Biography/Memoirs

Ernst Königsgarten was born in Brno in 1880. It was then part of the Austrian Empire and Ernst fenced for his country in the 1906 Olympics. His son Henry was also born in Brno, but moved with his mother first to Vienna in 1911 and then to Berlin in 1915. In 1930 he came to England where his mother and brother joined him after the Nazi annexation of Austria, but Ernst returned to Brno. What then happened to Ernst and other members of the family with the rising tide of Nazism, Henry never spoke about.

This book tells the story of how Henry’s son Michael, after discovering some family records in his mother’s attic, unearthed the full story of his family’s past – his father’s battles with the Home Office to obtain British nationality, the complex relationships of his romantic grandmother Lisi, and the ultimate fate of his grandfather Ernst and other family members at the hands of the Nazis.

So thorough were the Nazi records and so carefully have they been preserved that the inventories of Ernst’s confiscated possessions, some even with photographs, are still in existence today for all to read.

The Telling is a story of European Jewish identity set against the backdrop of the chronicles of one family, going back through history as far as Napoleonic times.

Author, Daniel Tabor, tracks the experiences and changing perceptions of his family as they find themselves having to move locations, often needing to flee oppression but also, to take up new opportunities.

The approach to the writing is based on the time-honoured Jewish tradition of older family members passing on their life stories and insights to younger ones, as one way of keeping the family culture alive.

The book looks back at those who lived many years ago during the nineteenth century in the days when the family was establishing itself in Europe, particularly in the Russian Pale and in Germany. These stories are combined with those of his more recent relatives who travelled in Europe, but also as far away as Israel and Australia, to find safe havens from oppression, or to make better lives for themselves.

How all these changes affected their perceptions of their identity is a central theme running through the book, as are the influence of the places they lived in, and how they remembered their life stories.

The book focuses heavily on the author’s parents, David and Hanna and their individual families. But Daniel Tabor brings in the life stories of other relatives on both sides of his family, too. Overall, the author has brought together the stories of twenty members of his family.

While there are tales of sadness, there are also many tales of joy as the family members set about making the most of their lives, dealing with numerous challenges thrown in their path, displaying perseverance, resilience, courage and determination along the way.

The book is written in an engaging anecdotal style and includes many evocative family testimonies and photos, providing a vivid picture of life in times gone by.

The Telling will appeal to those interested in Jewish history in general, Jewish family histories, the Holocaust, the formation and development of the modern state of Israel, the topic of people migration and also those interested in how others have overcome significant adversity to make a better life for themselves.

Over the days and weeks that followed, it was difficult to keep up with changes as new roads and buildings sprouted up at an alarming rate; I have to say that most were positive changes, with oil revenues allocated to the various Five-Year plans. Ports would be expanded, hospitals and schools created, airports completely built from scratch, and then a plethora of new shopping centres to prevent us going short of anything!

Sid Deeky was my Friend is a memoir recalling the days of expat life in Saudi Arabia between 1978-1985. From the daily rigour of port life to the sweeping deserts and hectic roads, Hunt’s convivial recounting of his time at the Port of Jeddah covers a broad range of experiences, landscapes and interactions.

Whether caught up in the daily drama of the port or cruising down Jeddah’s Corniche Road in a signature Datsun, Hunt’s account of expat life provides that sense of adventure which enticed so many members of Saudi Arabia’s immigrant communities in the first place.

Bright, poignant and occasionally tragic, this tale offers a window into expat life during an economic boom which utterly transformed the country — a transformation which would never have been possible without the immense effort of thousands of expats who migrated from Europe, Africa, the Americas and elsewhere in Asia in search of greater opportunities.

Most of us reach our seventies and can look back with some satisfaction on a life well-lived. In the case of the author of this book, Peter Ross, to have not only survived but retained his sanity, is a remarkable achievement in itself. Peter has had more glory days than most of us and attained great financial success beyond the wildest dreams of the majority. Conversely, he has suffered greatly at the hands of others he trusted.

