Diana Remembering the Princess

Diana Remembering the Princess is a book that is a must purchase publication for those who are fascinated by Princess Diana.

It's 25 years on from the tragic event that cost Diana her life and this book by Inspector Ken Wharfe MVO and Ros Coward with Linda Watson-Brown is a remarkable work.

Inspector Wharfe worked very closely with Diana, Princess of Wales because he was her personal protection officer who was personally responsible for the round-the-clock security both within the UK and also abroad for six years from 1978 until 1993.

His own memoir Diana; Closely Guarded Secret was a smash bestseller when it was first published and also subsequently when it was re-published in an updated and revised edition in 2016.

Ros Coward is a journalist and author of many popular books on a wide variety of topics. She was specially selected by the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund and the estate to write Diana: The Portrait, which was published in 2004 and consisted of a staggering 400+ interviews all with people who knew Diana well.

This book paints a picture of a woman who was dedicated to her charity work, who felt betrayed and let down by the entourage who surrounded her husband Prince Charles.

However, the book also reveals a somewhat capricious, stubborn and very wilful woman who would often do whatever she wanted and damn the consequences. Including deliberately goading and upsetting Prince William whilst he was in goal for his school football game. Even though Wharfe had advised against this when she had told him what she planned to do.

Her behaviour, he noted was becoming more and more erratic and a danger to herself. And he took the logical decision to cease working as her protection officer.

He points out that she took the decision to totally withdraw from having any official police security cover within weeks of that time. A flawed decision that many, including Wharfe, believe ultimately brought about her own death.

The Diana we see in this book is an interesting and intriguing person who was capable of great kindness, for example, in regards to her charity work, but who was also capable of acts of great cruelty, especially when that was totally uncalled for and when it really mattered on a personal and family context. What mother, for example, would deliberately try to tease and upset her own child in front of his fellow team members and schoolfriends whilst he was taking part in a football game?

The fact that Diana's name is linked to "The Diana Princess of Wales Anti-bullying Awards" yet she was seen, in public, actually bullying her own son and witnessed doing so by her police personal protection officer (who criticised her to her face for doing so) is something of a conundrum. But there were many conundrums about Diana.

If you want to learn more about Diana, Princess of Wales this book, published by Bonnier Books (www.bonnierbooks.co.uk) at £20 in hardback, this book is an ideal book for you. 

However, you might learn some things that you'd rather not know. But that's entirely up to you!

 

How to Live When You Could be Dead

How to Live When You Could be Dead is an amazing and very moving book by Deborah James.

You should, Deborah asserts, live your life as if you d not have a tomorrow. That you should live your life today, the way you want to live it.

Deborah points out in her book that she was alive when she should not have been. Should have been dead, in fact.

She refers to the film/movie Sliding Doors, pointing out that in another movie she missed the sliding door and "departed this wonderous life long ago."

When she was 35 years of age Deborah was stunned by a diagnosis of an incurable bowel cancer. She was given less than an 8% chance of making five years. 

Five years later she realised that her only logical option was to live "in the now" and to value each day of her life as it happened.

Deborah tells her story in this remarkable book, how she decided to blog about her experiences using the Instagram social media platform using the sobriquet of @bowelbabe.

As a result she became a widely read and popular columnist, the author of F*** You, Cancer and a much listened to podcast broadcaster and presenter, which included the chart-topper You, Me and the Big C. 

This year Deborah was awarded a Damehood in recognition of her amazing fundraising for cancer charities and also for her tireless campaigning for bowel cancer awareness.

The book is a record of how all this was from Deborah's own point of view. The high points, the low points, moments of hope, bleaker moments and how she and her family coped and thrived amidst the diagnosis of untreatable bowel cancer and the many people and new friends she met on her journey.

Deborah died on 28 June 2022.

The book is published by Vermilion, which is an imprint of Ebury Publishing at £14.99 in hardback. 

Ebury has pledged to pay £3.00 from the sale of the book in the UK to the Bowelbabe Fund for Cancer Research UK.

This book belongs with every nurse, GP or specialist who interacts with people with cancer and their family members. It should be required reading for them. And for people with cancer and their family members, too.

I would like to issue a special request. Please share this blog post review with all your friends and your followers on social media accounts. Thank you. 

Jerusalem by moonlight

Jerusalem by moonlight is a novel from Roger Butters.

He takes an alternative look of the first ever Easter, from the perspective of the four Gospel writers.

It's the year 30AD and in Judea, the Roman Prefect, Pontius Pilate is worried. He is finding controlling the restless and potentially rebellious populous of the area he is charged with governing.

It's a terribly volatile location, freedom fighters (or terrorists as the Romans viewed them) are attempting to expel the Romans from Judea. 

Knife-wielding murderers are roaming the city during moonlit nights slaughtering those they view, rightly or wrongly, fellow citizens who are traitors or sympathetic in some way to the occupying Roman forces.

