Crime reporter Charlie Foster teams up with his friends Professor Ian Robertson MD (retired) and John Drake SAS (retired)to try and solve the mysterious reappearance of the legendary 'Spring-heeled Jack'. In the meanwhile, Detective Inspector Fred Tingwell is busy dealing with a murderer who is intent on shortening the lives of prostitutes in the Whitechapel area of London. The murderers actions have a striking similarity to 'Jack the Ripper' of old. Together, with his old mate Fred Tingwell, Charlie Foster & Co try to solve the riddle which is 'Spring-heeled Jack' and the perplexing case of the new Whitechapel murderer. All the while, Charle's powers grow...
In 1920 a young man, Walter Murray, spent a year in a derelict cottage, Copsford, working in lonely countryside among the wild animals and birds, with only a dog, Floss, for companionship. From the beginning, Murray has to fight not only the rats that infest his inhospitable house, and the elements outside, but also a loneliness that he finds soul-shatteringly oppressive. But Murray comes to delight in his simple life, despite its deprivations. Above all, he appreciates the wildlife he experiences in meadow and woodland, the animals and insects, birds and butterflies. And he comes to a deeper understanding of plants and trees, the sun, wind, rain, frost and snow. Copsford is an under-appreciated classic of the English countryside, delighting not only in flora and fauna, but in scent, colour, sound and movement. In beautiful and sensitive prose Murray expresses a vivid depth of feeling for nature that makes Copsford a tour de force of nature mysticism. This new edition also contains Murray's essay, 'Voices of Trees', and an Introduction by R.B. Russell
It is 1923 and Evangeline English, keen lady cyclist, arrives with her sister Lizzie and their zealous leader Millicent at the ancient city of Kashgar to establish a mission. As they encounter resistance and calamity, Eva commences work on her Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar...In present-day London, Frieda opens her door to find a man sleeping on the landing. Tayeb, a Yemeni refugee, has arrived in Frieda's life just as she learns that she is next-of-kin to a stranger, a woman whose abandoned flat contains many surprises. The two wanderers embark on a journey that is as great, and as unexpected, as Eva's.
Unfortunately, we've all seen it happen. When faced with a problem, rather than working cooperatively to come up with a solution, your manager or colleagues come swooping in, squawking loudly, dump orders riddled with formulaic advice, and then take off, leaving you and everyone else to clean up the mess. Or—let's be honest: there may have been a time (or three) when you have been guilty of doing that very thing yourself. While this happens in every workplace worldwide more frequently than ever, it doesn't have to. Through the story of Charlie, a seagull who doesn't understand how his management actions are holding back his flock, Travis Bradberry, Ph.D., reveals the three virtues of great leadership that he has used to help thousands of people and organizations deal with seagull managers in the workplace and, just as important, to avoid being one themselves. Charlie the seagull is a well-intentioned manager who, when faced with new challenges after previously leading his flock to success, fails to understand how his management style is holding back, rather than helping, his team. Through our bird's-eye view of Charlie, overconfident Scott, quiet Maya, practical Yufan, and skinny, shy Alfred, we see them and the rest of the flock struggle to solve their problems while absorbing the three virtues of great leadership and teamwork along the way. This entertaining and illuminating fable will help make us all more productive, less prone to depositing messes on the heads of those around us, and more able to work effectively with those who continue to squawk at us every day.
A classis study of outsider (and outlaw) poets of the American West, covering the poetry and jazz scence, San Francisco poetry, the Beats and their heirs, K. Rexroth, the emergence of Zen/Buddhist poetry, poetry against the Vietnam war and ecopoetry.