This has also affected the lives of those he holds dear, his present wife and children.

The contents of this book will shock and horrify you. His childhood was beset with violence including being beaten and raped by those employed to look after and care for him. Almost any other man, after such a start would have been happy to find a quiet existence and humdrum employment. Not Peter, he was ambitious not only for himself but for others. He was happy to help anyone whose life he touched, but that did not stop the betrayals that pursued him.

This is a book to read and to wonder how Peter had the strength of mind to cope and fight back against not only his enemies but also a legal system that seemed determined to constantly knock him down but somehow after each occasion he retained his sanity and carried on.

His determination to fight for what is right and honest, whatever the cost to himself, shines out like a beacon throughout his remarkable story.

What follows is a brutally honest journey through a life marked by abandonment, violence, love, and regret. From a turbulent childhood scarred by neglect, to adulthood filled with relationships he struggled to sustain, David lays bare the moments that defined him – for better and worse.

Unflinching and deeply personal, Do You Know Who I Am? No, Neither Do I is not a search for sympathy, but for understanding. With raw candour, he explores how the past shapes the present, and whether change can ever outweigh the damage done.

At its heart lies a father’s plea – for his son to understand him, and perhaps, one day, to forgive him.

This is a story of identity, responsibility, and the lifelong fight to become someone better.

Who said, ‘An act of profound and infinite love’, and why are these words the title of this book? Read this exhilarating and moving account of extraordinary things done by ordinary people to find out. There are people alive in the world today who might not be if it wasn’t for Phil Lenton. This is the story of an unassuming man who assumed great importance, and quite a bit of fame, in different countries on different continents.

His story, and the stories of those he worked with, and of his father, should be far better known in his native country, Britain, just like the stories of countless other honourable, clever, funny and lovable working-class heroes. Read this unusual book – and pass it on when you have!

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.

Jane di Marco (nee Toynbee)was born in London in 1932 and brought up in the Home Counties. After Cambridge, (Blues in Tennis and Fencing) she taught Maths, then married a clergyman and had five children. After time in Ware and Edinburgh she moved to Batheaston, near Bath, where she is much involved with the Church, including time as churchwarden. She started writing short stories in the 90’s and had a novel ’Stirring the Waters’ published in 2016.

As well as the family, she enjoys walking and birdwatching.

Award winning journalist and broadcaster Steve Levinson takes you on a forty-five-year journey from the age of the hot metal linotype operator to the era of YouTube, social media and AI. His fascinating personal adventure from student newspaper to media entrepreneur follows what is regarded as the classic journalist career path – taking in provincial press, national news agency, Fleet Street daily, national TV news and on to the internet and beyond.

It is a journey that offers not only a unique insight but raises important questions about how changing technology has blurred the line between real and fake news.

This is a personal story containing many anecdotes alongside encounters with the likes of Margaret Thatcher, Nelson Mandela, business leaders and Nobel Prize Winners. You will also meet less famous but fascinating characters including militant coal miners, eighty-year-old tea boys, and boozy journalists in backstreet pubs.

So what happened to the era of scrambling to find public phone boxes, of smoke filled newsrooms, clanking typewriters, hot metal presses and cuttings libraries? Has the media world that has replaced it, the new world of mobile phones, bloggers, video journalists, internet searches, social media and AI made things better or as seems more likely, undermined the foundations of good journalism?

In this book, the author shows the extent to which these changes raise the question: ‘Is Good Journalism Dead?’

Steve Levinson has been one of Britain’s leading journalists and broadcasters for almost half a century. He has worked for many of the UK’s top news organisations including the Press Association, the BBC, the Independent and Channel 4 News. He is married with two grown children and now spends his time as a media consultant and a Blue Badge guide. He is a lifelong fan of Tottenham Hotspur, an association which had a big impact on the start of his career.

