One, Two, Three, Four

One, Two, Three, Four is a biographical book by legendary studio recording engineer, Brummie Richard 'Digby' Smith.

It's January 1st, 1970. Back in the day, people in England did not get January 1st as a Bank Holiday, so that morning saw Richard 'Digby' Smith, at 19 years of age, joining the West London based Island Records as a staff engineer.

Island Records was a very important independent record label which developed the careers of many of the UKs top musical talents and the studios played host to many pf the leading musicians of that time.

This is Diby's interesting and wide ranging look back at a career in being a studio sound engineer that has spanned 50 years, working in London, California (LA, in point of fact) and many other places around the worlfd.

Digby will tell you what it was like to reside in LA back in the early 1970s, rubbing shoulders with the elite of Hollywood.

He is also honest about his fight to beat the twin evils of alcohol and drugs, and how he made his way back to Britain in the middle of the 1980s.

He worked with, and helped the careers of a wide range of stars like Bob Marley, Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney, Led Zeppelin, Robert Palmer and even full orchestras, making sure that they all sounded as good as they could.

It's a wild and eclectic read. Learn how Digby learned to cope with Type 1 Diabetes (not his own) and proper football matches played in Hollywood by a whole range of people, including Marty Feldman and the best place, at the time, to obtain a real British fix in LA. Jammy Dodger biscuits, real Cornish ice cream and genuine English butter.

It's a great read and contains some nifty line drawings by Laura Callwood.

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

Scotland Beyond the Bagpipes

Scotland Beyond the Bagpipes is a new book by author Helen Ochyra that explores the country of Scotland.

She takes her readers on a long and interesting journey, looking at the Scottish capital city, Edinburgh, Fife, the Highlands, the far north of Scotland, taking in the legendary John o'Groats, the coastal areas of Scotland, too.

Helen travels to the islands that are off the coast of Scotland, the great industrial city of Glasgow, the Glens of Scotland, the mountainous regions of the country and also walking over ancient and long extinct volcanoes and the lochs and rivers of Scotland.

As an experience travel writer Helen does paint a warming and compelling word picture of Scotland.

However I must point out that I was disappointed that the illustrations are non-existent, limited to the colour photograph of the cover and one extremely sparse line drawing map.

But the book is still a must buy purchase for people who are interested in travelogues, especially about Scotland.

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

Callum McBride

This is Michael Riding's debut novel.  It features young Callum McBride who is twelve years old and who is easily distracted and thus, can quite easily, become bored.

At the opening of the novel he is already bored, at home from school for the school holidays.

However, Callum has a surprise. He has a magical ability to enter the minds of animals and to control them. He temporarily vacates his own body during this process.

However, he meets up with a girl called Emma who has abilities of her own. She is a super hacker whose skills have already brought her into contact with MI6.

As their friendship blossoms, Emma discovers that there might well be a link between the fact that as a baby of under one year old he was found, alone, on the ferry that travels between Iona and Mull. Which brought about his adoption by a local family.

Whilst trying to find out who he really is and where his strange ability came from the two friends soon discover themselves enmeshed in a plot to steal a nuclear weapon.

Can the two friends complete their quest and defeat the enemy they have discovered? Only time will tell!

The book is an exciting read and is written specially for young people who can easily be distracted to read and to enjoy.

It's published by Matador at £9.99.

Taxi Tales From Paris

In Taxi Tales From Paris ex-pat and Parisian resident Nicky Gentil brings us an interesting take on life in Paris.

It's an interesting take on the ex-pat look at their 'new' country. Because it really does look at Paris through the windows of a number of taxi rides that Nicky (a translator and author) took through Paris.

There's a quest to locate a piano tuner, the European Football Championship and the obsession of Parisian taxi drivers when it actually took place in France.

The ban on mobile phone conversations in taxis, the legendary rudeness of Parisian taxi drivers. Rare, though it does sometimes occur, a silent taxi driver, an excitable one, a philosophical one,

her love of jazz and her love of playing jazz piano, all of these stories and many, many more are joyously related by the author.

If you have ever lived in Paris, took a holiday there, or ever merely passed through the Charles de Gaulle Airport, or ever even just heard of France or Paris, you really should buy this book. And it will make an ideal gift, too.

It's published by Matador at £8.99.

Bahama Boyz

In the novel Bahama Boyz author Nick Hughes introduces us to an amazing story that starts in the East End of London in 1970 and, eventually, moves all the way over to the Bahamas.

And it's actually, Nick assures his readers, a true story.

Nick's family was a charismatic one and he somehow became a trainee croupier at the young age of 19 at the Playboy Club in London.

He quickly discovers that it's a time of glamour and a new time where being from a working class London background does not mean he is held back and he quickly finds himself in a lifestyle of glamour, excitement and sexual freedom.

The world is, really, his oyster and he finds himself working in the all-male Paradise Island Casino in the Bahamas. Which is where his lifestyle becomes even more frenetic and frantic.

Weird stories of what happened in the back of a taxi, an abortive threat by a midget gangster, who even wore a tailored Crombie coat, but who ended up with more than he had bargained for or feared, the Shetland Pony and... actually, I'm going to draw an end to this review, save to say that you really do need this book, especially if you are in need of a good, boisterous and slightly raunchy laugh.

It's published by Matador at £12.99. 

Living With the Dead

In reviewing Living With the Dead your reviewer must acknowledge that this novel ticks two very important boxes. It's a mystery (of sorts) and it involves archaeology. Having said that...

There's an archaeological dig in India in the 1930s. Rebecca is pursuing true love, but a combination of meeting a man on a mountain and some violence throws a spanner in the works, so to speak.

The team's excavations come up with some very exciting finds but they quickly realise that that there is a great deal more risk and danger than they had first surmised.

Rebecca must battle her way along the dangerous Indian coast to learn the truth.

The story then moves forward in time some 80 years. Magsie is moving, slowly, northward toward Scotland on an important journey of her own.

Forced onward by the damaged lives of her youth she feels that she needs to save her grand-daughter from the still less than perfect 21st century.

It's a powerful, compelling novel that surfs the waves of the decades with alacrity.

Published by The Book Guild at £8.99, it's written by Philip G. Reed.

Unwritten Rules

In Unwritten Rules readers of Graham Donnelly are taken back to 1962 where they will meet up with civil servant Anthony Fernard.

His position within the Home Office is relatively minor, yet does have some degree of responsibility. The job is a steady one and his family life is a happy one.

He becomes tangentially involved with a young woman and his career is somewhat invigorated by the fact that he does like to do things in his own way, no matter what officialdom might dictate.

In his position at work he realises that the Cuban Missile Crisis is far more serious than officially admitted.

Faced with the very real possibility that the end of the world might actually only be a couple of days away he decides to embark on a love affair that brings him into the shadowy world of espionage and the very real danger of blackmail.

At first he finds this exciting and fun, but soon he realises that he might, actually, have endangered not only his own life but the lives of those whom he cares most deeply about.

How can he extricate himself from this situation? Does he?

This is a well crafted spy novel from published author Graham Donnelly and former civil servant and it certainly captures the feelings of the time and evokes the fevered nature of those years.

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