Finally Woken

What happens if a person wakes up in a hospital bed with all memories of his adult life destroyed by a severe head injury that has caused him to develop retrograde amnesia?

And what would happen if they learn that they are under arrest for the murder of a wife and children that they can't even remember?

Such is the situation that Max Hope finds himself in, in this debut novel from Dean Moynihan.

However, the police are struggling. They can't establish a motive for the murders, the investigation is, at best, somewhat dubious and the defence lawyer is not especially good.

Whilst convalescing from his head injury with the assistance of a psychologist Max tries to regain as many of his memories as he can. And also to learn if and why he committed the murders of his family.

With each session of counselling he learns more of his past, but he finds out that perhaps this knowledge might not be what he was expecting or actually wanting. 

Was he really what he appeared to the outside world, a successful family man? Or was there more to it than that? 

Were the successes more apparent than real? Were the truths of his life more lies than truths? More paranoid than rational?

What happens to Max when he remembers everything? What happens when you really and truly are Finally Woken?

This is a very vivid and haunting debut novel.

It's published by The Book Guild at £9.99 in hardback.

 

The Bone-Setters

The Bone-Setters is a very well researched and extremely well written book on the subject of algebra, which is copiously referenced throughout.

Written by J. F. Riley it is a detailed and fascinating examination of what algebra is, how it originated and how it developed into the branch of mathematics that it is today.

From its origin within  the Indian sub-continent to the Middle East and then to France in the 17th century the story is a fascinating tale of mathematics and religious intolerance and fear of something that was both new and, in the minds of some, potentially dangerous. 

J. F. Riley wrote: "I write the Bone-Setters to resurrect the importance and acknowledgement of Hindu arithmetic, algebra and trigonometry as the origins of modern day maths and to emphasise the debt we ow India for their numbering-system that now underpins the world. Also to reinforce that it was the Muslim sphere that not only developed algebra but also preserved the fountain of the world's knowledge which they left intact in all their great libraries, waiting for the West to re-discover."

It's published by Matador at £16.99 in hardback and is an ideal publication for anyone who is a mathematician who wishes to learn some of the history of algebra.

Forced Landing

Forced Landing the Last Flight of a Viscount is a remarkably well-written account of a true incident that could have ended in disaster, but didn't.

It was meant to be a routine flight, that of a Vicker's Viscount from Santander to Exeter Airport, in Devon.

It was a reliable plane that was coming to the end of its commercial life but that life came to an abrupt and somewhat premature end in a field somewhat short of the runway at Exeter.

As the plane flew toward its destination one by one its four engines died, caused by starvation for aviation fuel. The pilots knew that G-ARBY was not going to make it to the airport so they had to make a "mayday" call to Air Traffic Control.

This is a riveting story of what happened after that mayday call was made. How crew and passengers reacted to a forced landing in a field and how members of the public raced from their homes in order to help the passengers of the doomed plane and of the emergency services who put into play plans that they hope they never have to employ in real life.

Retired Royal Marine Captain Jim Rider has written a real corker of a story. Well researched and well written (with numerous photographs it tells a story of aviation history that deserves to be remembered. It's also copiously referenced, too.

This is a must buy gift for fans of aviation history and flight and it is published by The Book Guild at a very reasonable £8.99.

I think this book will be in the carry on luggage of many holidaymakers this summer. And deservedly so.
 

Shine

Shine is a book for children that celebrates difference and diversity.

It's profusely illustrated with excellent coloured cartoons and it tells the story of Kai who is looking forward to going back to school after the long summer break.

But something is desperately wrong. Kai is mocked and derided by other pupils because they perceive him as being "different" to them.

Not unnaturally, Kai's confidence takes a knock but with the help of his mother and father Kai re-learns the ability to have pride in his own worth and his own unique abilities.

He realises that everyone is different, but this doesn't mean they have no value or worth and that, as his mother points out, the moon and the stars are all different, but that they all shine beautifully in the night sky.

This is a wonderful book by Sarah Asuquo, a London English teacher whose family originated in Nigeria.

It's a book that really needs to be in every primary school in the world and in every household, too.

It's published by Matador at £7.99 and is out very soon.

Tolly and the Pirate Ghost

Tolly and the Pirate Ghost is a new magical adventure story for children from Lucinda Williams. It's a tried and tested story, as Lucinda first started to relate the story to her children and their friends whilst they were on the school run.

