Hearts of Cotton

When a famous writer steals a manuscript from his daughter and tragically dies after the book is released, Dasha, a young show business reporter from Vilnius, must make a decision that will define her future: to tell the truth about what the author did or hide it to protect his memory. Plagiarism scandal, the war for attention, drug abuse, love, greed, and ambition fuel the hunt for sensations of the young journalist and guide her in finding her own inner compass to navigate the uncertainty and find the way to happiness.

If the books of Frederic Beigbeder and Michel Houellebecq were hard liquors, Hearts of Cotton would be a cocktail, where Gossip Girl meets The Ideal and Atomised, leaving you wondering whether all the challenges and struggles are there to remind the characters of their true calling, or perhaps all of us should sometimes recalibrate our inner compasses to reflect on our goals and dreams.

Held

A love story spanning decades as two men not only fight the world for their love and its changes surrounding them but also one another while they battle the one thing that tears them apart.

At the tender age of fifteen, Matt and Justin instantly fall in love. While time grows and matures, so do they and their relationship. Years pass and are torn from one another as their lives take them in separate directions. The political and social constructs start to define their lives and the people who they become.

Can what we believe holds us, end up being our own destructive force, potentially being the one thing that destroys us, crumbling our lives?

Eventually, we all have to let go.

Heterogeneous Poems

‘I have read individual poems to a number of people who say they have enjoyed them – I am sure you will too! Some are romantic, some funny; there are also poems of the present and the past.
‘I hope the illustrations that accompany some of the poems help to deepen what the poem is trying to convey to the reader: the combination of words and pictures will give you a sense of enjoyment and of involvement in the poems themselves. In lots of cases, you will be able to immerse yourself in the adventure of the poem, recalling things that in the past you have seen or heard of. All of this will add to your enjoyment of the book.
‘To give you a little more insight as to how the whole saga of the poems began, let me take you back to 1945 when I was stationed on the Burmese border. Having little to do after the day’s events gave all of us lots of time to think about: home, our friends and the family. So it was only natural that to occupy some of those hours my thoughts looked elsewhere. I always remembered that poem by William Wordsworth I learnt as a boy, “I wandered lonely as a cloud” – you remember it? Most of us do, anyway. As it passed through my thoughts, I thought to myself, “Why don’t you write some poetry?”
‘I thought about it a lot, mulling it over in my mind, but decided that this was not perhaps the time. In the end, the thought came back to me from time to time, over the years: “Should I?”
‘Well, as you can see, it finally did happen, after all those years. So never say never.’
Raymond Hunt

Heterogeneous Poems 2

This second volume of Raymond Hunt’s Heterogeneous Poems gives us poetic postcards celebrating the many parts of the world he has visited over the decades, from the Andes mountains of South America to the Great Wall of China, alongside evocative snapshots of Raymond’s beloved English countryside.
Once you delve into this delightful assortment of verse, you will be sure to find something to make you smile, or think – or maybe a bit of both.

Hetty

This is the story of a young woman’s dilemma in World War II. How can she and those she loves survive the problems they face?

Our story opens as Hetty prepares for Will’s return from a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp. She has learnt that Will has been tortured and disfigured in the camp and it was only the thought of her and his daughter, Mary, conceived on their wedding night, which kept him alive.

However, two years earlier, Hetty thought that her hasty marriage to Will had ended when she got the telegram “Missing, presumed dead!” Now he was coming home. How can she tell him about her new baby, Dorothy?

Staying with Will’s parents in Somerset, a young asthmatic teacher, David, is kind to Hetty and her young child, Mary, and they fall in love. But then there is the problem of what happened when they went blackberrying.

How on earth can these damaged people find a new way to live?

What will the outcome be?

Hidden Words

‘Perspective of danger changes when reality floods through the dark. 

It takes wild events of immense forbidden love for Christopher to realise he’s been living life all wrong.

Christopher has to make serious changes in order to become the person he’s always wanted to be. 

Unfortunately, his biggest enemy is always close in his mind.’

Highland Heritage

Helen Glenkerry shook her hair back, scooping it up into a ponytail and fastening it with a lace from her sandal lying on the bank. The water in the burn was icy cold and crystal clear. Rolling her white cotton trouser legs up, she pushed some pebbles along the sandy bottom with her toes as the grasses caressed her feet. Closing her eyes and breathing the cool clear air deeply, she knew she would love living here.

