Non-fiction – Page 26 – Everything Is Better With Dragons

Review: ‘Living Large: Wilna Hervey and Nan Mason’, By Joseph P. Eckhardt

Publication Date: June 1, 2015

ISBN: 9760967926889

Format: Hardback (I received a PDF copy)

Price: £30.50 (Amazon.co.uk)

Blurb

Living Large: Wilna Hervey and Nan Mason, by noted silent film historian Joseph P. Eckhardt, is by turns a rollicking dual biography and a sweet love story. Wilna Hervey—a six-foot-three-inch, three-hundred-pound heiress—won the role of “The Powerful Katrinka” in the Toonerville Trolley comedies of the early nineteen-twenties through her impressive size. Her evocation of Katrinka was so successful that it became a permanent part of her identity.

Wilna’s movie work brought her something else that would long endure—a partner for life. While filming on location in the Philadelphia suburbs, Wilna Hervey met Nan Mason, the surprisingly tall daughter of her Toonerville co-star, Dan Mason. Wilna and Nan became close friends and ultimately life partners.

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Review: ‘Death, Disease, and Dissection: The Life of a Surgeon-Apothecary 1750 – 1850’, by Suzie Grogan

Published by: Pen and Sword

Publication Date: 30th October 2017

I.S.B.N.: 9781473823532

Format: Paperback

Price: £12.99

Blurb

Imagine performing surgery on a patient without anaesthetic, administering medicine that could kill or cure. Welcome to the world of the surgeon-apothecary…During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries significant changes occurred in medicine. New treatments were developed and medical training improved. Yet, with doctors’ fees out of the reach of ordinary people, most relied on the advice of their local apothecary, among them, the poet John Keats, who worked at Guys Hospital in London. These men were the general practitioners of their time, making up pills and potions for everything from toothache to childbirth. Death, Disease and Dissection examines the vital role these men played their training, the role they played within their communities, the treatments they offered, both quack and reputable against the shocking sights and sounds in hospitals and operating theatres of the time. Suzie Grogan transports readers through 100 years of medical history, exploring the impact of illness and death and bringing the experiences of the surgeon apothecary vividly to life.

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Review: ‘Answers From Heaven: Incredible True Stories of Heavenly Encounters and the Afterlife’, by Theresa Cheung & Claire Broad

AnswersfromHeaven_ClaireBroad - Copy

Published By: Piaktus

Publication Date: 2nd November 2017

Format: Paperback

I.S.B.N.: 978-0349413020

Price: £8.99

Blurb

Answers from Heaven: Incredible True Stories of Heavenly Encounters and the Afterlife

Answers from Heaven will be an authoritative, modern up to date classic book about afterlife communication.

Through true life stories of ordinary people who have had paranormal experiences, bestselling author Theresa Cheung and medium Claire Broad will show the various different ways that heaven is trying to answer our prayers, offer us comfort and provide proof of survival.

Chapters include:
1. Messages from the other side
2. Dreams from heaven
3. Living and loving creatures in spirit
4. Love from above
5. Heaven is calling
6. Conversations from Spirit
7. Answers from higher realms
8. Is anybody there?
9. Your own answers from heaven.

By the end it is hoped that readers will have lost some of their fear of death, be more aware of when the spirit world is trying to contact them, have greater awareness of the scientific research available, understand that mediumship is an expression of eternal love and nothing to be feared and that it’s possible for us all to ask questions and receive answers from the world of spirit.

Purchase from Amazon UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Answers-Heaven-Incredible-Encounters-Afterlife-ebook/dp/B0714B4RQ9/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1508246564&sr=1-1&keywords=answers+from+heaven

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

Theresa Cheung was born into a family of spiritualists and has a Masters in Theology and English from King’s College, Cambridge. She has sold almost half a million books and encyclopaedias about the psychic world, the afterlife and personal transformation over twenty years. Her spiritual books Heaven Called My Name (Piatkus 2016) and An Angel Healed Me (Simon & Schuster 2010) became Sunday Times Top 10 bestsellers and have been translated into thirty languages.

For more information please visit http://www.theresacheung.com or follow her on Facebook @TheresaCheungAuthor

Claire Broad is an Institute of Spiritualist Mediums Registered and Approved Medium with over twenty years professional experience providing private sittings, public speaking and workshops. She is an experienced guest speaker who has contributed to many spiritual awareness events and has read for an eclectic mix of clients, including those from the scientific and medical communities. Before Mediumship, Claire worked in advertising and entertainment at several major firms including The Walt Disney Company Ltd. She lives in Hampshire with her family.

