21st Century Life

Our world is a turbulent and uncertain place and many of us are seeking answers but reading all the self-help books and going on the many retreats, in an attempt to find inner peace, doesn’t always give us what we are seeking. If this sounds like something you have been struggling with, then know you are not alone.

My journey has had its ups, downs and a whole lot in between and sometimes all we truly need is someone to explain their experiences to help us navigate our own path.

I won’t pretend I am morally perfect; I am a sinner in a broken world. Where I have been exposed to darkness, I have used my own inner light to battle it and I now find myself in a place where I want to help you make sense of this world gone mad, giving you inspiration on how to flourish, during this thing called life.

I am a butterfly woman. I have changed and grown and become something so beautiful, that I’m not sure the old me would recognise anymore. I will continue to lead my simple and peaceful life, knowing that I am enough, dropping into my intuitive intelligent heart and spreading my wings to fly. Delve in and accompany me on this ride, cosmic womb man.

The reader will find a veritable feast of delightful short stories and poetry in Crossroads as the authors write of topics ranging from suspense, city and crime to discovering a parody of poetry and stories about life with hope. Although developed during a difficult world-wide pandemic, they have written with humour and expectation, stating their viewpoints with feeling on a variety of subjects and thoughts about our world and its future.

Do black holes form links to other universes or are they the mothers of new Big Bangs? Is rising global population with improved standards of living the implicit cause of environmental catastrophe? Can religion and science ever be compatible?

These questions and many more are explored in Keeping up with Time. Dr Anisur Rahman, a retired nuclear safety specialist, has compiled 43 of his previously published articles on science and technology, global issues and religion. Intending to challenge readers’ perceptions of truth and reality, the author presents scientific theories, technical data and historical facts in a highly readable style.

The individual articles are short and thought-provoking, with complex topics explained clearly and concisely, using verified facts and unbiased analysis. The book is complemented by over 60 photographs and illustrations.

Scientific topics range from Newton to Einstein and include black holes, quantum mechanics and gravitational waves.

Global issues include the writings of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Nelson Mandela’s life story, climate change, and a discussion of Orwellian dystopia.

Religious topics include science and Islam, religion and morality, and the brutality of religious fanaticism.

Issues relating to the partition of India and Bengal and the creation of Pakistan and later Bangladesh are also discussed.

Covering a wide range of subject matter and current affairs, Keeping up with Time will doubtless inspire lively debate and further study among its readers.

Scanning across recent decades, Fractured Society: Causes, Effects and Resolutions looks at how human relations have been coming apart psychologically, a situation summarised by a failure to understand each other.

Young people seem more stressed than previous generations, while politics are now more polarised than for a long time past. Wherever you look, at gender relations, the working environment, responses to traumatic events and how people relate – positively and negatively – to their sense of place, there are profound strains on how we interact with each other.

But maybe all is not lost! Hugh Roberts examines how every situation can look better in context, applying lessons learned from many years working internationally with different cultures and value systems. He proposes a fresh approach to relationship building, based on empathy and understanding of individual agendas.

CV19 has brought communities a renewed sense of collective purpose with digital communication proving vital in sustaining relationships. However, the Internet needs to take its rightful place in, rather than take over, the slow re-building of mutual trust.

Fractured Society: Causes, Effects and Resolutions delivers an upbeat message advocating a better-connected world created through encouraging us to adopt a positive, empathetic approach to one another, replacing an approach shrouded in fear and mistrust of forming new acquaintances.

After graduating from the Universities of Oxford and Wales, author Hugh Roberts spent over forty-five years in planning, design and development consultancy for new towns and urban, industrial and regional infrastructure. He worked for some of the largest built environment consultancies in UK, the US and Australia and lived and worked in a wide range of countries throughout all six continents.

Following a series of professional journal publications, for example, in the Middle East Economic Digest, he wrote An Urban Profile of the Middle East published in 1979 (Croom Helm). They were taken over by Routledge/ Taylor & Francis who published it again in 2016. In 2017, he wrote Journeys with Open Eyes: Seeking Empathy with Strangers (i2i Publishing), a travelogue and biography of the projects and people with whom he interacted with across multiple working and domestic cultures worldwide.

The book is partly serious commentary on trends in urban development, but also anecdotal about bizarre situations – some mundane, others hilarious and a few even life-threatening – encountered through a long and varied career. Fractured Society: Causes, Effects and Resolutions is Hugh Roberts’ third.

Author Louis Harding had been on the reality TV circuit for years. He’d kissed girls on cue, playing along with sun, sea and sound engineers. But he’d never been involved with anything that sent him five-thousand miles across the globe to look into the world of cocaine.