It's soon to be the feast of Passover. A time when feelings of Jewish nationhood and religious feelings are expected to be at their highest for years.

There's one man who could be a force for good or bad. The religious leader from Nazareth, Joshua bar-Josef. 

As a man who is preaching love, the forgiveness of sin and the soon-to-be overthrow of all temporal powers, what is it that the Jewish religious leaders find so problematic about him?

This is an interesting and well-written examination of that first Easter.

It's published by Troubador at £10.99.

The Judas Case

In The Judas Case, a novel set in ancient Nazareth, author Nicholas Graham ably recreates 1st Century AD Jerusalem.

After almost two years of hard work and planning a secret agent infiltrates the close entourage of a holy man from Galilee.

Yehuda of Kerioth was one of the most able spies that the harsh Temple Guard had ever created.

The Temple Guard wanted to know exactly what the intentions of Yeshua of Nazareth were. Did he really intend for his followers to take over and install him as King?

The spy pulled off the greatest task of his entire career. But he disappeared and two days later his corpse was discovered.

Was it suicide or was it murder? The Temple Guard needed to discover the truth about what had happened to their man, so they call back into service the retired spymaster Solomon Eliades who had a personal stake in this investigation, as he had recruited and trained the spy.

However, his investigation is fraught with problems from his own past within the Temple Guard and then another issue arises which impinges on the investigation. A very important corpse has gone missing.

It's a remarkably well-written novel which raises some interesting issues from those distant times.

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

Coming Home to You

Coming Home to You is a book by Caroline Britton and illustrated by Alex Jones.

It's basically a guide for you, to help you nudge yourself, gently, back you your own self.

Feel disconnected from yourself? Unsure of where you should be, where you should be going?

If so, this book is for you.

It will help you to become truly honest with yourself, how to get back to yourself, how to learn to heal yourself, to grow, how to reflect on yourself, how not to allow other people to take you for granted, but, more importantly, how not to take yourself for granted. Are you taking yourself for granted? The chances are, you almost certainly are taking yourself for granted. And Caroline will show you not only how you are doing this, but also how to stop taking yourself for granted.

Are you demotivated, feeling lonely, exhausted, detached awash in a sea of negativity? Caroline can appreciate this and will be able to help you get beyond these problems and many more.

The book is published by The Unbound Press at £14.99.

https://www.theunboundpress.com/books.

Second Chances Don't Grow on Trees

Second Chances Don't Grow on Trees is an interesting book by Patrick J. McLaughlin.

It's a true story that is unusual and fun-filled and very well written.

It's even more interesting as the story is all 100% true!

It relates the story of how a former teacher, one Patrick "Paddy" McLaughlin, became responsible for looking after a disparate group of people all who are troubled in one way and another, all social misfits and troubled folks who are from a tougher-than-tough working-class slum area.

He works with them and for them to find redemption and rehabilitation, proving that they were worth much more than they thought they could ever be worth. And showing what a remarkable individual he is.

His job was to get them all, by a miracle, back into gainful employment and back into productive, settled lives.

However, as Paddy cheerfully points out he had some demons in his own life which he successfully battled against.

Paddy realised that the one common factor was that they had all been failed pretty badly by the education system.

He struck on the idea of launching his own specially created homemade small college, dubbed The People's College.

The curriculum of this remarkable college also includes a strong commitment to creative writing and also on cosmology, which has helped boost their sense of self-worth.

One of the key points was that Paddy was able to establish not what his students didn't know, but what they did know. Something that had never been done before.

It's an amazing book. Which raised an interesting question in my mind. Why aren't their more People's Colleges in the country?

If you work in education, especially people with who have previously been failed by the education system, then you must buy this book.

It's published by Troubador at £9.99.

Missing Presumed Missing

Missing Presumed Missing is a new novel from the pen of Paul Harris which is an adventure story aimed at children aged 9 to 11 years.

Michael, the protagonist of this novel is twelve-years-old. He's a somewhat anxious young man, he has a difficult relationship with his mom and dad and is suffering from bullying at school.

What does Michael find to worry about? Anything and everything, unfortunately!

One day he takes the fatal decision to take a short cut through the nearby Spinney Wood. Michael suddenly finds himself in a weird, parallel world which has some deep, dark secrets. For example, what had happened to all the children who had gone missing.

The biggest, most nasty bully at the school is called Jonty. He has gone missing. But Michael know where Jonty is. 

Michael has befriended Melanie and Ben and he decides to make the return to Spinney Wood, where he hopes he will be able to rescue Jonty and uncovering the truth of Spinney Wood.

Will the three friends rescue Jonty and return to safety with him? Will they even be able to make it home in safety?

What are the secrets of Spinney Wood? Will they be revealed at long last?

It's an exciting story which will be well-received by children aged 9 to 11, That is if their parents and older siblings will allow them to get the chance to read it!

The book is published by Troubador at £7.99.