Are you looking for the right sustainable healthy diet, but you are struggling between all these popular starry-eyed plan meals? Do you want to know what really matters? Well… just keep reading! Time is up. You need to start to keep care of yourself, and this time is for real. Maybe you have already tried different diets, from the strictest to the most flexible but nothing… it is impossible to stand some paper that tells you what to eat and what to avoid. You are also starting to think that maybe the key to everything could be just healthier eating, but what really does that mean? According to the NCBI, 50-70% of Americans are trying to lose weight and eat healthily, but at the same time, obesity in the country is skyrocketing, reaching one-third of the population inexorably. Isn’t it so clear the importance of choosing a right and sustainable diet? In Let’s Spill The Beans you will discover: What are the hidden secrets behind the most lifelong communities of the world Which is the key factor for a real healthy eating What all the gurus never told you about diets false myths about food that are trying to confuse you How you can achieve your weight loss goals in a sustainable and enjoyable way Why the most popular diets have been developed Pros and cons of the trend diets How my life-changing spreadsheet will be your best pal for achieving your dream shape My weekly meal plan suggestion It is not the ordinary diet book where I tell you “what you eat and what to avoid, period.” Because remember, the real key for achieving your goals is not knowing just how you have to do it, but why you are doing it. Only with the right knowledge, everything will be natural and straightforward for you then, and you will stay easily focused on your goals.
ISBN: 9781526745576 Buy here Published: 23rd October 2019 Price: £8.00
Popular history writer Terry Deary takes us on a light-hearted and often humorous romp through the centuries with Mr & Mrs Peasant, recounting foul and dastardly deeds committed by the underclasses, as well as the punishments meted out by those on the ‘right side’ of the law.
Discover tales of arsonists and axe-wielders, grave robbers and garroters, poisoners and prostitutes. Delve into the dark histories of beggars, swindlers, forgers, sheep rustlers and a whole host of other felons from the lower ranks of society who have veered off the straight and narrow. There are stories of highwaymen and hooligans, violent gangs, clashing clans and the witch trials that shocked a nation. Learn too about the impoverished workers who raised a riot opposing crippling taxes and draconian laws, as well as the strikers and machine-smashers who thumped out their grievances against new technologies that threatened their livelihoods.
Britain has never been short of those who have been prepared to flout the law of the land for the common good, or for their own despicable purposes. The upper classes have lorded and hoarded their wealth for centuries of British history, often to the disadvantage of the impoverished. Frustration in the face of this has resulted in revolt. Read all about it here!
This entertaining book is packed full of revolting acts and acts of revolt, revealing how ordinary folk – from nasty Normans to present-day lawbreakers – have left an extraordinary trail of criminality behind them. The often gruesome penalties exacted in retribution reveal a great deal about some of the most fascinating eras of British history.
My Review
Thanks to Rosie Crofts at Pen & Sword for sending me this book. I’m making my way through my book backlog while trying to keep up with my blog tour commitments.
It’s popular history, so don’t expect in-depth discussion of the crimes or events covered in the book. The author has a rather broad definition of ‘peasant’. A peasant is:
Deary’s broader definition seems to be broadened to ‘a person with a low income and a low social position’. So long as they don’t have land and extensive income or property, the author classes them as a peasant.
The author covers the period from the Norman Conquest to the late-eighteenth century. The crimes are everything from petty theft to forgery, murder and revolt. This book is sometimes humorous and it was good for dipping in and out of. It did keep me amused (even when I had to correct minor things) and it is an easy to read book that builds on Deary’s ‘Horrible Histories’ books. It has a similar format to those books, with the era chapters sub-divided by crime, which makes it easy to find specific crimes in specific eras. Deary uses quotes judiciously to support the text.
Probably a good one for children interested in history who have read all the ‘Horrible Histories’.
For over ten years he was the first detective on the scene when a murder was committed in south London. In the confusion and horror of the crime scene he identified the forensic clues that would later be needed to convict the killer in the calm and measured atmosphere of the Old Bailey; calling out the necessary experts from pathologists to ballistics specialists; protecting the scene against contamination. One slip and a case would crumble; one moment of inspiration and the Yard would have its man.