Claire Broad, Sunday Mirror (preferred)

http://www.clairevoyant.co.uk or follow her on Facebook @mediumclairebroad

Received in return for an honest review, from Authoright

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Vandals on the trains

On Sunday night someone damaged the signals between Doncaster and Meadowhall, meaning that stretch of line was out of use all day. It was being treat as a major crime scene. The staff working for Northern and TransPennine Express on trains and at the stations did their best but there was a lot of confusion, especially at Doncaster in the morning.

I don’t much care about train companies losing money because they make enough profit and don’t put much back into the train network, but I do care about the people, me included, who were inconvenienced and distressed by it all. As you know, one of the traits of my Aspergers is that I get seriously distressed by changes to plans. It right put me out and took at least an hour of mini golf to put me back in a fun mood. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one; people were desperate to get to work, or home, catch other trains or flights, or spend a day with their kids or friends doing something fun.

Punishment for a bit of property damage, where no one is harmed (harm being loss of a home, a means to earn a living, life etc.) seems a bit over the top to me, even though yesterday I wanted to kill the vandals, but at what point does it become a case of that property damage has caused more harm to individuals and/or a community, the commons, and serious punishment is just?

If a train company decides it’s cutting too much into their profits to put on replacement coaches or do the repairs so ‘sorry, we’re not running a service on that line anymore’ and leaves people dependant on the trains stranded; if someone misses an important medical appointment and suffers for longer because of the delays; a person loses their job because they got to work late or couldn’t get to work at all? How much harm has to be caused to the community, not the profits of rail companies and their shareholders, by vandalism, and how should it be punished?

I spend far to much time thinking about this stuff.

Review: ‘The Truth about Lagertha and Ragnar’, by Rachel Tsoumbakos

Vikings: The Truth About Lagertha And Ragnar: A historically accurate retelling of the ninth book of the Gesta Danorum (Viking Secrets 1) by [Tsoumbakos, Rachel] Published by: Myrddin Publishing Group

Publication Date: 15th October 2017

Format: Kindle e-book

Price: £0.99

Blurb

Lagertha was known to be one of the wives of the famous Viking, Ragnar Lodbrok. But did you know they first met each other at a brothel? And just how long did their marriage last? Was Lagertha really the revered shield maiden we see her as today? ‘Vikings: The Truth About Lagertha And Ragnar’ aims to unravel all these secrets.

‘Vikings: The Truth About Lagertha And Ragnar’ is so much more than a history book though.

In Part One their story is brought to life with a historically accurate retelling. Part Two then explores the historical facts surrounding this story.

‘Vikings: The Truth About Lagertha And Ragnar’ aims to discover just how much of what we know of the shield maiden, Lagertha, and the famous Ragnar Lodbrok in popular culture today is actually true.

The ‘Viking Secrets’ series explores the historical fact from present day fiction in regards to the Vikings and other key historical figures that existed in the Viking era.Lagertha was known to be one of the wives of the famous Viking, Ragnar Lodbrok. But did you know they first met each other at a brothel? And just how long did their marriage last? Was Lagertha really the revered shield maiden we see her as today? ‘Vikings: The Truth About Lagertha And Ragnar’ aims to unravel all these secrets.

‘Vikings: The Truth About Lagertha And Ragnar’ is so much more than a history book though.

In Part One their story is brought to life with a historically accurate retelling. Part Two then explores the historical facts surrounding this story.

‘Vikings: The Truth About Lagertha And Ragnar’ aims to discover just how much of what we know of the shield maiden, Lagertha, and the famous Ragnar Lodbrok in popular culture today is actually true.

The ‘Viking Secrets’ series explores the historical fact from present day fiction in regards to the Vikings and other key historical figures that existed in the Viking era.

Continue reading “Review: ‘The Truth about Lagertha and Ragnar’, by Rachel Tsoumbakos”

Review: ‘Asia Literacy and GLobal Competence: Collections And Recollections’, by Alicia Su Lozeron

Published By: Asia-America Connection Society

Publication Date: 28th September

I.S.B.N.: 9780998194158

Format: Available as E-book or Hardback

Price: £2.36 (Kindle E-book), £16.12 (Hardback)

Blurb

An irresistible shift of global power renders awareness about global competence ever more important. Through her collection of vignettes and articles about Asia and the world, Alicia Su Lozeron brings the Asian segment onto the western stage. She aims to raise that awareness and connects the West to the East by researching and analysing facts as well as describing experiences of cross-cultural nature. Her content is compelling, and her tales, beautifully narrated.

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Review: ‘A Secret History of Brands’, by Matt MacNabb

A Secret History of Brands Published By: Pen & Sword History

Publication Date: 4th September 2017

I.S.B.N.: 9781473894174

Format: Paperback

Price: £12.99

Blurb

We live our lives immersed in name brand products. It’s hard to drive down the street without seeing a plethora of chain restaurants, car dealerships, branded clothing they’re all around us. What most of us don’t know is that the origins of many of the most well-known and beloved brands in the world are shrouded in controversy, drug use and sometimes even addled with blatant racism.

