It Wasn't Me, All Right?

Retired teacher and former school principal Robert Rooney was teaching at what was described as one of the most notorious schools in Belfast during "The Troubles" in his book It Wasn't Me, All Right?

Although intended for pupils who shad "moderate learning difficulties", Robert taught those pupils who were viewed as "failing" in mainsteam schools. The result was an intake that was made up of an eclectic range of intelligence, ability and behaviour.

The story of what happened is written in a manner that, although treating the subject matter with concern and  taking it seriously, treats it with a wry humour.

See how Robert, as a young teacher, learned to deal with a 6 foot tall pupil or wanted to fight him, with his belt wrapped round his fist, how to deal with troublesome pupils on the school buses, how to trick pupils into enjoying art lessons, and all this against the backdrop of "The Troubles."

It's a book that is witty, intelligently written yet with a certain amount of pathos, too.

It's published by Matador at £8.99.

Medicine, Justice and the Bubblegum Factory

Medicine, Justice and the Bubblegum Factory is an amazing memoir.

Graham Standen was a working-class youngster from Romford, in Essex.

He had a troubled childhood blighted by maternal illness, time spent in a children's home, fostering with relatives and he failed his 11 Plus.

However, Graham was made of stern stuff and, against all the odds, he was able, by dint of hard work, he was able to qualify as a medical Doctor.

His medical qualification was put to good use because he was able to correct a terrible miscarriage of justice involing his late father who, along with his two brothers, died from mesothelioma aftyer they worked with asbestos as boiler coverers before the war.

When Graham's father developed disseminated cancer, there were very good grounds for suspecting that exposure to asbestos was the cause. But the diagnosis of mesothelioma was not recognised at the postmortem. Much to the horror of his family.

After a decade spent as a cancer and leukaemia specialist Graham, with the assistance of a colleague who was a pathologist, the cause of Graham's father's death was looked at anew and the correct diagnosis was achieved.

Graham points out that the story of his father highlights the corporate deceit and indifference shown by the industry toward the health of their workers.

It's a very moving account of the struggle of Graham and his family in their attempt to finally gain justice for his father.

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

Gangster Hamster

Gangster Hamster tells the story of Rocco, a very extraordinary hamster.

Tired of the life of an ordinary pet hamster he makes a bid for freedom and heads for the big city. He meets up with a gang of rats who live in the seers and who raid restaurants.

He learns of a plan by a gang of cats to launch an attack on his new found friends and he decides that his moment to shine has arrived.

But! Not everything goes to plan and he soon realises that he has put not only himself but his friends at risk!

So, how can Rocco put things to right? Will he be the super hero hamster that he wants to be? Will he become Rocco the Magnificent? The world-beating Hamster Gangster?

This is a fun book for children from Angela Robb.

It's published by Matador at £7.99.

The Oath

The Oath is set in 1955. Beneath the well-polished veneer of a Northern England boarding school is something wicked and very, very unpleasant.

Senior pupils viciously bully and torment junior pupils who they consider to be inferior.

Jonathan Simon is a new boy at the school. He's warned about three monsters who share his dorm with him. They are Flicker, Sleeth and Tunk. But there's a "no snitching" code that is ruthlessly observed.

Simon befriends two other junior pupils, Ian Gracey, a pixie-faced boy and Arthur Crown. He is grossly overweight, but with a ready wit.

Whilst on a cross country run the three juniors decide to take a short cut and find themselves accidentally in the cadet rifle range. Sleeth is the Corpse Sergeant and puts them through some utterly degrading punishments.

The three junior pupils take a blood oath to ever allow themselves to be bullied again.

Loyalties will be tested to their limits and exactly how far will the pupils go to exact their revenges?

It's an interesting novel that takes a look under the hood of school life in the 1950s.

The book is published by The Book Guild at £8.99.

Labyrinth Junction

Labyrinth Junction Hayley Davenport-Smith has written Labyrinth Junction as a way to inspire the imaginations of young people with her debut children's fantasy novel.

It's aimed at children aged 8 to 12 and it's a story about the bravery and determination of a young boy who is ready to risk his own life in his efforts to find his way home.