He was the natural choice when the UN were looking for an experienced detective to create a trail of evidence linking the mass graves of Bosnia to the people who ordered the worst war crimes seen in Europe since the Second World War.
From the Flying Squad to Investigating War Crimes tells of the rise of forensic evidence against the true story backdrop of a detective who has spent a career at the front line in the war against murder – the ultimate crime. It traces the development of forensic science and techniques from the days of the fingerprint to the battery of tests now available to homicide investigators. It is told in the no nonsense style of a pioneer cop who has seen the worst that human beings can do to each other.
I have so many Pen & Sword books to review (because they keep releasing so many that I want to read!) that I’m doing multiple reviews in a single post. Today I’m writing reviews for the true crime books I’ve read recently.
On the evening of 21 August 1983, Metropolitan Police detectives raced to the cells of London’s Clapham Police Station to find a prisoner dead and his cellmate sat cross-legged and quiet in the corner.
Kieran Kelly, a labourer from Ireland, quickly confessed to strangling the prisoner – and then stunned officers by confessing to dozens of unreported and unsolved murders over the previous 30 years.
Detectives believed they were in the presence of Britain’s most prolific serial killer yet Kelly was convicted on just two of his admissions and his story went unnoticed until 2015, when a former police officer who worked on the case claimed the killer’s crimes were covered up by the British Government.
Strangulations, murders on the London Underground, an internal Metropolitan Police review – as the story’s elements whipped the international news media into a frenzy, journalist Robert Mulhern set off on a methodical search for the truth against the backdrop of an ever-increasing body count.
I had not heard of this case before, and I was intrigued because I thought I’d heard of most of the major serial killers in Britain in the last fifty years, There has been a lot of speculation and sensationalisation about Kieran Kelly, much of it encouraged by former Police Officer Geoff Platt, alleging that Kieran Kelly had murdered 31 people, 12 on the tube. He wrote a couple of books about it and apparently does cruises. He also says the crimes were covered up by the government for some reason.
Robert Mulhern does an excellent job of chasing down as much of the truth as possible after so long. The only certainty is that Kelly killed his cell-mate William Boyd in August 1983 and Hector Fisher on Clapham Common in 1975. He may have also killed five or six other homeless people, but the police weren’t able to prove anything and his own solicitor called Kelly a ‘fantasist’.
As much an investigation in to the life of Kieran Kelly and an investigation into the claims that were making headlines and their author. Mulhern travels from London to Ireland and back, trying to check the details and speaking to people who knew Kelly as Ken.
Mulhern spoke to a lot of other people, including more police officers involved with the Kelly case in 1983/1984, and Geoff Platt himself. Among those Mulhern spoke to was ‘Officer A’, who had access to a lot of the paperwork and the new Inquiry, and retired D.I., Ian Brown, a detective on the Boyd case, who objects to being called a liar.
The evidence suggests Kelly murdered five or six homeless people during drunken rages, but had nothing to do with any deaths on the Underground. It also suggests that Platt is making hay from his minor part in an unusual case of murder in a police station. There’s some really good investigative work in this book, with multiple interviews from the people who were there.
Serial killer Patrick Mackay was dubbed the most dangerous man in Britain when he appeared in court in 1975 charged with three killings, including the axe murder of a priest. The Nazi-obsessed alcoholic had stalked the upmarket streets of West London hunting for victims and was suspected of at least eight further murders.
Now, after more than 40 years behind bars, where he has shunned publicity, Mackay has been allowed to change his name and win the right to live in an open prison – bringing him one step closer to freedom. For the first time, Britain’s Forgotten Serial Killer reveals the full, untold story of Patrick Mackay and the many still-unsolved murders linked to his case. https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Britains-Forgotten-Serial-Killer/p/16439
My Review
Patrick Mackay is a bit of a sad sack, who took out his own insecurities first on his mother and sisters, and then on local kids, before moving on to murder people who tried to help him. Usually elderly women. I’ve heard about him before so I couldn’t understand the title of this book. And then I got to the last chapter.
