Social Capitalism

Is Capitalism doomed; how long is its shelf-life? Can its promise of prosperity and the ‘good life’ be sustained? Have stories of its impending demise been exaggerated? If some soothsayers are to be believed it has been on a downward slippery slope at least since the financial crash over a decade ago, so that its days may well be numbered. This work analyses the place of the free market economy in modern society, distinguishes between neo-liberalism and traditional capitalism, and comes to quite different conclusions – as much for reasons of perception as for socio-economic realpolitik. But in the process some important conceptual myths need to be demolished: about the misunderstood role of the individual in modern society, about the absurdity of focusing on economic growth, about the unsustainability of current social inequalities and how they can be overcome, about the mirage of social mobility and the future of work. These issues can only be appreciated in their historical context – currently a yawning gap in any discussion of our current predicament. Suggestions are put forward as to how a reformed, ‘social’ capitalism would better serve the interests of the economy, the community and the individual – in a world where we must learn to consume less, travel less, and yes, work less – with the ultimate goal of greater dignity and justice for all.

Solace in Stamps

My memoir traces the many traumatic events I’ve dealt with, in socially changing times, from the mid-1950s onwards. I’ve fought the government’s solicitors because of inequality, survived a rare type of cancer and sepsis, and battled depression too. I’ve written about the emotions I’ve felt over several relationships; a cheating fiancé, a marriage on the rebound and an affair with a married lover. With little education, I tell of my quest to become a surveyor in later life. I’ve recently had to come to terms with the tragic deaths of both parents. Often when times were difficult, especially as a child, I found huge comfort in my stamp collection. Yet there are many lighter moments too!

I am fortunate to possess transcripts that describe my grandfather’s years as a dispatch rider during the Great War. He witnessed horrific sights at the battlefields on the Somme and experienced grief and heartache when a younger brother died in 1914, his older brother died at Ypres in 1915 and his mother died in 1917.

There are also intriguing links within my story to my 2^nd great-grandfather who was the illegitimate son of a wealthy landowner and an agricultural labourer’s daughter. Born in 1854, he trained as a tailor and travelled to where the Industrial Revolution had taken hold and mills were springing up in the Midlands and Far North.

In addition, I have an amazing connection to my 14^th great-grandfather who fought for King Henry VIII and who was knighted as a result.

Solo in Oz

My travelling adventure started after my son, Stefan, and his friend, Rob, set off to the California Coast in America for a few weeks staying in hotels and backpacking across America to Las Vegas. I decided on my trip to Australia and it set a travel bug off inside me to do a two-month adventure of a lifetime backpacking and staying in hotels and travelling 12,000 miles across Australia by train.

Songs Through the Night

We are all at some time or other faced with loss and trial. How do we deal with them? If these kinds of experiences are foreign to us now, they inevitably will come to us. What is it like for those who struggle with long-term illness and a doctor’s diagnosis?
This book handles these issues head-on from someone who has lived with Parkinson’s disease for over 20 years and who has been involved with facing many different kinds of loss. Where is God in all this? In this book the author reflects honestly on these issues – and more – and uses his battles with Parkinson’s as a place to start.

Soul Divining

Intuition is real. In this book, I wanted to share some of my experiences in order to raise awareness of this much-undervalued sixth sense. It can protect us and bring positivity to our lives. As humans, we rely almost totally on logic to problem solve. Hopefully, this book will give an insight into how important this sense is. Negative experiences very often occur when we ignore our gut feeling. Intuition is a spiritual tool that should be regarded as highly as the other five senses we possess.

South Benfleet

Look inside and find out…

Whom did the church bells ring for and why…?

Who grew up in Benfleet and became a renowned natural history film-maker?

What was the pen name of the creator of Impossible People?

Whose mother was denounced from the pulpit of St Mary’s and why?

Which flaky aristocrat trashed the Hoy just prior to the First World War?

Where was the first mini-roundabout in this country located?

Who saved the horses but not his boat?

What name connects Benfleet Hall in Essex with the one in Surrey?

Who fought with the Canadian ‘Rough Riders’ in the First World War?

What was only second in size to that in Peterborough?

What was the favourite colour of Lily Tingey?

How many voters were on the electoral roll for South Benfleet in the 1832 elections?

Who was chastised for landing on the wreck of Richard Montgomery?

What was the pen name of William Mecham?

Who built their own ferro-cement ketch and sailed the world?

Who got dumped in the horse trough and what was the pretext?

Amongst other things…

Speaking Volumes

How did a fishmonger’s son from Tyneside, growing up in the 1950s with a Geordie accent, become the person who recorded over 900 audiobooks and received an MBE from the Queen in the Birthday Honours of 2017?
This ‘charming’, ‘entertaining’ and ‘heart-warming’ memoir answers that question.