The white stuff was just a party drug to the Manchester likely lad until Louis and three other presenters took on the mission of tracking down Colombian drug barons, hitmen and fixers to find out how ‘coke’ makes it from the jungle to the streets.

Suddenly the party is over, with battle lines and white lines both being drawn. Under the lights and on camera, Louis Harding is about to get more action than he ever expected…

This book was produced for the Australian Homeless Charity On My Feet.

“For six months it was wonderful. And then he changed and started to hit me. Sometimes so badly that I would pass out. I guess it’s the same with all domestic violence cases. You think you can help. You think it’s your fault. And he promises to change.” Fast forward five years and, of her involvement in On My Feet, she says:

“I could write a book on how On My Feet has helped me grow. I have become a better person, a person who believes in herself, a person who is growing friendships, a person who pushes past her anxiety and negative thoughts. A happier person and a more confident person.”

Unearthing Community Happiness creates the link between strong communities and the prevention of violence on our streets and suggests ways in which we can all contribute to creating harmony in a world that sometimes feels overwhelmingly troubled. Jan explains how, through her life experiences and witnessing other cultures, she has come to realise that society’s obsession with material things is a damaging force, and she demonstrates how that can alter our perceptions of what really matters.

The ideas she promotes in this book are for changes in direction towards lives which are more people and community focussed. If we are open to her thoughts, we can all make these changes, whether small or large. The changes can be as simple as joining a gardening group, walking with friends, reading to an older neighbour or cooking together. It is all about community, that often-overused word, but one which sums up what can lead to happiness, for ourselves and for others.

Unearthing Community Happiness talks of ways in which we can, if we are lucky, create something out of nothing. Jan describes projects with which she has been involved over many years, and also projects that have taken off in Wiveliscombe, Wellington, and beyond. What makes most of these initiatives special is that they are entirely community-based, with volunteers from all strands of society coming together to help, innovate, inspire, and involve.

Newcomers to the area speak about the great community they have moved into, without perhaps taking on board that it is the people who live here who are making the ideas happen.

Celebrating some of the history we were not taught in schools. From black Tudors to black Romans to black soldiers…Black History is All our History.

This true account of one of the most tumultuous years in human history may have been written by Anne Vickers but it is the story of every one of us who lived through the year 2020. Anne gives a personal account of life in the Yorkshire village and surrounding areas where she lives during the Coronavirus Pandemic of 2020.

She details the highs and lows she experienced. She tells the inspirational tale of a young boy’s magnificent fund-raising achievement, of her anguish at not being able to visit her elderly sick mother living in a care home, and how her friends and the community helped to support each other during this difficult time.

Les Mason approached the huge gates of the prison with apprehension; he rapped on a highly polished brass knocker and a fierce man in uniform appeared and beckoned him in. Nothing could have prepared him for what he would see, what he would witness, what he would become a part of or the dramatic effect it would have on his young life.

Prisons hold a profound fascination for people and the author grips the reader’s attention with a humorous but sometimes harrowing story inviting us into the unseen world of two of the most infamous prisons in Britain.

‘High Walls and Iron Bars’ is a true account of a Prison Officer’s long and dedicated career from the day of his recruitment until his eventual retirement. You will enjoy this book.

Les Mason approached the huge gates of the prison with apprehension; he rapped on a highly polished brass knocker and a fierce man in uniform appeared and beckoned him in. Nothing could have prepared him for what he would see, what he would witness, what he would become a part of or the dramatic effect it would have on his young life.

Prisons hold a profound fascination for people and the author grips the reader’s attention with a humorous but sometimes harrowing story inviting us into the unseen world of two of the most infamous prisons in Britain.

‘High Walls and Iron Bars’ is a true account of a Prison Officer’s long and dedicated career from the day of his recruitment until his eventual retirement. You will enjoy this book.

When Jan started overseeing the care of her elderly parents at the end of 2017, she discovered aspects of the law in social care which shocked her. It was during this time that she fought for nine months, on her father’s behalf, to enable him to return home, following being placed in a care home against his will.

Her journey for the following five years included managing varying aspects of care as well as under­taking it herself for her parents who lived on the other side of the country.

As varying challenges became apparent (only some of which are included here) she realised how many other people have these experiences which are mainly new to everyone, but frequently not shared.

After both her parents died she decided to walk the landscape from Sussex to Somerset to help her grieving process. This is her story of the physical walk together with memories of her parents and sharing experiences in social care in the hope that it will help others in the same situation. Jan lives in Wiveliscombe in Somerset and has a son and two beautiful grand-daughters. She has developed public health campaigns and has had a particular interest in the social impacts on mental health.

As part of this belief she has set up community projects to enable different generations to learn traditional skills and connect with their local landscape and history. She believes in equality, honouring difference and human rights (whatever your age) – and most of all the importance of caring communities.