The horse stood like a statue as James Mcklinross watched the girl. What was she doing here and where had she come from? There was danger here; she would have to go. He walked his horse to the edge of the burn. As she turned and saw him, he blinked; he thought she was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen. His voice sounded stern: ‘Where do you think you are going and where have you come from? Don’t you know you are trespassing?’

History in 100 Chapters

Covering the period from when Earth began to the end of the Great War and designed for the general reader, this book aims to give a chronological account of life on Earth. It relates all parts of the world to each other for those whose acquaintance with history has been limited to short periods about different places and cultures.

Each of the chapters has been designed to be self-contained so that browsing by episodes of time or place will be informative and interesting. Scientific discoveries, cultural advances and religious milestones illuminate how the human race has developed through the ages.

The present state of the world, and our society (scientific, political and religious), is more easily understood when we understand how it came about; in this way, it is easier to comprehend present personal and national identity and morality.

For those whose knowledge of history is largely confined to short detailed periods such as those of the Romans or the Tudors, perhaps studied at school, then this account sets out to fill the gaps both in time and in geography and show how they relate to one another, and what was happening across the world in the same era.

HMS Rutland

A Royal Navy frigate, HMS Rutland, is conducting a scientific experiment when something goes terribly wrong, and they find themselves with no engines and confronted by a Royal Navy sloop from 1805. 

Julia Mitchenson, the Captain of Rutland, and Charles Austen, of HMS Indian combine to destroy a French frigate and outwit the powerful Invisible squadron in a race to reverse the time slip. Julia and Charles are drawn to each other, as are Lt Benna Garret and Lt William Mends.

The story combines the sly humour of Patrick O’Brien and the social observation of Jane Austen in a gripping and well-researched story that has action, romance and more than a touch of science fiction.

Hobbo on Life

In this first in a series of humorous poetry collections by Hobbo, he takes a quirky look at the absurdities and foibles of life from a Yorkshireman’s point of view. Sometimes he takes a walk in someone else’s shoes and occasionally he is assisted by his black Labrador Dauphy, who has his own perspective to add, Hobbo will brighten your day, shorten your journey and leave your fellow passengers wondering what you are chuckling about.

Beware though, Hobbo on Life delivers a sting in the tail now and then. What starts as a giggle, may take a sudden turn and leave you pondering the real meaning of life. 

If you are browsing for a serious book of traditional poetry, or a literary masterpiece to help you look intellectual, then put this little gem down and search elsewhere. If you want a laugh, something to talk about with your friends, and an easy read that will lighten your mood for the rest of the day, you have found it. Happy reading. Enjoy!

Hold the Ladder Steady

Growing up in Australia in the early fifties, Robin is intrigued by the folklore of the pink boto told by her father. A childhood fantasy confirms her belief that like all fairy tales, there will always be a boto somewhere waiting just for her. Robin observes the conflicts of Roman Catholicism and the social changes of the sixties that swept like a tide into her adolescence. It was the age of the pill, the Vietnam War and good girls who still wore their hats to mass on Sundays. When she launches herself into life in the city with a man having a cowlick, she leaves the sea behind. New and old friends bring an awareness of the issues that confront Australia in a new age, when the complexities of feminism and sexuality were a thorn in the side of a country that prided itself on fair play.

Holes in the Ground: War and Ore

When Thomas Longois Lefoy is sent to Tangiers to investigate a German plot involving Moroccan phosphates, he uncovers a sinister Soviet Union involvement in the Asturias miners’ strike of 1934 and its unforeseen consequences for Andoni Arriola, a Basque metallurgist. As he delves deeper into the case, he finds himself caught in a web of intrigue involving the Spanish Civil War, the injury and death of British intelligence agents, and the protection of Britain’s interests in the iron and copper mining industries. As he travels from Tangiers to Gibraltar, Huelva, and Bilbao, he witnesses the devastating effects of civil war and the destruction of open-cast mining. Along the way, he encounters Heinrich Rathenau, a German industrial chemist seeking refuge, and becomes embroiled in a dangerous game of espionage and political maneuvering that reveals the high stakes of international trade and the human cost of war.