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The author's story begins in 1946. He recalls a UK canalside cottage and an early family crisis. He moves rapidly onwards to his sporting school years and forward to his active service at sea from age 16. His narrative includes accounts of early worldwide voyages as a Cadet Officer in the British Merchant Navy. Here is an 'all oceans' story. The author credits his own survival to 'the Grace of God and the kindness of strangers'. His account also refers in verse to the inspiring endurance of an albatross, first observed as a 17-year-old officer in training during a 1963 wild-ocean voyage to South Africa. 'Deep Seas and Tall Ships': A title inspired by the author's first 14-month deep ocean voyages and his long service in UK Tall Ships. Sea service was to mould six decades of the author's active life. He made regular voyages in Atlantic hurricanes and ice. His mid-life BA degree was supported financially by regular employment on worldwide subsea cable projects. The author splices in his salt-stained verse, employing his award-winning poetic style. He includes his recent war poem recalling the daylight bombing of RFA ships during the 1982 Falklands war entitled: 'Sir Galahad - a Lament'. His 25-year span of service in UK Tall Ships ended in 2015.

The letters of a young doctor who was sent to a remote hospital in Bangladesh in the years following its war of independence. They describe the day-to-day life of the hospital, its ups and downs, its triumphs and disasters. Through these challenging circumstances, he discovers a new experience of the presence of God.

Brought up in a large family living in a council house in the Stechford area of postwar Birmingham, David Prosser's childhood was not easy, he knew hardships and hunger, wearing worn out clothes and pumps with holes in. But, along with his best friend Trevor, David enjoyed the freedom of his youth with nearby fields, trees to climb, a river to play in and lots of places to explore. Times were hard so they did anything they could to make money: running errands for neighbours, carrying bags of coal on their backs, spending many hours on the tip collecting scrap metal and collecting rags from door to door to sell for pennies. Just two Brummie lads getting by on their wits trying to earn enough to pay for sweets, trips to the swimming baths and the cinema.

'Old Bill' began as the cartoon creation of Captain Bruce Bairnsfather: born amidst the carnage of WWI 'Old Bill' lampooned life within the trenches and went on to become a beloved character within the play The Better 'Ole which filled the music halls of the United Kingdom. But who was 'Old Bill'?

A collection of stories covering the early lives of two lads growing up in the Warwickshire village of Studley during the 1940s, 50s and 60s. Humorously they speak of their adventures and of other villagers, together with their school days and pastimes. They share with the reader their passion for the countryside and tales of roaming around the village. Also recalled are their memories of the industrial centre of Studley, the cinema and other places of entertainment, now long gone. The text is illustrated with over twenty beautiful paintings and drawings by Roger Thomas and more than forty photographs of 'Old Studley'.

On the 31st August 1997, the world's most popular Princess,Diana, was involved in a car accident in a Paris tunnel, she was taken to the intriguingly named Salpetriere Hospital where she died a few hours later at the age of 36. Salpetriere Hospital began life as the saltpetre (gunpowder) factory in King Louis XIV's arsenal. In the mid-17th century it was decided to move the arsenal to the other side of the river Seine and on the vacated land on the left bank a hospital was built which retained the name Salpetriere. It rapidly became a despised detention centre for errant or simply unfortunate women, many of them prostitutes. But with the introduction of kindness and caring it was able to recover and, with the beginnings of psychiatry and neurology, became recognised as one of the leading hospitals in the world. It is now a busy general teaching hospital housing the medical school of France's most famous university, the Sorbonne. This book tells how it recovered from the Gates of Hell to become the world famous hospital that it is today: 'From tyranny and horror to caring and renown' ... and more.

The development of Birmingham into a major modern industrial city can be said to have begun in 1772 with the opening of its first canal. At that time Birmingham was a small and largely rural town with a growing manufacturing base. The growth of manufacturing within the town, however, was severely constrained by the lack of a cheap, reliable and efficient means of transport for the goods it produced. These difficulties were largely overcome by the building of the canal, in that it provided a cheap and efficient means of transport to convey the town's manufactured goods to markets beyond its boundaries. The why, when and how this first canal came to be built is explored in this detailed and highly referenced account. It tells the fascinating story of how a small group of innovative, determined and ambitious entrepreneurs joined together to plan and secure its construction, and thereby also secure the City's future progress and prosperity.