Patrick Mackay’s crimes were sensational at the time – priests found hacked to death in their baths will cause a fuss – but over the years he’s been forgotten. Murderers with higher body counts have pushed him into the background. He’s changed his name and now lives in an open prison. Brady or Sutcliffe would never have been allowed to do that.
The author sets out a biography of Patrick Mackay and his potential involvement in other unsolved crimes that match the crimes he was convicted for. If you’ve never heard of this particular serial killer, this book is a good place to start.
Britain has its fair share of unsolved murders. Crimes that have both fascinated and horrified in equal measure, with many as baffling today as they were when the stories first hit the headlines in the national press. Spanning 100 years between 1857-1957, this book re-examines thirteen of these murder cases and retells the stories that have endured and confounded both police and law courts alike. Each chapter provides an account of the circumstances surrounding the killing, of the people caught up in the subsequent investigation and the impact it had on some of their lives. It also explores the question of guilt and to whom it should, or should not, be attached. Each of these murders poses an undeniable truth; no-one was ever proven to have committed the killing despite, in some cases, accusing fingers being pointed, arrests being made and show trials taking place. Consequently, notoriety, deserved or otherwise, was often attached to both victim and accused. But was it ever merited?
From the questionable court case surrounding Scotland’s now famous Madeleine Smith, and the failed police investigation into Bradford’s Jack the Ripper case of 1888, to the mysterious deaths of Caroline Luard and Florence Nightingale Shore at the start of the twentieth century, this book disturbs the dust, sifts the facts and poses the questions that mattered at the time of each murder. Did Harold Greenwood poison his wife in Kidwelly? Who was responsible for the Ripper-like killing of Emily Dimmock and Rose Harsent? Why did Evelyn Foster die on the moor near Otterburn in what became known as the Blazing car murder and who strangled Ann Noblett to death in 1957?
This book covers thirteen murders from 1857 – 1957, some quite well-known and some less so. The author gives the details then discusses the possible killers, as far as he is able to after so long. Each chapter is detailed and the photographs and images provided are helpful. It’s a fairly easy to read book that you can pick up to read a chapter or two then go back to later.
A good place to start if you’re interested in unsolved murders.
Throughout our islands’ history we find tales of thieves, smugglers, thugs and murderers. Books have been written retelling tales of bandits, footpads, highwaymen, et al, attacking the lone traveller, the horseman, the coachman, shipping line, locomotive engineer, lorry or van driver and even pilot. Yet for almost two centuries the majority of goods travelled on Britain’s famed canal network. This also attracted felons of all kinds and yet many of these tales had been ignored, until now.
Within these pages all manner of crimes are covered. From murders to muggings, parental problems to pilfering, arson, assault, smugglers, counterfeiters and even road rage (albeit canal-style). But it is not all morbidity and misery, humour also plays a significant part in these tales. Why would a hungry man steal the inedible? Follow the policeman on foot chasing down a thief on board the narrowboat. Discover what really lies beneath the waters of the canal. Learn about canal etiquette, the hardships, the kindness and the cruelty.
From an author whose fascination with etymology has produced many books on origins of place names, leading to an interest in the historical modes of travel across our islands, this book is the latest to follow old routes and those found along them. https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Crime-on-the-Canals-Paperback/p/16206
My Review
Well, this one was different. Since the network of canals around England were first dug in the early years of the Industrial Revolution to the modern use of them for pleasure, crime has taken place. Murder, mugging, coal theft.
I found this book sludgy going at times, although at others it was really fascinating.
Frankie: The Woman Who Saved Millions from Thalidomide
Thalidomide:
patented in Germany as a non-toxic cure-all for sleeplessness and morning
sickness. A wonder drug with no side-effects.
We know differently
now.
