Dive into a whirlpool of tales that unveil the deep-seated secrets of life through the lens of a vibrant and candid family narrative. This book is a delightful collection of small stories that hold the grandeur of life's many secrets, presented through the intricate dynamics of a family that could very well be your own. From the adventures of an unusually tough dad to the quirky habits of the neighbors, every story is a sneak peek into a world teeming with joy, curiosity, and the sheer unpredictability of a family that is learning and growing together, one day at a time.Each story is a revelation, a glimpse into the profound lessons learned from a father who sometimes resembles a bouncer more than a parent. The narratives span the spectrum from humorous to heartfelt, pulling you into a whirlwind of emotions as you navigate through the family's adventures and misadventures, including the creation of a treehouse in a grapefruit tree and the whimsical tale behind a purple whiskey bottle.But it's not just about the laughter and the joy; it's about the deep connections forged through friendship, the selflessness ingrained through familial bonds, and the vital lessons imparted on the road to adulthood. It is about learning the true essence of love, the joy derived from giving, and the hopeful prayers for a favorable outcome even in the face of life's unpredictable cards.Through these narratives, you will also delve into the valuable lessons learned from a heroic soldier, unraveling the secrets of leadership and the true meaning of being "Dependable." It is a journey that promises to reveal the core of human emotion, touching upon personal stories too sensitive to delve deep into but too significant to leave untold.This book offers not just a collection of stories, but a rich tapestry of experiences that might resonate with your own life, sparking recognition, and encouraging reflection. It doesn't promise a transformation, but it assures a plethora of ideas, a warm embrace of familiar yet unique experiences, and perhaps a fresher, brighter perspective to view the adventures of your own life.Join us in this heartwarming journey through a lifetime of stories that echo the universal truths of life, promising to leave you with a heart a bit warmer and a spirit kindled with the vibrant hues of familial love and life in all its glorious unpredictability.
If you ever find yourself 200 feet in the air, and your engine gives out, all you can count on if what you brought with you...These stories are true; my father wrote them down. They've saved me in times of trial; in times of sorrow. This piece covers his military career. Whether you want some good and old stories, or you're looking for some wisdom that comes from someone else's hindsight, this book might be what you need.Welcome to the Kings Path, book 1: When Fat Men Flew.
Larry, an Edinburgh schoolboy, defies his doctor father, during COVID-19 lockdown, to meet with friends in the Meadows, but abandons them on seeing Skye, a girl in the year below him with whom he has been in love ever since she sang a solo at a school concert two years previously. Engineered by Larry''s doting sister, Angie, their young love seems to blossom until Skye is taken away to Stornoway by her single mother and forbidden to contact Larry. Devastated, Larry then goes down with COVID-19 and ends up on a ventilator where his life hangs in the balance whilst, disconnected from his body, he relives past lives over seven thousand years. These stories all relate to major advances in the history of medicine, from the trephining of skulls (drilling holes in the head) seven thousand years ago to the recent discovery of CRISPR technology to remove harmful genes which, when Larry recovers, and he meets up again with Skye, might provide a solution to the true reason for her mother''s decision to separate the young lovers: a genetic condition which was the reason Skye''s musician father abandoned her and her mother. The love story is interwoven with stories from the past that highlight breakthroughs that changed medicine forever, each complemented by a factual account and illustrated by the author''s own, often heartfelt, experiences as a hospital doctor.
This collection of twenty-four stories capture the lives and character of ordinary people through a snapshot of time. Some stories are poignant, others humorous, some surprising. There are seven stories in the collection about the lovable Irish priest, Father Vic whose parish is in the outback of Australia. The stories are as diverse as the characters.
Dylan, in love with classmate Alice, who lives next door, despairs of ever impressing her after his father, their hated maths teacher, shouts at her to keep her goldador quiet. When Bouncer goes missing, he seizes his chance. Outside Number Twenty-four, home of the mysterious Professor Pringle, he finds Bouncer’s collar. And a talking dog. He persuades a reluctant Alice to enter but gets more than he bargained for when the teens are transported to Dogtopia where human and dog roles are reversed, and Alice becomes Bouncer’s pet. Here he must prove his worth by rescuing his annoying young sister, Caitlin, turned duck by the evil Scissorman. First, however, they must help free Bosona, Top Dog, Pringle’s owner and Bouncer’s new love, but whom can they trust, and where is Ben, Alice’s beloved brother? Shy Dylan’s confidence grows as his bravery is revealed, but how can he ever replace Colin in Alice’s heart?
