Wordsmiths and Warriors

Wordsmiths and Warriors is an extremely well-written and erudite book researched and written by David and Hilary Crystal.

It is a most wondrous and wonderful book that is an English-Language tourist guidebook to Britain.

It is a spirited, evocative and highly entertaining exploration of the heritage of the English language throughout the places and locations within Britain that formed and shaped the English language.

This book tells the story of a real journey that was undertaken by David and Hilary Crystal.

They had a wonderful time driving thousands of miles to research the book, and to then prepare and write this captivating combination of what is a spirited travelogue and a mixture of English language history and facts and myths, covering Wales, England and Scotland.

David handled the words and Hilary took the many evocative colour  photographs that illustrate the book.

David and Hilary have included a guide for anyone who desires to follow in their footsteps. However, the book is so arranged as to reflect the chronological development of the language.

It commences with the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons in Kent and explores the places that show the earliest evidences for the development of the language of the English peoples.

It ends in London and employs the latest technological innovations for analysing English grammar.

This is all by way of the locations that are associated with such English luminaries as Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Chaucer, Dr Johnson and many, many more.

It touches upon the problems between the Welsh and the English languages,

There's even a photograph of a Wetherspoon pub in Urmston, Greater Manchester, called the Tim Bobbin, named in honour of a famed dialect poet. And there are complete directions to getting there, too! As with every other feature they mention in the book.

I first came across the highly important work of David Crystal when I found, by chance, an exhibition of his work at the British Library, several years ago.

The book is 424 pages and costs £12.99 in paperback, published by the Oxford University Press, www.oup.com.

Dickens Study Guide

Author Lee Fisher Gray has produced a labour of love with his book Dickens Study Guide.

He presents a complete catalogue of all the characters of the stories of Charles Dickens. All the men, women and children who Dickens used to populate his novels.

He deals with in excess of 200 characters covering all of Dickens' 15 novels and three of his shorter fictional works.

He catalogues them all but more than that he gives a complete yet concise account of all of the characters, who or what they are, their place within the story and their influence upon the plot of the story.

He employs descriptions originated by  Dickens himself. Lee Fisher Gray resisted the temptation to provide over blown "littérateur" friendly characterisations. This book is obviously intended as a practical reference work for the serious scholar of the works of Charles Dickens and for those who love the novels of this great English novelist.

The That's Books and Entertainment Charles Dickens expert said: "The author has done lengthy and in-depth research of all of the works of Charles Dickens. It is a genuine Labour of love.

"The cross-referencing is excellent and the information is very well presented. I can recommend this to everyone who has any interest in Charles Dickens whatsoever."

The book also contains a quiz that will be a fun read for fans of Charles Dickens, but also serves a more serious purpose of offering puzzle-setters and crossword compilers a valuable resource.

The book is available in paperback from Matador and costs a remarkably reasonable £12.99. It's worth pre-buying for Christmas 2015 for the Christmas stocking of any Dickensophile.

www.troubador.co.uk.

Misadventures at Mosquito Mansions

Misadventures at Mosquito Mansions, or My Misadventures in Mudland is a recently published novel by playwright, monkey minder and sign writer Christopher Hedgethorne.

It tells the story of 12-year-old Alexander "Sandy" Drabb who, in the 1800s, finds himself living on a plantation in the Caribbean.

He meets and befriends a young slave girl, Quaneva, who is 'owned' by his Uncle's plantation.

Soon, Sandy and his new found friend find themselves caught up in a terrifying rebellion of the slaves on the island.

Without meaning to, they end up escaping the dangerous situation, together.

They become swept along the river in a canoe and find themselves involved in some high spirited and youthful escapades with the indigenous population.

Upon their return to the plantation Quaneva is devastated to learn that her father had been killed during the insurrection.

Whilst Quaneva is virtually crippled with unwarranted and undeserved guilt relating to her father's guilt, Sandy begins to put his mind to the knotty problem of who masterminded the rebellion.

When he realises who caused the rebellion he becomes aware that he is faced with many tough decisions including what he should do, if he should do the right thing or to do what his own heart would dictate he should do.

"This book is an extremely captivating book and touches on a number of important topics such as slavery and mixed-race families" said our book reviewer.

Although written for children aged 12 and older it is also eminently suitable for their parents, too. "As well as being a very good read, it raises many important issues which parents and children can discuss together."

It is published by www.Troubador.co.uk 

In paperback it costs £8.99, hardback £14.99 and Ebook £2.99.

Buy my book, please! "No Lips to Scream With", a collection of short stories

"No Lips to Scream With" is a collection of short stories that I have published through The Rann Street Press and Amazon's Kindle.