Today, thalidomide
is a byword for tragedy and drug reform – a sign of what happens when things
aren’t done ‘the right way’. But when it was released in the 1950s, it was the
best thing since penicillin – something that doctors were encouraged to prescribe
to all of their patients. Nobody could anticipate what it actually did: induce
sleeping, prevent morning sickness, and drastically harm unborn children.
But, whilst
thalidomide rampaged and ravaged throughout most of the West, it never reached
the United States. It landed on the desk of Dr Frances Kelsey, and there it
stayed as she battled hierarchy, patriarchy, and the Establishment in an effort
to prove that it was dangerous. Frankie
is her story.
On April 26, 1999, BBC TV presenter Jill Dando was murdered outside her home in London. Barry George was convicted and imprisoned for the murder but was later acquitted after an appeal and retrial. Stand Against Injustice is the powerful memoir of the sister of Barry George. For the first time, Michelle Diskin Bates tells her story, the human side and truth behind one of recent history’s most high profile and damaging miscarriages of justice whose life is inextricably interwoven in the drama, the trauma, the conspiracy and the fight for justice. A self-confessed ‘ordinary housewife’, Michelle’s voice weaves the personal everyday struggles that bring depth, color, and passion into what is an extraordinary account. A troubled childhood weighted with overbearing responsibility, fear and insecurity, depression, and the challenges of marriage and adult relationships, Michelle’s life has never been easy. However, the one constant in her life – her faith in God – underpins and provides the foundation upon which she now stands – against injustice.
Charles and Ada: the
computer’s most passionate partnership
The partnership of Charles Babbage and Ada
Lovelace was one that would change science forever.
They were an unlikely pair – one the
professor son of a banker, the other the only child of an acclaimed poet and a
social-reforming mathematician – but perhaps that is why their work is so
revolutionary.
They were the pioneers of computer science,
creating plans for what could have been the first computer. They each saw
things the other did not; it may have been Charles who designed the machines,
but it was Ada who could see their potential.
But what were they like? And how did they
work together? Using previously unpublished correspondence between them , Charles and Ada explores the
relationship between two remarkable people who shared dreams far ahead of their
time.
‘Writing Fiction is a little pot of gold… Screenplay by Syd
Field for film, Writing Fiction by James Essinger for fiction. It’s that
simple.’
William Osborne,
novelist and screenwriter
Writing Fiction – a user-friendly
guide
is a must-read if you want to write stories to a professional standard.
It draws on the author’s more
than thirty years of experience as a professional writer, and on the work and
ideas of writers including:
Anthony Burgess
Joseph Conrad
George Eliot
Ken Follett
Frederick Forsyth
Dan Harmon
Ernest Hemingway
David Lodge
Norman Mailer
John Milton
Ben Parker
J.K. Rowling
William Shakespeare
Martin Cruz Smith
J.R.R. Tolkien
The twenty-four chapters cover
every important matter you need to know about, including: devising a compelling
story, creating and developing characters, plotting, ‘plants’, backstory,
suspense, dialogue, ‘show’ and ‘tell’, and how to make your novel more real
than reality.
Also featuring special guest
advice from legendary screenwriter Bob Gale, who wrote the three immortal Back
to the Future movies (1985, 1989 and 1990), and novelist and screenwriter
William Osborne, whose many screen credits include the co-writing of the
blockbuster Twins (1988), this
highly entertaining book gives you all the advice and practical guidance you
need to make your dream of becoming a published fiction writer come true.
Thanks to Rosie Crofts, who emails me with lists of books every now and then. I have quite a pile of books to get through so I’m doing themed review posts. In this case, Women’s History. The next one will be ‘True Crime’.
Has your motivation to write flown out of the window? Do feelings of self-doubt creep in and haunt your writing day? Looking for a way to beat the doubts into submission?
Award winning author and writing coach Wendy H. Jones shows you how, with 366 glorious exercises you can use to boost creativity and change the way you think and feel about your writing. Techniques that can easily be incorporated into your day, becoming part of your writing routine.
It’s time to change the way you think and feel, in order to set your creativity free.
Everything Is Better With Dragons 