Bøker av Richard Smyth

My name is Richard Smyth, and this is my story. I was raised from ten sisters and six brothers, and yes, I did have a mother at the time I was being raised up. I was never good at school, so I did quit it. I was too young to work, so I tried to get in the army, but since I was too young, I had to get my mother's permission.The army took me, but that did not last long at all. They said to me, "You have to go back home."I said, "Why?"They said to me, "All your brothers are at war, and we have to leave one home so that the last name must go on."So they sent me back home and said, "We're sorry, son. Maybe some other time."When I got back home, I got a job at Ford Motor Co. I stayed there for five years.Now I am married and have five wonderful kids--three girls and two boys--but life has its ups and downs. Again I was working and taking care of my kids and taking care of my wife too. I said to God, "When is it going to stop?" He never answered me. Any time I was going by in my life, it got even worse in my life. I started asking, "How can I stop feeling the way I do?" I was driving down the road, hoping when I go through this red light, it would be all over, but nothing happened, so again I yelled out to God and said, "Take me from this miserable life," and ran through the red light. Again nothing happened.Then something happened to my life. There was a call from the police. They told me I needed to come in and give my statement, so I did. The police had no evidence on what happened; it was hearsay--she said, he said. But don't get me wrong, this was my way out of this life. So I took it, and before I knew it, a new life started.I went to prison for ten years and loved every bit of it. I went back to school every day for eight hours and took up A A, N-A classes . I even took up Bible classes too. As I graduated from all the courses, I had a lot of time on my hands now. I started praying to God, "What do you want me to do?" I then started looking through the Bible and found my days and nights were going by fast.Next day I went to the library to learn more about this man they called Jesus. Before I knew it, I was reading all kinds of Bibles.From the time I got locked up, I never once forgot about my kids. Every day I wrote to each one and told them, "I love you all, but God has a mission for me."The next day I was led to go back to the library and get some Bible off the shelves, and I did. As I was reading, my heart told me to write it down, so I did for about ten years. Now everything is on scripts. It was about ten thousand pages.Then I met this man, and he told me, "This is way too many pages. You need to break it down some."So I did. Then I let this man look at what I had left. He said to me, "Break it down more."Now I was getting so flabbergasted. I said, "What are you doing to me?"The man told me, "You just got to trust me. I know what I'm doing. If you send all of your paperwork in, they will throw it away. It is too much for them to read."So again I watered it down for them to read. I got done; the man said it's ready. So I put all my scripts away and waited for God. God granted my parole and sent me home to my kids, where I finished this book. It was in 2017 when I got done with it. I sat on it for five years, then my dreams started for about a week, the same dreams over and over. So I sent it to the Christian Faith Publishing Inc.

The stories shortlisted for the 2021 BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University take place in liminal spaces - their characters find themselves in transit, travelling along flight paths, train lines and roads, or in moments where new opportunities or directions suddenly seem possible.

The first cultural history of one of our nation's enduring pleasures: birdsong

This book contains hundreds of 'strange but true' facts and anecdotes about English history.

This fun little book, with 400 fantastic facts about British royal history and more than 100 illustrations, will delight fans of British history everywhere!