If they fail...she could die over 3300 years from home!Tackle the elements & evil of Ancient Egypt...A history-changing battle...A Travel Thriller...Fifteen-year-old Rosa doesn't see dead people...She hears them & talks to them.When she agrees to help King Tut's ghost find his lost queen & clear his family's name, she doesn't count on falling for him.In Ancient Egypt, Rosa discovers finding Tut's queen is not as easy as she thought...She & Tut must also outwit an evil pharaoh determined to stop them...Even if it means one of them must die.
The Battle of Hastings will soon be fought on English soil. King Harold knows the Norman invasion is coming, but he must first head up north to fight the Vikings. Who will come to his aid?Still searching for their missing parents who are lost somewhere in the past, twins Jemima and Joe Lancelot travel back in time to the year 1066, together with best friend Charlie and Max, their talking Tonkinese cat.Many dangerous adventures await them during a hazardous journey across the country to help the king repel the invaders. Will they be able to change the course of history, or will Harold fail to heed their advice?
A second solo adventure awaits Max the time-travelling Tonkinese cat in this Christmas short story. Invited to accompany a well-known figure on a whirlwind trip into the past, he sets off on a mission to search for something very precious to his owners, Jemima and Joe Lancelot - their missing parents. The hunt reveals tantalising clues to this mystery and ends with a special surprise for the twins.
Did King Arthur really exist? Continuing the quest to find their missing parents who are trapped in the past, Jemima and Joe Lancelot uncover the truth behind the legend when they arrive in Camelot. Together with friend Charlie and their talking Tonkinese cat Max, the young time-travellers are plunged into yet another thrilling adventure.Was the famous knight Lancelot related to the twins? Who knows? Luckily, he seems to think so and is on hand to protect them when danger threatens.Meanwhile, Max has a mystery of his own to solve. Will he finally discover why Midnight has been haunting his dreams?
Max the talking Tonkinese cat has his fourth solo adventure in this short story to accompany the Shadows from the Past series.Snatched from his home in the middle of the night, Max is spirited away to a secret location. There, in the company of other animals, he is put through exhausting physical exercises and tough endurance tests - a true nightmare for the comfort-loving feline.But who are the shadowy figures in charge and why has he been taken to their training camp? Will Max discover the truth about his mysterious undercover adventure?
Uncle Richard is kind and caring, isn't he? That's what twins Jemima and Joe Lancelot think, but the two princes imprisoned in the Tower of London aren't so lucky, because their Uncle Richard is very different.Travelling back in time to the year 1483, the twins undertake a daring mission. Together with friend Charlie and their talking cat Max, they must rescue the princes from certain death at the hands of their wicked uncle - none other than the infamous villain, King Richard III.Is this a task too far for the young time-travellers? Will their plan succeed, or must they risk their own lives to save the two boys?
In this spin-off adventure from the SHADOWS FROM THE PAST series, Max the talking Tonkinese cat goes on a solo mission without his usual time-travelling companions. Snatched from the house where he lives with eleven-year-old twins Joe and Jemima Lancelot, Max is dragged back into the past by an evil magician who has lined him up to perform a special task.Torn away from all he holds dear, the despondent cat fears he may never be able to return to the present and his beloved owner, Jemima. What will become of him? Will he make it back or will he be condemned to remain forever in a distant time and place, far from home?
The ancient Roman town of Pompeii lies in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius, but its inhabitants are blissfully unaware of the deadly threat of the volcano that is about to devastate their lives.Still on the hunt for their missing parents who are lost in the pages of history, twins Jemima and Joe Lancelot travel back into the past once again, along with best friend Charlie, and Max their talking Tonkinese cat.When the children arrive in the middle of a slave auction in the Forum, they are shocked to find themselves being sold to the highest bidder. Trapped in the household of a wealthy Pompeian, how will they manage to escape before the town is buried by the erupting volcano?
Max the talking Tonkinese cat has a third solo adventure in this seasonal tale.What happens when the feline hero is trapped in the attic one night?Will he escape the clutches of the Christmas fairy, a regiment of soldiers and three obstreperous French hens in time to enjoy a holiday with his family?One thing's for sure, the Twelve Days of Christmas will never seem quite the same again.
