over his life, at what he did, what he didn't do, and the sequence of complicated events that brought him to commit the act that earned him a life sentence in jail.

At this point in his life, Alan takes stock of who and what he is, and what brought him to be sitting, reflecting in his cell, after his cellmate and friend Trevor has just been let out of prison.

He wonders why Trevor's wife has remained faithful to him whilst he was incarcerated, yet his own wife and left him for someone else even before he had left the court having been given a life sentence.

The novel is gripping from the first page, as it moves forward and backward through Allan's life, showing that, in a very real sense, any other outcome would have been almost impossible to achieve.

Janet Kelly clearly understands her subject matter and she brings life to the characters who populate this book, which is a compelling and thoughtful read. 

Her first novel, Dear Beneficiary, has had an option for a film taken up on it, due for release later this year. And it would be a surprise if this novel was not also made into a film.

It's published by Bobaloo Books at £7.99 and can be bought here https://goo.gl/wdCFDG.

Forgotten in Memory

Forgotten in Memory is a moving and gripping novel that relates the tragic story of three children who face an uphill battle as they attempt to overcome the loss of their parents in an accident.

Yet after nine years the physical pains and the emotional traumas of Joanna, Imogene and Jason are still just as real, the memories of the crash still just as vivid.

Imogene is particularly troubled to the extent that she has become somewhat distanced from her family.

Is it possible that, eventually, they will find some sort of peace, some rapprochement with each other?

Or will the memories of what happened, of who did what and why they did it still rankle and bite at them, keeping them strangely apart and isolated in their common misery?

The book deals with a range of deep subjects, but in a sensitive manner, loss, grief, rivalry, mental illness and more besides.  

I will not reveal any more about this book as it would risk spoiling your reading pleasure, so all I will say in conclusion is that author Chloe Grant-Jones  is a voice that deserves to be heard and I can only suggest,or implore, that you buy this book immediately.

It's published by the Book Guild at £8.99 and you can buy it here https://goo.gl/wdCFDG.

Please look out for the name Chloe Grant-Jones, she will be a writing force to be reckoned with.

Dancing Paws of Magic

Dancing Paws of Magic is a book filled with... dancing paws of magic!

Maria McArdle loves the theatre and she loves ballet. In fact it was her attendance at ballet studios during her youth in Australia that gave her the idea for her stories about the cat ballet company, the Pusska Mogginsky Ballet Company.

The ballet studios, reveals Maria, always carried a certain pungent feline odour. Although no cats were, mysteriously,  ever seen in the studios.

Maria often wondered where, exactly, the cats disappeared to. Which became her inspiration for her stories of the feline ballet company, Pusska Mogginsky.

Pluckerslea Hall is an amazing place! For it is filled with cats who live there, in secret tunnels, the music rooms, the dormitories, the dance studios and also the theatre at Pluckerslea Hall.

The cats are all wearing their finest ballet costumes as they nervously prepare themselves for ballet performances such as Swan Lake.

However, a visit by a mysterious, but beautiful gypsy cat brings them a doomladen warning, things begin to go wrong for the ballet cats.

Bruiser Bumfluff who is evil and ruthless, aided and abetted by his dastardly crows and the vile and villainous Black Treacle Farm Gang, aims to destroy the ballet company.

But there's someone else, someone evil who hates the ballet company and  who is plotting a fiendish revenge against them and who is shadowing the members.

Are they doomed? Or can the ethereal presence of a magic-imbued Irish Lepremogg help bring about the restoration of the cats' "dancing paws of magic?"

The book is amusing, but it is also very moving too and Maria has added some utterly spellbinding illustrations, proving how talented she is.

Children who love cats, children who love the ballet and children who love both cats and the ballet will find this book utterly charming. Their parents and grandparents will find it utterly charming, too.

It costs £7.99 and can be purchased here https://goo.gl/wdCFDG. Please do look out for other books in the series which are also available.