Keeping Chronicles

With the increasing interest in local and family history, Keeping Chronicles is a very important and highly interesting book.

It explores the importance of keeping and properly preserving written memorabilia.

These may consist of letters, diaries, old school books, journals, legal documents, receipts, cook books, school exercise book, sketchbooks, etc., etc.

Too many times such memorabilia is lost, being thrown away as of no value, which is simply not the case. They are very valuable for what they can tell us about the past.

Author and academic Rosemary Sassoon shows how using materials from family members, friends and colleagues from all over the world to illustrate the many personal and professional uses that written chronicles can be put to as documents of record. 

In her book Rosemary offers practical hints and tips on what should be saved and how they should be preserved for future generations.

She also has advice on what to do if you have documents or records that you think need to be deposited in an official archive, a library or a museum.

The book is very well written and well designed and contains a full range of very relevant and well-designed illustrations.

This book is published by The Book Guild at £9.95 and every family in the country needs a copy and every library, university, school, college and museum required at least ten copies of this highly important work.

The Splendid Memories

The Splendid Memories is a new novel from author Steven Baker.

In the early 1890s, a Russian family emigrates to the fledgling United States of America.

They have a simple aim, to put behind them the old ways of Mother Russia and to make a good, new life in the new world.

But, their plans are smashed to pieces when their parents suddenly die, far too early. The children end up being taken into an orphanage.

However Anatole and Mariska make the best of this terrible situation and they face their future together with hope and animation.

When they grow up and leave the orphanage they decide to launch themselves into the world of vaudeville and tour North and South America, plus Europe.

Eventually Anatole is shanghaied to China and he is forced to work his way back home to the USA, battling his way through China, travelling through Australia and crossing the Pacific.

He joins the US Army and finds himself in both the Mexican War and the Great War, where he serves on the battlefields that scarred Europe.

On his return he becomes a pioneering cinematographer, famed for producing wildlife documentaries.

This is a truly breathtaking book and a wonderful adventure, covering 475 pages.

It is published by The Book Guild at £9.99.

The Back to Basics Diet

The Back to Basics Diet In the 2018 edition of his book, David Hack reveals what he assures his readers is the secret to sustained and healthy weight loss.

Like many people, David Hack had a health scare. However, unlike most other people under these circumstances, David Hack was able to do something about it by writing his book.

Dieting, David realised, was not enough, so he decided to head back to University to learn about the answers to his failing health.

He learnt about biochemistry, human biology, anatomy and evolution. Based on the information that he obtained, he was able to create the Back to Basics diet.

Which is, he declares, an effective programme of weight loss based on modern science and evolution.

He examines and dismisses the advice of some experts which is to eat less and to move more. He feels that although well-intended, is misguided.

His diet calls for plant-based eating and for daily exercise which is gentle, rather than strenuous.

He removes the hype and the confusing rhetoric that surrounds many modern diets and he shows readers how they can start to lose weight and to keep it off, too.

The Seven Weeks programme even contains some Delicious recipes, too.

It's published by Matador at £10.00.

Cafe Britannica

Cafe Britannica is a new collection of short stories from Stephen Cardew.

It's a collection of ten short stories and it comes with subtitle: "Ten Tea With Tea and Cake."

Each of them is carefully crafted to last a quarter of an hour. Enough time, Stephen Cardew figures, for the story and a nice cup of tea and a piece of cake.

The stories all have a common theme, they feature different cafes from all over the UK and even some from further afield.

There's opportunities for nostalgia, learning about justice and judging, spiritual matters and cafes, coffee, tea, cakes and much more, besides.

There's even a story aimed at children, too.

It's published by The Book Guild and costs £7.99.

Podric Moon and the Corsican Tyrant

Podric Moon and the Corsican Tyrant is a novel from highly experienced and esteemed screenwriter and director, Barney Broom.

It tells the story of Podric Moon who is not only a computer game playing champion, he is the inventor of the Ultimate Virtual Reality programme.

He and his group of friends roam through the magnificent realms of today and of yesterday, playing games and enjoying a multiplicity of adventures.

In this, the first of the series of novels about Podric Moon, he and his friends take on the might power of Napoleon, the Corsican Tyrant of the title.

However, it's not all fun and adventure for Podric, because he is dealt a terrible and tragic blow when his father, a Wing Commander in the RAF, is killed in what was classified as a "freak accident."

Podric makes friends, and enemies, and he meets up with Archie Light, one of the top game designers in the world, having been knocked down by a hit and run driver outside Archie's house.

And that's only the beginning of this truly amazing novel that is aimed at young adults. Although older adults will also find much to commend this book.

It's published by The Book Guild at £8.99.

10 Days of Freedom

10 Days of Freedom is a new science fiction novel from Maurice Powell.

It is set in the year 2209, and the population of the world is now a staggering 5 billion.

11 men make an escape form a "Work Zone", previously known as a prison. Although the men were held as prisoners, they had committed no crime and had not had a trial. They were the result of a programme to genetically engineer worker humans, designed to undertake manual work for their supporters.

Over the years the 11 had been able to collect bits and pieces of information about the world outside the "Work Zone" until one day, they managed to escape from the Work Zone, escaping to the countrside just ot the south of Birmingham.

They are being trailed by guards from the Work Zone, senior government officials and a husband and wife team who are leading academics form Oxford University, experts in the field of psychoanalysis.

The fugitives cannot be allowed to remain at large. They must be stopped no matter the cost. Because the British public must never learn the truth about the Work Zones and what happens within them.

Can the 11 outwit the authorities? Can they evade their pursuers and continue to live free and outside the Work Zone?

What would happen if the public found out about the truth of the Work Zones? Because a lot more than the freedom of the 11 rests on this.

It is a though provoking novel which raises many interesting questions on ethics and morality.

It is published by The Book Guild at £8.99.

   

Pickles' Purrfect Plan

Pickles' Purrfect Plan is a wonderful book from author Carolyn Young.

Pickles is a lovely little kitty who is also very clever.

Pickles lives with Winnie the Witch and Willie the Wizard in a lovely little cottage in the heart of a wood.

However, after a really, really nasty storm their cottage is left in a terrible state of disrepair. Unfortunately Winnie and Willie are without any funds, so they cannot afford ot have the cottage repaired.

They retire to bed, sad. However! Pickles is an extraordinary little cat and he comes up with a very clever plan to ask his animal kingdom friends to come together and help repair the cottage.

The incredibly good story is very well illustrated by pictures from Jo Blakeley and the book is ideal for parents and children, it is aimed at children ages 5 to 7.

It is published by Matador at £6.99