A Different View

Poetry about feeling alone and different in a big normal world. Poetry about struggling with depression and mental health. Poems that tell stories that everyone can feel familiar with. A Different View is a poetry collection that is more relevant than ever in these days of people struggling with mental health issues and in a society that gets more and more open.

A Dog Called Ruffy

Ruffy is a lonely little dog who lives by the seaside and sustains himself with scraps from the rubbish bins along the beach car parks.

One morning when he decides to beat the heat and take a dip in the ocean, he hears a voice across the water calling for help. He barks as much as he can to try and get people to see the little boy in trouble but nobody takes any notice. The crashing waves are too loud and everyone is playing games and laughing!

Find out what happens next! Will Ruffy end up alone again by the rubbish bins, or will he get a new home and a warm kennel?

Join Ruffy to find out about learning to swim.

A Few Years In The Life of a Protest Poet

'I began writing poetry/ditties shortly after moving down to Cornwall back in 1977. It's amazing how inspirational the lapping of the tidal waves can be. Whilst working on a building, I began writing poems about all the different workers on the toilet walls. These were humorous and inoffensive, and although I'd written about the gaffer, he must have liked them, as he never sacked me. 

'The pandemic caused me to put my thoughts down on paper, ranging from what we've done to this planet and its wildlife, to how the Government has dealt with each situation, good or bad.' 

Lori Crasnich

A Fine Line

A story of the extraordinary lives of ordinary people.

Set between Victorian Liverpool and Dundee and the battlefields of the First World War, three families face the perils of life on the economic cliff-edge, where a single misstep can send lives plunging out of control.

Crossing a century of dramatic change, their journey begins in the aftermath of the slave trade, moving through the era of Empire expansion and Industrial Revolution to a time of religious strife and global conflict.

The world they navigate is one fraught with hazard in which exploitation, zealotry and violence lead to rape, prostitution, fraud, and murder.

At its heart, two indomitable women – lifelong friends – choose very different paths as they strive to hold their worlds together, and to survive.

A Fish Called Goldie

Goldie loved her life with Mrs Tilley! The goldfish bowl was right near the window in the lounge room, and Goldie just smiled so much. She was so happy to be living there! Mrs Tilley was very kind. She gave her lots of tasty flakes to eat, rocks and reeds for Goldie to play around and put a cloth over her bowl at night to keep her warm. But one day an ambulance came and took Mrs Tilley away. Goldie was alone.

When Mrs Tilley’s son took Goldie to a pet shop to sell, Goldie wondered what would happen to her. Find out what happens to Goldie next. Do you think smiling would help Goldie find a new home?

Join Goldie to find out about staying positive.

A Giraffe Called Stretch

Stretch was a huge, playful, gangly, hungry young giraffe! But he was also nosy, inquisitive, curious and adventurous…his big long neck enabled him to put his nose into places it maybe shouldn’t be put.

He lived in a big safari park in South Africa, and every time he strolled past the Lodge kitchen, Stretch could smell delicious smells coming his way! Even though he knew he shouldn’t put his nose into other people’s business, Stretch just couldn’t help but find a way.

Find out what happens next. What kind of trouble does Stretch get into in the kitchen?

Join Stretch to learn about being nosy.

A Glimpse of North Sudan

North Sudan is a largely unknown, thought-to-be-unsafe land. A Glimpse of North Sudan aims to correct that. This book is far more than a travelogue. From diaries and photographs of a safe, non-alcoholic, wonderful holiday, it tells of a short tour of a smiling poor people with an ancient, frequently violent history, pyramids and tombs in royal cemeteries with wonderful paintings and reliefs to behold. It is a largely desert country but where the Blue and White Niles combine to form a majestic life-giving river on its way to the Mediterranean Sea. In addition, there are descriptions of black Sudanese pharaohs of Egypt, the lifestyle of a Bedouin family along with British involvement in ruling the country (a section on the Battle of Omdurman led by Kitchener with a young, ambitious Winston Churchill in the ranks) and of the civil wars since independence in 1956. Finally, it suggests a way out of the cul-de-sac of poverty and deprivation. This book is a must-read for the general-interest reader of a forgotten, though fascinating, land.

A Little Look at Bottoms

Designer Tom Karen gives us a delightful series of drawings to amuse and inspire young readers. Children love to laugh at bottoms, and with this little book they will go back to their favourites again and again – from giraffes to jellyfish and bumblebees to bears.

A Midwife's Memoir

Following a long career as a midwife and then a community midwife, Carol retired in 2016, but she found she missed the excitement of bringing new life into the world, the joy and fulfillment of helping mothers to be, and the sheer pleasure of working in a small community.

She decided to record her experiences in this book as a tribute to all the wonderful mums and dads she gave help and advice to; some of the highs and lows, amusing and sometimes heart-breaking stories, and the unusual and unexpected events that occurred during that long career.

A Monkey Called Smoochie

Smoochie had five sisters and a brother, and he’d lived in a huge forest tree with his mum and dad his whole life! The chatter they made could be heard right across the treetops; so much laughter, games and playtime. But sometimes he would hear his parents getting angry and yelling at each other too.

One day when Smoochie saw his father leaving their tree and his mother sitting high up in their tree with her head in her hands, Smoochie started to worry. When his father didn’t come home, he began to worry even more.

Find out what happens next. How does Smoochie and his family adjust to the new situation?

Join Smoochie to learn about separated parents.

A Mozart Kind of Morning

Jo Stanton has lived all of her adult life in France, scraping together a living as a gardener and musician at one of the most famous chateaux in the Loire valley and caring for her elderly grandmother, but a chance encounter with former concert pianist Henri Arnaud, and his son Thomas, brings an unexpected change to her life. Henri offers her a job restoring his neglected garden in England, where he lives with Thomas, a writer, and their housekeeper Barbara.

Keen to escape the unwanted attentions from one of her colleagues, she agrees. However, the move has more consequences than she anticipated and brings to the fore her troubled past, rekindling supressed nightmares from her childhood. Will she ever be free from the guilt of what she has done?  As she falls in love with the garden and the family she has come to know, it becomes increasingly hard to hide her secret. But there is one man who is determined to uncover her past and help her, no matter what.

A story of loss, healing, and, ultimately, true love.

A Question of Belief

Belief is rarely pure and never simple. This book explores the particular perplexities of belief as experienced by one female vicar in the Church of England. To exercise a public and representational role within any faith community will always bring its own pressures and paradoxes. Here, the author acknowledges and explores her own questions, which cover a wide range of topics from politics to preaching; from science to suffering. A constant theme of the book is the relationship between fact and truth. Fact is, of course, an important vehicle of truth, but not the only one. Symbolism, metaphor, myth, the creative arts have all conveyed the deep truths of Christianity to the author, who remains totally committed to her faith. Perhaps unsurprisingly, however, she takes a non-literalist view of belief, which she accepts will not be shared by some fellow Christians. But in her experience and understanding, to follow Christ means to seek the eternal truth which he embodied, and which will always be more elusive and intriguing than a recital of fact. And – for the author at least – more joy-giving. This is a hopeful book!