Ben is fleeing from a pair of dangerous bullies and he has to climb into a dark cave in order to escape from them.

Within the cave he finds the Junction, an amazing portal to other worlds! After he has entered the Junction he realises that he has managed to become trapped in a magical and mysterious land called Nunblebrook.

Ben befriends a young orphan girl and her pet dragon just to stay alive. All three of them and the weird Moonbeamer people set off on a series of dangerous missions and tasks in order to solve a riddle, free the land of a wicked king and to ultimately get Ben safely returned home.

It's an amazingly well written book and is a co-production between Hayley and her daughter (who is 12) who deigned the cover and provided the illustrations.

It's published by Matador at £7.99. 

Deception

In this debut mystery thriller, Deception, from Maggie Belvoir, the reader is asked a very interesting, yet very serious question. Exactly how well do you know your friends? And exactly how well do you know the members of your own family?

Life is great for the O'Brien family! No, it's really good, thank you! They have all the trappings of a successful life. A massive house, lovely holidays abroad, and they have two lovely daughters, Scarlett and Siobhan.

Scarlett has a friend called Margot .Poor Margot has had a bit of a troubled past and when she is adopted into the O'Brien family, everything's good! No, really good, thank you! Margot seems like the piece of the family that was missing.

However, jealousy and sibling rivalry suddenly start to raise their very unpleasant heads and the family begins to become fragmented.

Things become worse when tragedy strikes and the family begins to unravel with even greater speed.

Frank Du Pont, a police detective with an insufferably huge ego decides to take over the murder investigation and makes a vow that he will bring the killer to justice.

But will he? And what is the secret agenda that he is hiding from his colleagues and everyone else? And does he have a secret that he is very keen to keep hidden?

The truth, when it does come to light, could prove even more shocking to the family and the community than anyone could have anticipated.

It's an exceptionally well-written detective thriller and it's to be hoped that Maggie Belvoir will be writing for many more years to come.

It's published by Matador at £9.99.

Acts & Monuments

Barry Todd, the protagonist of Acts & Monuments written by Alan Kane Fraser, is a good guy. How does he know this? Because everyone tells him so!

He is a hardworking member of the team at Monument Housing Association as he strives to ensure the the poor and vulnerable are provided with a safe and decent place to live.

Everyone expected Barry to be promoted to the position of Director at Monument Housing Association, including Barry. But, instead, the promotion is given to the insufferable Langley who had been drafted in from the world of commerce to bring in 'private sector disciplines' to the charity.

There were already issues between Langley and Barry, and the fact that Langley had been promoted to Director made the entire situation worse. And part of what Langley had done (firing Barry's wife) had meant that finances at the Todd household were tighter than they needed to be.

Barry had always been good, had been a good person and a good, loyal employee of the Housing Association, but he was now beginning to doubt that "being good" was good enough. At least for Barry.

And then, by apparent serendipity, an opportunity falls into Barry's lap. He finds himself in the situation where he would be able to steal £50,000 of the Monument Housing Association's money in such a way that it would be impossible to trace the theft back to him.

A tenant, Iulia Niolescu, comes to Barry. She is desperate for assistance and he realises that he has been presented with an ideal opportunity to use some of this money to do somebody some good.

But he finds that the situation begins to spiral dangerously out of control nd he is forced to take desperate measures to stop his deceptions and the theft of the money from being revealed.

But then things really began to fall to pieces. And at the end of the novel there's a very disturbing twist.

This is an amazingly well-written novel and although a work of fiction the author has used to very good advantage their intimate knowledge of the world of Housing Associations.

The book is published by Matador and costs £8.99.

(Incidentally it was with interest that I realised that I have previously seen an example of the work of Alan Kane Fraser as I saw his award-winning play, Random Acts of Malice being performed at the Belfrey (sic) Theatre in Wellington, Shropshire, as it was the winning play in the inaugural Derek Lomas Award for Best News Play at the Wellington Drama Festival.)

(Note: The image used is the cover illustration of the book and is E R Hughes' Night with her train of stars and her great gift of sleep (c) Birmingham Museums Trust.)