Tony Aston was born in 1953 in Redditch, Worcestershire and grew up there until he was sixteen years old. In this book Tony explores his memories of ordinary day-to-day life when the town, like hundreds of other towns and cities at that time, was striving to repair and re-invent itself after World War II. Tony recalls the demolition of the old town and the building of the new as well as his personal memories of Christmas, food and drink, the big freeze of 1962/63, incidents and accidents, special people in his life, radio and television, all intertwined with significant national and international events. Tony is a former Scotland Yard detective and counter-espionage specialist within the UK Defence Industry and in this, his first book, he has triumphed in weaving a narrative that will make readers both laugh and cry whilst rekindling their own memories.

Have Drums Will Travel.

Robert Schumann and Clara Wieck were drawn to each other the moment they met, but there were obstacles in the way. Clara was ten years younger and her domineering father, Friedrich Wieck, Robert's piano teacher, was against their relationship as it developed over the years. He saw Robert as a dissolute womaniser, and he saw his own reflected glory disappearing if Clara's career prospects as a pianist diminished. But the couple did marry, with help from the judiciary, and had a happy life together, so happy that their increasing number of children did indeed hamper Clara's performing opportunities. Then a young composer, Johannes Brahms, came into their household as a disciple of Schumann and nothing would ever be the same again. About The Author Christopher Morley is Chief Music Critic of the Birmingham Post, and contributes to several international magazines. Schumann has always been very special to him, and a visit to the asylum in which the composer died made a huge impression upon him.

Gill Mansell (nee Hewitt) was born in 1949 and brought up in the Lozells area of Birmingham, her large family had lived in the area for several generations and it was her happy playground whilst growing up. This book is the story of Gill, her parents and grandparents who led ordinary lives but were extraordinary people, living through hard times at the beginning of the 20th century, just carrying on and dealing with whatever life threw their way. Gill's family reminiscences and the history of Lozells are very much intertwined and record, for future generations, tales about the 'old days' with humour, sadness and all the other emotions which made up the rich tapestry of family life in Lozells.

If in doubt fall on your arse. That was the mantra of Fred Karno: acrobat, comedian, writer, music hall impresario, film producer and the undisputed king of slapstick. From his famous nursery of nonsense, the 'Fun Factory', the Guv'nor conquered the world, built an empire, made millions and lost the lot. In the process he discovered and trained the early twentieth century's greatest comedians: Will Hay, Robb Wilton, Sandy Powell, Syd Walker, Frank Randle, Max Miller, Billy Bennett, the Crazy Gang, and most significantly of all Stan Laurel and Charlie Chaplin. He pioneer physical sketch comedy and developed the raw material that Hollywood later fashioned into the finest comics of silent film. The phrase 'It's like Fred Karno's Army' entered the lexicon to describe any chaotic situation, but his extraordinary legacy is largely forgotten, lost in the mists of time and sullied by a tarnished personal reputation. This book tells the remarkable story of the man behind the myth and reveals Karno's huge contribution to comedy and popular culture - an impact which still resonates today.

People make history in the place they call home. This book briefly describes the lives of twenty-nine Brummies, native and adopted, who shaped, influenced and made Birmingham the cosmopolitan city it has become today. In some cases, their impact was not only local, but national or global. Their lives are seen within the context of Birmingham's development from a Middle Age settlement in Deritend to Britain's second city. Virtually all are forgotten or barely known today. They include: John Rogers, martyred for his beliefs; James Brindley, father of the canals; William Hutton, Birmingham's historian; Joseph Priestley, who provoked a four day riot; Thomas Attwood, universal suffrage campaigner; Josiah Mason, big-hearted philanthropist; Peter Stanford, Birmingham's first black minister; Austen Chamberlain, overshadowed Nobel Prize winner and Hilda Lloyd, women's health care pioneer, along with twenty other Forgotten Brummies.