Firestorm Rising is John Clewarth's debut novel, for children aged 9 to 12+ years - and reached the finals of The People's Book Prize in 2013. Raingate Cemetery is the spooky playground of Tom Allerton, Daniel 'Doc' Studd and Jasmine 'Jazz' Baxter, and provides a great opportunity for them to play a practical Halloween joke on their schoolmates. Events take an unexpected turn when a freak storm occurs and lightning strikes an ancient and crumbling tomb. The children flee in terror, all except for Jazz who decides to investigate. Peering into the smoking rubble of the sepulchre, she is strangely drawn towards a weird pendant which unleashes a chain of terrifying and supernatural events. As the unearthly owner of the pendant endeavours to get it back, the friendship of the central characters is put to the toughest test, and they discover the true meanings of friendship, loyalty, truthfulness and fear. The children learn that there are far more things in the universe than they ever learned at school, as a terrifying monster is awakened from a long hot sleep...
The Trojan War is just a game for the gods and goddesses of ancient Greece, but it's no laughing matter for Jemima and Joe Lancelot when they are transported back in time to Troy, slap-bang in the middle of the deadly conflict.Still on the trail of their missing parents who are lost somewhere in the past, the twins, together with best friend Charlie and their talking cat Max, do all they can to prevent the destruction of the famous city.Can the children persuade the Trojans to reject the Greeks' gift of the Wooden Horse or will it prove impossible to change the course of history?
In a post-apocalyptic Scotland ruled by women, Solem escapes from Man Camp 7, helped by a woman called Texta. He and a ‘clonie’ called Rea hope to reach the ‘Island’. How could he have known that this was all engineered as part of the Parth Path’s parthenogenesis programme to create the Immortal Controller, an invincible leader whose clones will rule forever?On the Island, he is haunted by memories of an idyllic childhood as ‘Peter’, on a reservation with his friend, wee Moira, before his family was brutally slaughtered by Parth Path wardens during a ‘clearance’. He struggles to rediscover happiness with Rea.Sara, a mysterious girl next door, falls for Peter, as he now prefers to be called again, though only shows this by helping Rea. Meanwhile, Moira, still yearning for her childhood sweetheart, after being sent to the Parth Path School, ends up as Director and as such is on the Parth Path Council. She joins Texta, really the brutal man camp Commandant, to collect Rea’s baby from the Island, It turns out that little Mary is the genetically-contrived and much-awaited ‘Special Child’ of the parthenogenesis programme, Her clones are detined to rule forever as the 'Immortal Controller'..One of Texta’s bullies kills Rea. Moira, horrified, shoots Texta. Meanwhile, Sara escapes with Mary to the mainland, vowing to protect Peter’s child at all costs.At first Peter blames Moira for Rea’s death, but soon their past friendship is re-kindled. They make love, but are tricked by Matt, the father of Sara’s brother, and whose son was killed by Moira’s wardens, into believing their lives are in danger. Whilst Peter is told to hide in a cove, Moira is taken to a wartime hideout where she expects to meet up with Peter. Instead she’s cruelly raped by Peter’s reservation rival, Luke... Matt’s revenge for the death of his son. But Moira escapes and kills Luke, returning to the mainland to seek out Peter. Peter emerges from the cove to find Matt, in his rage, has also massacred all survivors of the Island community apart from Angela, Sara’s taciturn mother. He leaves the Island with her, hoping to find Mary in the City of the Castle (Edinburgh), but is warned against this. Instead, he finds Moira, and together they flee south of the wall that defines Parth Path territory (‘Parthpathia’) to start a new life in the ‘wilds’. Sara, meanwhile, living in the castle with Mary and a clone of elderly Controllers, is befriended by two old maids who knew the First Controller, the lesbian scientist who started the Parth Path project. She learns things from the ‘Shrine’, which houses the First Controller’s computers, that prepare her for what’s to come.When an epidemic of Scarlet Fever decimates the population, killing the Controllers and Moira, Peter, beside himself with grief, sets off for the City with one bullet left in his gun to kill Sara for conniving with the Parth Path and taking Mary away. However, he discovers a young woman, now Controller herself, and wise way beyond her years, who has been a perfect mother for his daughter. Sara had discovered that the First Controller wanted to abandon the parthenogenesis programme in favour of natural selection but was murdered by her minions. Peter now realises that only he and Sara, by working together, the ‘yin’ and the ‘yang’, can help society to start all over again.
This is the thirteenth book in the Shadows from the Past series, time-travel adventure stories that feature three children and a rather special cat.In 1588, a plot to invade England and overthrow Queen Elizabeth the First is about to unfold.At this crucial moment in English history, four visitors from the future arrive in Elizabethan London. Twins Jemima and Joe Lancelot, together with friend Charlie and their talking cat Max, embark on their next journey into the past as they continue the search for their missing parents who are lost somewhere in the mists of time.Finding themselves tangled in a web of conspiracy, can the young time-travellers solve the mystery of the Tudor Rose?