A Secret History of Brands cuts through the rumours and urban legends and paints a picture of the true dark history of famous brands, like Coca-Cola, Hugo Boss, Adidas, Ford, Bayer, Chanel and BMW among others. Explore the mystery of the cocaine content of Coca-Cola, the Hitler-Henry Ford connection and why Bayer is famous for Asprin, but began their journey with Heroin, and how Kellogg’s Corn Flakes were crafted to deter sexual arousal. Thoroughly researched, MacNabb details first-hand conducted interviews alongside fairly weighed research to present the decisive view of brands histories that you haven’t heard of yet.

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Review: ‘A Visitor’s Guide To Georgian England’, by Monica Hall

A Visitor's Guide to Georgian England

Published By: Pen & Sword History

Publication Date: 4th September 2017

I.S.B.N.: 9781473876859

Format: Paperback

Price: £12.99

Blurb

Could you successfully be a Georgian? Find yourself immersed in the pivotal world of Georgian England, exciting times to live in as everything was booming; the Industrial Revolution, the Enlightenment, and the nascent Empire; inhabited by Mary Shelley, the Romantic Poets and their contemporaries. However, rather than just wondering about the famous or infamous, you will find everything you need to know in order to survive undetected among the ordinary people. What to wear, how to behave yourself in public, earn a living, and find somewhere to live. Very importantly, you will be given advice on how to stay on the right side of the law, and how to avoid getting seriously ill. Monica Hall creatively awakens this bygone era, filling the pages with all aspects of daily life within the period, calling upon diaries, illustrations, letters, poetry, prose, 18th century laws and archives. This detailed account intimately explores the ever changing lives of those who lived through Britain’s imperial prowess, the birth of modern capitalism, the reverence of the industrial revolution and the upheaval of great political reform and class division. A Visitor’s Guide to Georgian England will appeal to Romantic poetry lovers, social history fans, fiction and drama lovers, students and anyone with an interest in this revolutionary era.

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Review: ‘Fatal Evidence’, by Helen Barrell

a Fatal Evidence

Published By: Pen & Sword History

Publication Date: 4th September 2017

I.S.B.N.: 9781473883413

Format: Hardback

Price: £15.99

Blurb

If there was a suspected poisoning in Victorian Britain, Professor Alfred Swaine Taylor was one of the toxicologists whose opinion would be sought. A surgeon and chemist at Guy’s Hospital in London, he used new techniques to search human remains for evidence that had previously been unseen. As well as finding telltale crystals of poison in test tubes, he could identify blood on clothing and weapons, and he used hair and fibre analysis to catch killers.

Taylor is perhaps best remembered as an expert witness at one of Victorian England’s most infamous trials – that of William Palmer, ‘The Rugeley Poisoner’. The case of the strychnine that wasn’t there haunted Taylor, setting up controversial rivalries with other scientists that would last decades. It overshadowed his involvement in hundreds of other intriguing cases, such as The Waterloo Bridge Mystery; The Great Fire of Newcastle and Gateshead; and the investigation into female impersonators, Boulton and Park. Crime struck even at the heart of Taylor’s own family, when his nephew’s death became the focus of The Eastbourne Manslaughter.

Taylor wrote many books and articles on forensic medicine; he became required reading for all nineteenth-century medical students. He gave Charles Dickens a tour of his laboratory, and Wilkie Collins owned copies of his books on poisons. Taylor’s work was known to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and he inspired the creation of fictional forensic detective Dr Thorndyke; for Dorothy L. Sayers, Taylor’s books were ‘the back doors to death’.

From crime scene to laboratory to courtroom – and sometimes to the gallows – this is the world of Alfred Swaine Taylor and his fatal evidence.

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Review: ‘Ribbons Among The Rajahs’, by Patrick Wheeler

Ribbons Among the Rajahs
Published By: Pen & Sword History
Published: 12th June 2017
ISBN: 9781473893276

Blurb

From the mid-eighteenth century onward, British women started travelling in any numbers to the East Indies, mostly to accompany husbands, brothers or fathers. Very little about them is recorded from the earlier years, about the remarkable journeys that they made and what drove them to travel those huge distances. Some kept journals, others wrote letters, and for the first time Patrick Wheeler tells their story in this fascinating and colourful history, exploring the little-known lives of these women and their experiences of life in India before the Raj. With a perceptive approach, Ribbons Among the Rajahs considers all aspects of women’s lives in India, from the original discomfort of traversing the globe and the complexities of arrival through to creating a home in a tight-knit settlement community. It considers, too, the effects of the subservience of women to the needs of men and argues for the fusion of European and Indian cultures that existed before imperial times.

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