Review: Through A Vet’s Eyes, By Dr Sean Wensley

Gaia | £20.00 | 28th April 2022

Dr Sean Wensley is an award-winning vet and lifelong naturalist who has contributed to animal welfare and conservation projects all over the world. His debut book is about how we can choose a better life for animals, from the chickens we eat to the pets we keep.
As our societies become more urbanised, we are further removed from the reality of where and how our food is produced. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the humanisation of our pets is a risk to their welfare; with 60% of UK dogs being overweight or obese, we are effectively killing them with kindness. Through a Vet’s Eyes seeks to redress this imbalance so that we see all animals as thinking, feeling beings not dissimilar to ourselves.

There is high public and political interest in animal welfare, with current attention focused on high-profile topics such as animal sentience, humane and sustainable global agriculture and breeding pets, such as flat-faced dogs, for looks over health. To fully consider and improve the lives of animals, evidence-based information is needed to help us all understand these issues, what they mean from the animals’ perspectives and what we can all do to help.

A polemic with elements of memoir and nature writing, the book takes us through the years in which Sean trained to become a vet and shares his first-hand experience of how animals are treated and used for our benefit. It interrogates the different levels of welfare afforded to them and reveals
how we, as consumers and informed citizens, can reduce our animal welfare footprint through the choices we make every single day.

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Review: The Blood Trials, by N.E. Davenport

│14 APRIL 2022│
PB £8.99│EB £5.49│EA £12.99

Blending fantasy and science fiction, N.E. Davenport’s fast-paced, action-packed debut kicks off a duology on loyalty and rebellion, in which a young Black woman must survive deadly trials in a racist and misogynistic society to become an elite warrior.

It’s all about blood.

Blood spilled long ago between the Republic of Mareen and the armies of the Blood Emperor, ending all blood magic.

Now there is peace in the Republic – but there is also a strict class system, misogyny, and racism. Her world is not perfect, but Ikenna survived in it.

Until now.

With the murder of her grandfather, Ikenna spirals out of control. Though she is an initiate for the Republic’s deadly elite military force, Ikenna has a secret only her grandfather knew: she possesses the blood magic of the Republic’s enemies.

Ikenna throws herself into the gladiatorial war games at the heart of her martial world: trials that will lead her closer to his killers. Under the spotlight, she subjects herself to abuse from a society that does not value her, that cherishes lineage over talent – all while hiding gifts that, if revealed, would lead to execution or worse. Ikenna is willing to risk it all to find out who killed her grandfather…

So she can end them.

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Review: Anthracite, by Matt Thomas

PAPERBACK 978-1-78965-147-8
5 August 2021
£10.99 / $14.99 / C$19.99 /€11.66
Science Fiction /
Humorous

Blurb

Deadbeat Kevin Jones finds himself kidnapped to an alternative reality where Wales is the single global superpower. Abducted from his mundane existence by the mysterious Gwen, she tells him there are forces seeking his destruction – he has to run or die. It turns out Kevin’s story holds the key to why all worlds but ours turn out the way they do – Pax Cambria.

Featuring a host of mysterious characters, cheese-on-toast based fast food, altright druids and the deadly all-knowing Taffia, Anthracite begins the battle to address the woeful lack of Welsh themed comedy cyberpunk. The fearsome Jones-Corporation might run the world but they have a dirty little secret they don’t want to get out. Swansea has never looked more like near-future LA. It’s already got the rain.

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Extract Post: Grudge Match, by Robert B Parker

Pub. Date: 16 November 2020
Price: £9.99
ISBN: 978-0-85730-402-5
Binding: Paperback

Robert B. Parker’s beloved PI Sunny Randall returns on a case that blurs the line between friend and foe… and if Sunny can’t tell the difference, the consequences may be deadly.

When Sunny’s long-time gangster associate Tony Marcus comes to her for help, Sunny is surprised – after all, she double-crossed him on a recent deal, and their relationship is on shakier ground than ever.
But the way Tony figures it, Sunny owes him, and she is willing to consider his case if it will clear the slate.

Tony’s trusted girlfriend and business partner has vanished, appearing to have left in a hurry, and he has no idea why. He just wants to talk to her, he says. While Sunny isn’t willing to trust his good intentions, the missing woman intrigues her – against all odds, she’s risen to a position of power in
Tony’s criminal enterprise. Sunny can’t help but admire her and, if this woman’s in a jam, she would like to help.

But when a witness is murdered hours after speaking to Sunny, it’s clear there’s more at stake than just Tony’s love life. Someone – maybe even Tony himself – doesn’t want this woman on the loose…and will go to any lengths to make sure she stays silent.

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Guest Post from ILANA ESTELLE about her new book

  • Publisher : RedDoor Press (2 Jan. 2020)
  • Language: : English
  • Paperback : 288 pages
  • ISBN-10 : 1913062112
  • ISBN-13 : 978-1913062118

Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cerebral-Palsy-Story-Finding-After/dp/1913062112

Bookshop.org : https://uk.bookshop.org/books/cerebral-palsy-a-story-finding-the-calm-after-the-storm/9781913062118

BLURB

Living with cerebral palsy is enormously difficult. But what if you never knew you had it?

This is the incredible story of Ilana Estelle.

Born the second of premature twins, an hour apart, from a young age Ilana knew she was different, but for all the wrong reasons. A child of the 60s, Ilana experienced first-hand the way that disability was, at the time, so often brushed under the carpet, not spoken about. Her constant physical and mental struggles made her feel isolated, alone, frustrated, and misunderstood. It took 46 years for her to find out why.

Part memoir, part motivational guide, Cerebral Palsy: My story is Ilana’s open and honest journey from an angry, confused child, knowing something was wrong, not knowing what was wrong, what her disability was, or that there was a diagnosis – to the ‘real’ her – a courageous woman using her experiences and lessons to create inspiring messages about mental and physical health, resilience and change.

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