A collection of fifty-four short stories by a prize-winning novelist inspired by family connections and travels across the world. Some are set firmly in the real world: an elderly English spinster living with a grumpy sister reveals a long-kept secret when her American son gets in touch; a shy wife discovers she's more attractive than she had ever imagined when her husband's old friend turns up; a sexist professor learns the cruel truth on overhearing his latest 'conquest' talking to her friend in a cafe. Magic invades realism in 'The Red Chevy', when an old lady in a Texan care home relives her past until she escapes back into it. The writer's personal experience of an earthquake in China inspired 'The Old Grandmother' in which a grandfather and granddaughter make a pilgrimage up Tai Shan mountain to the Buddhist temple on the summit. In other stories, a Japanese man is married to a Manga girl whilst an Aborigine boy in Australia dreams of the legendary Red Kangaroo in 'Kangaroo Dreaming', a dream that foretells the end of White Man's world and a return to the old ways. There's gentle humour in 'The Hole', in which a hen-pecked Scottish Borders husband creates an underground retreat in his garden only to meet up with an ancient Celt doing the same to escape the invading Scots. In 'The Wave', a tribute to all who died in the 2004 Southeast Asian tsunami, a wealthy Bangkok doctor returns to the beach where he used to meet up with his first love, a poor fisherman's daughter. An elderly woman questions why the walls in her nursing home whisper about death, and, in 'The Soul Sweeper', we learn what happens to the soul after death. A boy finds the ghost of Victorian girl under his bed in 'Pink Slippers', and in 'The Christmas Dance', a dying musician has his first-ever dance with the Angel of Death. In 'Frog Therapy Ltd', an infirm elderly couple learn that a potential cure also carries a risk of side-effects. In 'One Click Away', a man learns that computer problems extend to beyond the grave, and in 'Cissy', reincarnation links India with England. A notorious Italian jewel thief, who has inherited his mother's ability to transform into anything he chooses, gets comeuppance in one story. In another, a little girl meets a giant rabbit in an allegory about Man's greed destroying his planet. Orphaned tiger cubs kill a village girl to survive in 'The Two-legged Deer', and in 'A Baker's Novel', a dying man tries to re-write a tragic past in a novel. A man fighting for his life on an operating table, after a major head trauma,journeys, inside his head, to death in 'The Letter'. In 'C Sharp Minor', a young girl, aspiring to be a concert pianist, is in emotional turmoil after taking on the part of the teenage countess in a TV biopic about the doomed love affair between Beethoven and the girl for whom he wrote the Moonlight Sonata. One little boy wonders whether a sly fox that killed Old Annie's hens was really the devil; another, in 'The Tower of Truth', avoids a fairgound tower where his grandfather discovers pain, not pleasure, when promised 'the past, present and future.' A doctor discovers disturbing secrets about his family's past from his dementing aunt in one story. In another, an old Spaniard remembers the night his mother and village were wiped out by Franco's men. In 'Hawai'i', did the Polynesian Goddess of fire, Pele, really sit next to a tourist on an airplane? In another story, a classics professor is certain the flight attendant is Aphrodite. Although the stories span different genres, they share a common human
Ten-year-old twins Jemima and Joe Lancelot continue the search for their missing parents who are trapped somewhere in the past.Together with best friend Charlie, and their talking cat Max, they are transported back in time to ancient Crete and the Palace of Knossos, where the fearsome Minotaur lurks in its labyrinth, feeding on human flesh.Can they help Prince Theseus of Athens destroy the terrifying monster before it devours them all?And will the children survive the storm that threatens to wreck their ship as they attempt to flee the island?
The story of young Irishman, Oisin Kelly continues in this third novel. Oisin has settled in the outback Queensland town of Kilgoolga. Here his life becomes entwined with Vietnam War veteran, Harry. Past traumatic events affect both men in similar and sometimes surprising ways. A dark shadow is present at different times throughout this often emotional and powerful story. As Oisin discovers more and more secrets, he begins to wonder where his life is leading and where his home truly is. Decisions have to be made as to which force is more powerful. Will it be the power of love over evil that will truimph and bring him home?
Ten-year-old twins Jemima and Joe Lancelot have no idea why their parents have disappeared, but a mysterious old book belonging to their father holds the answer … and so begins a quest to uncover the truth.Together with Max their Tonkinese cat, and Charlie from next door, the children embark on an epic adventure, travelling back in time to the lost city of Atlantis, unaware of the dangers that await them.Can they save the people of Atlantis from the disaster which is about to destroy their land forever? And will they find their way back to the safety of their own time before it's too late?V
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