Reviews:

AudioFile magazine
“…not simply a reader but an artist of the spoken word…”
“…Gordon Griffin, an entire acting company in one person…”

“Witty and moving memoir of how a working-class boy becomes THE voice of the spoken word.
Honest and vivid account plus excellent advice for those of us who work with words.” Miriam Margolyes

Spirits of Severn

The River Severn is Britain's longest natural waterway. It rises in mid-Wales, where it is known as the Hafren. Both these names stem from that of a river goddess, known since prehistoric times as Sabrina. To stop anywhere along Sabrina's course, or on either side of her beautiful estuary, is to risk becoming absorbed and transfixed by her ever-moving, yet timelessly repetitive progress. Throw a net across Sabrina, from side to side, and you might catch a fish, but the body of her stream will pass straight through the mesh. Can words possibly convey the elusive majesty of her current, or adequately describe its multi-stranded sacred story? In Spirits of Severn, artist and mythographer Michael Dames - whose acclaimed work includes The Silbury Treasure, The Avebury Cycle and Mythic Ireland - brings the river's illusive legacy to the surface, while tracing her progress from her pair of sources to the furthest tips of her Mor Hafren estuary.

Spoz and friends: Tales of a London medical student

These delightful stories chart the stuttering and at times quite hapless progress of ‘the Spoz', (so named by his brother ‘the Woog') from Norwich schooldays through his time as a student at a prestigious London medical school in the 1970s. From his initial interview at St Thomas' Hospital - an institution he chose because he had never heard of it and on that rather dubious basis thought he was more likely to be accepted - to his final exams, the book documents the author's painful progress as an immature seventeen-year-old away from home for the first time. Sexually naïve, he devotes much of his time attempting to lose his virginity, while his excessive beer-drinking hampers his success and results in several awkward brushes with the London constabulary. Chronically impecunious and homeless for several months, Spoz devises various hair-brained money-making schemes and ultimately has to take extensive time out of his studies to work on a nearby building site. From there he witnesses the bombing of Westminster Palace by the IRA, while his absenteeism from classes almost results in a premature end to his already unpromising career. While always infused with the author's characteristic humour, the Tales of Spoz offer the reader a more serious yet unobtrusive social commentary on the problems of being a student in that era, charting the often tortuous transition of a group of young men from immature schoolboys to responsible young doctors.

Staring Death in the Face

This is a real-life account of a family dealing with anorexia of one of its own. Sarah nearly died. She could have died at any time as her body had begun to shut down. The local medical services said that they had never come across anyone with such a low body mass index (weight) as hers. Sarah was heard screaming out as her body began to close down at death’s door. But by the grace of God, she miraculously survived.

The events are chronicled by the author, Sarah’s father; plus there is a very poignant additional contribution portrayal through the eyes of her sister Olivia too — together these sections paint the picture of what this family had to endure and complement each other.

This is a book which I am sure you will find hard to put down and will educate you not only as far as the illness of anorexia is concerned but also in seeing how it can be transcended.

Stepping Out Of The Ordinary

Something gnawing away inside his body was suggesting it should be taken out of its comfort zone. At 30 years old, Mike discovered rock and winter climbing perhaps a little later in life, it just meant he had to train harder and catch up on the others rather quickly, pretty soon progression into the world of mountaineering, alpinism and interesting adventures were to follow. In writing from his personal accounts from Alaska to the southern tip of Patagonia or from Baffin Island to Norway’s Lofoten Isles, he endeavours to transport the reader to those remarkable worlds to become intimate with them and their extremes of remoteness, wanting to share the rawness and intimacy of nature which is truly inspirational. Conventional family holidays were a thing of the past as Lynne, his wife, joined in on some of the adventures. All of these were achieved while both held down full-time employment, Mike as a production manager and Lynne as a dental receptionist. Their offspring, Gary and Nicky, were not short of a few adventures of their own too. Unfortunately, in the places visited, the evidence became abundantly clear of our rapidly changing world and of the tragic impact the human race is having upon it.      

Stillness in Preschool and School

This is a hands-on report on how to find calm in the most stressed out and turbulent of worlds today – preschools and schools. Not a calm out there, but the calm inside all of us, closer than our thoughts and as natural as the air we breathe.

25 years of experience with the Dream of the Good in preschools and schools in all parts of Sweden show very good results. The grown-ups did not believe the kids would take to it.

But the message is, it can be done, and kids of all ages like it – if the practices are simple and natural. Their teachers often didn’t think it was possible, but once they learn they also benefit. Research confirms the positive results: less stress, less psychological problems and better self-image.