Emily is 11 years old and circumstance force Emily and her mother to leave their nice, comfortable house and move into a tiny and cramped flat on the third floor of a block of flats.

This means that Emily can no longer keep her new puppy, a puppy she had always wanted.

But then, as if things were not bad enough, her mother becomes ill and Emily, who is a shy girl, must go and stay with a lollipop lady Gertie Pink and her twins who are a bit too boisterous for Emily's way of thinking.

However, Emily soon finds that she has been dragged in to a series of extraordinary events in the Pink household. Especially the arrival of their Uncle Wilf, an extraordinary gentleman who was a bit eccentric who had lost his house after a storm had swept it into the sea.

The experience had caused him to develop pneumonia and whilst he is recovering, Emily is thrilled to be asked to take charge of his talking African Grey parrot.

But disaster strikes! The parrot disappears and Emily is heartbroken. How can she tell Uncle Wilf that his parrot has vanished?

But Wilf needs to make a confession of his own. With him has travelled the ghost of Tobias, a 17th century pirate who shared his house on the Devonshire coast.

The parrot returns and lays an egg. But one night the egg is stolen and Autolocus, the parrot, is riven with grief.

The twins, along with Emily, must quickly find the egg and return it to Autolocus. But who is responsible for the egg theft? Can they get it back in time?

And what baby will he, sorry, she, give birth to?

This is am amazingly good read for children aged 7 and older and also their parents, too.

It costs £7.99 from Matador and please do keep an eye out for sequels.

The Man Who Never Sleeps

The Man Who Never Sleeps is the autobiography of Tom Bell, who was the man chosen by Rupert Murdoch when he needed someone to help him revolutionise his newspaper empire in the UK.

What became known as the Wapping Dispute back in the middle years of the 1980s was a major gamble for Murdoch.

He believed that his News International business was at risk from left wing activists who he believed were targeting his papers.

Whether or not he could succeed was based on the idea of getting his newspapers through the massed militant pickets that were targeting his new Wapping base of operations.

How could he make sure this happened? He turned to Tom Bell, who had earned the nickname The Man Who Never Sleeps.

His start in life wasn't a wealthy one. No silver spoon in Tom's mouth. And his parents were so poor in their native Scotland that they resorted to the ruse of wallpapering his bedroom with sporting news pages. There was a lot of love, but not much money.

But three decades later and with a mixture of ruthless determination leavened with a natural compassion for his fellow men and women, it was Tom that helped Murdoch break the stranglehold that the print unions had had on Fleet Street for many decades, responsible for ensuring that the printed newspapers of the group were distributed throughout the United Kingdom in trucks owned and operated by the TNT courier firm.

However, it's not all about business in Tom's life; He has also helped raise millions of Ponds to ensure that the lives of tens of thousands of children who are disadvantaged by reason of poverty or mental and physical health problems were vastly improved. It was for this reason that Tom met the Queen and earned an OBE.

It's written in conjunction with David Walker and is an entertaining and engaging read.

It's published by The Book Guild at £12.99.

Path of Injustice

Path of Injustice is the latest romantic novel from the pen of Beverley Hansford.

It is a historical romance, set in the kingdom of Alteria in the 18th century.

It is a stirring tale of romantic, heartfelt love that is troubled by personal grief and suffering and from the impact of jealousy. 

The romance is set against the backdrop of a civil war that has plunged the entire kingdom of Alteria into violence and chaos.

Daintry Brouka is a beautiful young lady who is deeply in love with her childhood sweetheart.

Her father is a dangerously ill and she seeks out a herbal potion that will be able to return him to good health.

However, this sets in motion a series of events that results in her being thrust into a horrible prison on charges of being a witch. A charge that, in the 18th century, still carried the death penalty. By being hung or burnt to death.

At first her release from the sentence to death comes as a relief to her. But this relief is soon replaced by the dread of knowing that instead her sentence has been commuted to forced labour in the Katangar silver mines. And nobody has ever returned from those mines.

Will Daintry ever see how betrothed again? Her family or her home? Will a miracle save her or will she die, a slave worker in a silver mine, mining silver for the benefit of other people?

This book is published by Matador at £8.99 and I think it will be an ideal romance novel for that long holiday flight or lounging on the beach in the sun.