It contains mystery stories, science fiction, horror, a very modern ghost story and more, besides.

There are ten stories and the price is now under a £1, .0.99p, to be precise.

Included is the story: "No Lips to Scream With." What happens when you need to scream, but you suddenly find that your lips are missing?

To order please visit the That's Books and Entertainment book shop on the right hand side of this site and type in: "No Lips to Scream With."

Time for Tanechka

Time for Tanechka is a captivating novel by N. A. Millington.

It tells the story of how Arthur Benjamin who, at such a low point in his life that he contemplates ending that life, is shown another way by the enigmatic owner of an antique shop. Harry.

For Harry sells Arthur a curious egg timer like device. But this device could never time an egg. It is a device for traversing through time.

Somehow Arthur and the egg timer inadvertently transports Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna from 1914, just prior to the brutal murder of her entire family, back with him to his seaside cottage in modern day South Africa.

They challenge Harry who reveals that there are two such time travelling egg timers. And that he had lost one under circumstances that caused the death of his beloved wife.

Arthur (renamed Arty by Tatiana) and Tatiana are then propelled on a series of wild adventures back through the slipstream of time to witness at first hand a number of historical events.

But a evil jewel thief by the name of Winston Peabody is fast behind them, for he wants both egg timers.

Will true love prevail? Will the wicked jewel thief succeed?

This book is an exceptionally well-written tale that makes you care for the characters from very early on.

What happens to Arty and Tatiana? Will they discover true love together, or be ripped apart forever by the egg timer?

For an extremely modest purchase price of £13.99 you can buy this 445 page long paperback and find out!

I can heartily recommend this quirky and original book to you.

It is published by Matador.

The ISBN is 978-1-98462-209-1.

The Boy Who Cried Wolf

This is a masterful retelling of one of Aesop's Fables.

It is retold by Mahni Tazhibi. Originally written in Persian it has been skillfully and sympathetically translated by Azita Rassi.

The evocative and colourful illustrations are by Mahni Tazhibi, himself.

It is published by Tiny Owl Publishing and is in large format, so is a beautiful book for sharing with children and for children to read by themselves.

It tells the traditional story of how a young and bored shepherd boy tricks his fellow villagers many times into running out into the sheep pastures with his false alarm call warning them that a wolf has got into the sheep.

Eventually a wolf really does come to the flock of sheep and when the shepherd boy cries out for help, this time, nobody comes, with the inevitable result.

It costs £11.99 and is beautifully produced.

It will make an ideal birthday present or an ideal item to be placed in the forward planning Christmas present box!

www.tinyowl.co.uk.

ISBN 978-1-910328-04-0.

Armageddon Fed Up With this A Gunner's Tale

Armageddon Fed Up With this A Gunner's Tale, is by Derk Nudd.

It relates the story of his father Eric Nudd, and his wartime experiences.

Millions of men (and women, too, for that matter) had wartime experiences that perhaps equalled or even excelled those of Eric Nudd.

So, what made Eric Nudd so different? This is the part of his life that I find so interesting, he was a journalist (Fleet Street, no less, at a time when working on Fleet Street had more than a little cache to it) a prolific writer of letters and an author of a number of poems.

Eric Nudd was able, by sending letters home to his family, to paint a highly accurate and vivid picture of the actions of an ordinary gunner at work.

Due to a number of circumstances (a hitherto unidentified flair for mathematics being one) Eric passed through a number of roles such as a gunner in a heavy anti-aircraft unit to becoming heavily involved in the high tech world of RADAR.

Derek Nudd has taken his father's letters home and has skillfully woven them into a rich tapestry that displays what the war was like for an ordinary chap (basically a bloke who was a civilian really, but who had to don the guise of a soldier because Hitler insisted on doing what despots always do, undertaking despotic acts) who had an extraordinary ability with the pen (he was an outstandingly good artist)  and the typewriter.

Indeed he wrote and produced some superb newspapers (hand designed, naturally!) in all sorts of dangerous wartime locations.

The book shows Eric Nudd as a man of immense charm and wit, of outstanding abilities and a canny, yet kindly, observer of human nature.

The book contains a number of photographs and a collection of Eric's poetry, of a somewhat eclectic collection of ideas and themes.

Eric Nudd died at the tragically early age of 54.

Everyone should own a copy of this book and as it costs a mere £13.99 for a shade under 400 pages, it is worth every penny.

It is published by Matador and the ISBN is 978-1-78462-130-8.

It is available to purchase at the That's Book and Entertainment Amazon-powered bookshop on the right hand side of this site.