This is the true story of the kidnap for ransom of Colin Armstrong, a former British Consul to Ecuador, and his girlfriend, Kate, on 15th December 2023. Against the background of an ever more violent Ecuador, which in recent years has seen the proliferation of Narco gangs, he had been warned many times not to take chances, to use an armoured vehicle with an escort, and to alter the route and times he drove to his ranch. But he laughed it off. Until the day it happened.

After his release, his lifestyle changed dramatically. Habits of fifty years have to go. He has to relearn and adapt his life to what is possible. The Ecuador he loved has vanished to become a dangerous state. His personal situation with his family has to change too. The press coverage of the kidnap makes it impossible to carry on as before.

In addition to charting the consequences of the kidnap, the book is also a travelogue of his life for the twelve months after his release, with fascinating details of ultra-luxury travel to Antarctica, plus earlier trips to Japan, the Galapagos Islands, Everest, and a Rwanda safari.

Brandon Smith-Johnson, a young man from Huddersfield with British, Romany gypsy and Jamaican heritage, dreams of a successful future engaging in creativity through writing, photography, art and custom clothing whilst feeling different to everyone around him. At Leeds City College he meets Lauren and the pair navigate adolescence and enter adulthood together.

Brandon inhabits many environments across West Yorkshire from his mother’s house, to Lauren’s family home, to B&B’s home to addicts, to lost youth hostels and to troubled people hotels. The Crypt, a homeless shelter, is where the pair live from which trouble and torment follow. They are relentlessly preyed upon by the lost, criminals and addicts through manipulation and violence.

Lauren and Brandon indulge in drinking and substances, exacerbating their struggles with mental health as they become increasingly unstable. They face being stolen from, overdoses, psych ward stays and arrests based on misunderstandings. But Brandon finds he can attain a sense of peace by connecting to nature through camping in the Lake District and when taking a boat ride by the Swiss Alps.

Caught between pursuing escapism and wanting to break free from pain and poverty to achieve something meaningful, Brandon realises he must learn what he truly desires, who he really is, how to take care of himself and how to make life worth living before it is too late and he loses both the ongoing battle inside his mind and the relationships in his life.

Guildford Crown Court May 2022.

It could have gone either way. Six months earlier I had been extradited from Italy on an International Arrest Warrant for Drug Trafficking. One month in Rebibbia in Rome and five months on remand in High Down and Wanno. How did it get to this point? What errors had I made to be looking at 20 years in the Big House?

You’d have to go back a few years. Growing up in the 80’s was a brilliant time, Ska music, Paul Weller, The Casual Look, Football and at the end of the 80’s…Acid House. I can still remember my first E, I stopped off at McDonalds in Kensington and necked half a capsule of MDMA with my mate Ben, RIP. Fuck all happened and I even ended up having a fight in the club! That would have been early 88 at one of Philip Sallon’s nights.

After loads more pills, it was on to the old chop chop and Energy raves in Surrey, Love Parades in Berlin.

Throw in Boy George, Mr C, Dr. Motte, The London Posse, Mad Mick from Moss Side, Patpong, Koh Samui, The Cock Tavern in Somerstown, Arsenal, Samson and Scotty, Melbourne, Dave Beasant and you start to see how it all came to be.

Bryan Charnley: Art and Adversity combines biography and monograph. The painter’s life defined his art, his art defined his life. James Charnley was witness to the adversities experienced by his twin and the evolution of his art. His book surveys the artist’s childhood, adolescence and the madness that was to afflict his life and found consummate expression in the paintings.

Augmented by interviews, journals, medical records, letters and diaries this book provides an informed and fascinating study of a turbulent life and the art this inspired. Bryan Charnley was a gifted artist who applied his painterly skills to describe the invisible: mental anguish is largely internalised. The works he created use metaphorical imagery to describe existential dilemmas. It was by such devices the artist intended to restore painting to its inceptive purpose and conviction.

Bryan Charnley: Art and Adversity presents his paintings with all their colour, intensity and eloquence.