Everything Is Better With Dragons

Review: ‘Start’, by #Graham Morgan,#FledglingPress, #LoveBooksGroupTours

Published By: Fledgling Press

Publication: 1 October 2018

I.S.B.N.: 9781912280070

Format: Paperback

Price: £11.99

ISBN 9781912280087

Format: Ebook

Price: £5.99

Blurb

Graham Morgan has an MBE for services to mental health, and helped to write the Scottish Mental Health (2003) Care and Treatment Act. This is the Act under which he is now detained.

Graham’s story addresses key issues around mental illness, a topic which is very much in the public sphere at the moment. However, it addresses mental illness from a perspective that is not heard frequently: that of those whose illness is so severe that they are subject to the Mental Health Act.

Graham’s is a positive story rooted in the natural world that Graham values greatly, which shows that, even with considerable barriers, people can work and lead responsible and independent lives; albeit with support from friends and mental health professionals. Graham does not gloss over or glamorise mental illness, instead he tries to show, despite the devastating impact mental illness can have both on those with the illness and those that are close to them, that people can live full and positive lives. A final chapter, bringing the reader up to date some years after Graham has been detained again, shows him living a fulfilling and productive life with his new family, coping with the symptoms that he still struggles to accept are an illness, and preparing to address the United Nations later in the year in his new role working with the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Start-Under-Compulsory-Community-Treatment-ebook/dp/B07JBCVK54/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1542728968&sr=1-1&keywords=start+graham+morgan

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All done for the year

All my scheduled reviews are done for the year, books read and written up. There’s a couple of the scheduled reviews to post but that all set up so nothing to worry about there.

And I’ve started on next year already…

Well, scheduling tour calendar and review posts anyway. I’ve also started reading the first book of the year to get a review, on New Year’s Day. It’s a crime novel set in a posh US boarding school, that HQ sent me earlier in the month. I’m enjoying it so far. i’m going to get the usual monthly schedule of reviews written and posted so you can see what’s coming up next year. My calendar is full for January already. February is a bit sparse but I think March is also full. Lots of crime, as well as my unscheduled, bonus, history non-fiction reviews.

There will be a couple of my Pen & Sword stash books reviewed between now and Xmas, too.

After all, I need to get them read before I hand them out as gifts…

Blog Tour Calendar: ‘Start’, by Graham Morgan

The tour for this autobiography starts today, and my review will be up on Wednesday. I can’t wait for you to read the review. All I’m going to say now is that I highly recommend it.

Review: ‘Scampy Doodle and the Reindeer’, by GJ Barnes

Release Date: 4^th December 2017
Genre: Picture Book
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Clink Street Publishing
Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43020585-scampy-doodle-and-the-reindeer
Amazon Link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Scampy-Doodle-Reindeer-G-Barnes-ebook/dp/B07KC2NY77

Blurb

Scampy Doodle is a happy go lucky black dog who has a strong nose for adventure. It’s Christmas Eve and Scampy Doodle is fast asleep when he is woken by a strange noise coming from the chimney. Discover what happens when he goes to investigate and gets the greatest surprise of his life!

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Review: ‘The Other Miss Bates’, by Allie Cresswell

Blurb

Jane Bates has left Highbury to become the companion of the invalid widow Mrs Sealy in Brighton. Life in the new, fashionable seasideresort is exciting indeed. A wide circle of interesting acquaintance and a rich tapestry of new experiences – balls at the Assembly rooms, carriage rides and promenades on the Steyne – make her new life all Jane had hoped for.

While Jane’s sister Hetty can be a tiresome conversationalist she proves to be a surprisingly good correspondent and Jane is kept minutely up-to-date with developments in Highbury, particularly the tragic news from Donwell Abbey.

When handsome Lieutenant Weston returns to Brighton Jane expects their attachment to pick up where it left off in Highbury the previous Christmas, but the determined Miss Louisa Churchill, newly arrived with her brother and sister-in-law from Enscombe in Yorkshire, seems to have a different plan in mind.

Purchase Link https://www.amazon.co.uk/Other-Miss-Bates-Highbury-inspired-ebook/dp/B07KRCYPXT

Final result

It’s officially official now. I checked blackboard.

I have passed my MA with Merit. Graduation is 23rd January 2019.

I can’t decide whether to focus on finishing Charlie’s War, Fire Storm and Her Last Death before going on to apply for PhD courses or try and juggle them all.

Publisher: Pen & Sword

Price: £15.99

Format: Hardback

Blurb

In the eighty years between 1787 and 1868 more than 160,000 men, women and children convicted of everything from picking pockets to murder were sentenced to be transported ‘beyond the seas’. These convicts were destined to serve out their sentences in the empire’s most remote colony: Australia. Through vivid real-life case studies and famous tales of the exceptional and extraordinary, Convicts in the Colonies narrates the history of convict transportation to Australia – from the first to the final fleet.

Using the latest original research, Convicts in the Colonies reveals a fascinating century-long history of British convicts unlike any other. Covering everything from crime and sentencing in Britain and the perilous voyage to Australia, to life in each of the three main penal colonies – New South Wales, Van Diemen’s Land, and Western Australia – this book charts the lives and experiences of the men and women who crossed the world and underwent one of the most extraordinary punishment in history.

Review: ‘The Silent Dead’, by Graham Smith

The Silent Dead: A gripping crime thriller with a stunning twist by [Smith, Graham]

Published By: Bookouture

Publication Date: 30th November 2018

Format: Kindle

Price: 99p

Purchase Link

Blurb

He’d found an angel for his collection. But one angel at a time was never enough…

Detective Beth Young has just joined the Cumbrian major crimes team when a body is found posed in a ritualistic manner – arms spread and graceful wings attached – at a crumbling castle in the hills of the Lake District.

The entire police force are on red alert. But Beth begins to feel she’s the only one who can follow the disturbing clues left by the twisted killer. Because she doesn’t think like everyone else. To Beth, crimes are puzzles she can solve. Even if real life is a little harder.

As more bodies are discovered in derelict stately homes across the Lake District, she knows she’s in a race against time.

But the killer is looking for another victim to add to his collection… Will Beth be able to save her? Or will he get there first?

A tenacious young detective with scars both physical and emotional, Beth Young will stop at nothing in her fight for justice for the innocent. The Silent Dead is the first book in the series. Set in the Lake District, it is perfect for fans of Joy Ellis, LJ Ross, and Peter James.

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