More success for our alumni authors

Aug 2020 - Celebrating our Alumni authors

Massive congratulations to our alumni authors who have had their books published.

Take a look at the latest books available from our alumni authors:

Dr Owen Abbott (PhD in Sociology, 2017) published The Self, Relational Sociology and Morality in Practice last year which was recently awarded the prestigious British Sociological Association Philip Abrams Memorial Prize 2020 for best first and sole-authored book. Congratualtions Owen.

Providing a theory of moral practice for a contemporary sociological audience, Owen Abbott shows that morality is a relational practice achieved by people in their everyday lives. He moves beyond old dualisms—society versus the individual, social structure versus agency, body versus mind—to offer a sociologically rigorous and coherent theory of the relational constitution of the self and moral practice, which is both shared and yet enacted from an individualized perspective.

This book is available to buy online.

Bebe Ashley's (Liberal Arts, 2017) debut poetry collection, Gold Light Shining will be published in October 

In her debut collection of poetry, Bebe Ashley spins gold from the detritus of the internet. A landscape often depicted as a wasteland is illuminated in poems that explore celebrity, obsession, sexuality, coming of age, and that charismatic enigma, Harry Styles. Inspired by sources as diverse as Styles’s track listings, Scandi webseries Skam, and One Direction newsletters, Ashley spins us across continents on a tour of the surreal highs and absurd lows of celebrity culture. These are poems of youth and yearning, yet they’re suffused with the hard-won wisdom that the communities we build can be as meaningful as the families we’re born into. Perceptive, witty, and exuberant, Gold Light Shining introduces an essential new voice; one that captures how pop culture’s Technicolor joy disrupts our greyscale world.

You can pre-order a copy online now.

Sue Dormer (History & Archaeology, 1980) has recently published Able & Tireless: Cecil Rivière (1894 - 1993): the fascinating life of a globetrotting Cable Engineer & survivor of WW2 Japanese internment

The book is a biography of Sue's grandfather Cecil Rivière who led an amazing life working for 40 years as an Engineer for Western Telegraph and then Cable & Wireless. He travelled the world and lived in some fascinating places. He also spent three and a half years in a Japanese internment camp during WW2. He survived a dramatic escape on HMS Grasshopper, which was bombed & sank. He undertook a challenging journey to Sumatra, across the South China Sea, up the torrid Inderagiri River, through dense jungle, over mountains and into Padang, where he was captured by the Japanese. He endured the most harrowing three and a half years in internment. His determination to keep busy and his skills at mending and building things for others in the camp earned him the nickname “Able & Tireless” by his fellow prisoners. In his 99 years, Cecil was a chorister in Westminster Abbey, took a mayday call from the Titanic in 1912, and travelled the world in the days before travel was commonplace. He had a zest for life, a passion for building and mending clocks, and a lifelong love of golf. This is his story.

This book is available to buy online.

Dr Janet Few has recently published her second historical fiction novel Sins as Red as Scarlet

It is 1682. Across the land, the Age of Reason has begun; scientific thought is ousting superstitious belief. The menacing days of the witchfinder have all but gone. Nevertheless, in Devon’s county town, three impoverished women are approaching the gallows, condemned to death for the crime of witchcraft.  In an alternative 2020, sixteen-year-old Martha, herself a bullies’ target, undertakes a school local history project. As she immerses herself in the lives of Bideford’s seventeenth century residents, the intertwining stories of these years are told through the eyes of real people who lived at the time. Probing the motivations and beliefs of Bideford’s seventeenth century residents, Martha comes to understand how past events might lead ordinary people to become the victims, the accusers, or the accused.

This book is available to pre-order online.

Henry James Garrett (Philosophy with Study Abroad, 2015) will be publishing his debut novel in October called: This Book Will Make You Kinder, An Empathy Handbook

The kindness we owe one another goes far beyond the everyday gestures of feeding someone else’s parking meter–although it’s important not to downplay those small acts. Kindness can also mean much more. In this timely, insightful guide, Henry James Garrett lays out the case for developing a strong, courageous, moral kindness, one that will help you fight cruelty and make the world a more empathetic place.

This book is available to pre-order online.

Brian Landers OBE (Politics, 1970) has recently published the second novel in The Dylan Series called Families of Spies

Brian published the first thriller in the Dylan series, Awakening of Spies, earlier this year. Sales exceeded expectations and publication of the next book, Families of Spies, was brought forward. Thomas and Julia Dylan are honeymooning in Italy when Julia’s aunt disappears near an American base in Sicily. Throw in a suspected Russian spy inside the base, the murder of an Iranian dissident and a forty year old Mafia massacre and the scene is set for another intriguing story.

This book is available to buy online.

Tony Mitchell (MEd in Teaching English, 1972) has published his collection of poetry called Life's Lines 

The collection was written between 1953 and now, and includes two poems written during his course at Exeter. The collection also features a wide variety of poetic forms from hailus to a 2,000 word narrative poem.

The book is available to buy online.

Dr Nick Sorensen (Drama and English, 1977) has last year published Diversity in Teacher Education: Perspectives on a School-led System

This book is the first attempt to chronicle the origins, character and effects of different ways of training teachers in England since the influential Modes of Teacher Education project in the 1990s. Reporting on the findings of the Diversity in Teacher Education research programme, this study reveals the experiences of teachers, teacher educators and programme leaders in higher education institutions (HEIs) and schools as they respond to 'school-led' initial teacher education. Timely and well-researched, it provides an accurate and balanced account of the policy changes that have affected teacher education in England in recent years.

This book is available to buy online.

Date: 19 August 2020