The definition of slang according to the Oxford Dictionary is'a type of language consisting of words and phrases that are regarded as very informal are more common in speech than in writing and are typically restricted to a particular context or group of people'. Thus, the choice of a phrase, or the use of 'jargon', a saying, or abbreviation, can accurately reflect our links to a specific place, employment or situations that impact upon us in our everyday lives. In the UK alone it is estimated that there are at least fifty-six regional interpretations of how we use English to convey our feelings and to communicate with one another. This little book contains some 2,000 such phrases, sayings and abbreviations drawn together, in the main,from the experiences of one family. It manifestly displays what a diverse world we now live in as families transcend different cultures and countries. It is not an academic study, rather it is designed to promote memories, to enable reflection on previous life experiences and, above all else, to simply have some fun whilst reading it. Preserving our past whilst understanding the present helps us to create history for the future as new generations go on to create their own versions of 'slang' applicable to that period. 'Ta-Ra-A-Bit'.

An epic flight into shattered Sarajevo. A stand-off with Miss Piggy. A world scoop as the Cold War ends. A seal hunt at the North Pole - and why you should never trust cats. It's all here in Bloody Adjectives, as Peter Rhodes, former chief feature writer with England's biggest evening newspaper, the Express & Star at Wolverhampton, looks back on half a century in journalism and recalls some great assignments, from royal weddings to wars, natural disasters, death knocks and the sillier side of life. Rhodes mixed with princes and paupers, legendary actors and leading politicians and military heroes. He chronicled some of the greatest events of our age and now shares a host of memories and some award-winning dispatches. En route he encounters a pink poodle, a fried frog, a wounded Home Secretary and the End of Empire. And he also lifts the lid on Princess Anne's fairy grotto loo.

During its eighty years under London's legendary Oxford Street everyone from Louis Armstrong to rock icons the Rolling Stones, Sex Pistols and Chuck Berry have played the historic 100 Club. In Ace of Clubs, with foreword by Jools Holland, we read its story in the words of the people who came to the club to play, work, dance or just listen to the music. Handsomely illustrated in colour, this is the first comprehensive story of one of the world's longest-running clubs, its seventy-year jazz history and its transformation into the greatest grass-roots music venue in the UK. Now granted special status it is ranked alongside Abbey Road Studios, Jane Austen's home and Shakespeare's birthplace. The 100 Club's story is an inspiring and frequently hilarious must-read for music fans everywhere.

Proud to Serve chronicles the journey of one police officer between 1999 and 2004 as he worked with key community influencers and colleagues to tackle the challenges of policing diverse communities. Whether working to recruit more black and minority ethnic staff into the West Midlands Police, engaging with counterparts in India and the UK to tackle 'Forced Marriages' or simply making communities safer in Cyprus this illustrated book straddles continents as that journey unfolds. It contains recollections including from Paul Lewin, founding chair of the West Midlands Black Police Association who said of his work, 'Our legacy has been about learning from the past, living in the present in order to build and improve for the future. I am proud that we did our best. Ultimately, this will be for others to judge'. Michael Layton concludes, 'From Willenhall in the Black Country to Delhi and the Punjab, and finally Cyprus - was the journey worth it - of course it was!'

Matthew Boulton (1728-1809) was a globally important industrialist who introduced innovative minting practices at this Soho Mint. This book describes the processes involved, from mining the copper to the delivery of products to the customer. There was a shortage of small change towards the end of the 18th century, and Boulton strove to solve this problem, eventually obtaining customers all over Britain, including the British Government. He also made coins for the East India Company, and for Europe, Africa, the West Indies and America. Included is Boulton's role in the copper industry, and how he obtained his raw materials; his expertise in steel making for dies, and the technology of his new steam-powered mint. The design, production, marketing and distribution of the finished product is also covered. The book is illustrated with over 200 colour images, including an extensive section on the coins, tokens and medals produced at the Soho Mint.