More success for our alumni authors including Rory Ffoulkes (Classical Studies, 2003) who has recently published the children's book Sarah the Spectacular Squirrel.

Sept 2021 - 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:

Wendy Berg (English and Music, 1973) has recently published The House of Net: The Magical Symbolism of the Hieroglyphs.

When Champollion made the crucial breakthrough in 1822 that led to the decipherment of the Egyptian hieroglyphs after centuries in which their meaning had been lost, he described them as “….a complex system, a writing that is figurative, symbolic and phonetic all at once, in the same text, the same phrase, I would even say in a single word.”

Since then, most studies of the hieroglyphs have focussed on their phonetic properties. The purpose of this book is to reveal how they were also designed to function as symbols, in which many worlds of meaning are interconnected. It proposes that the hieroglyphs formed the basis of the ancient Egyptian spiritual philosophy and discusses how they can still be used in this way.

This book is available to buy online.

Andrew Colley (French with German, 1982) has a new book being published later this month called Enhancing wellbeing and independence for young people with profound and multiple learning difficulties – Lives Lived Well alongside co-author Julie Tilbury.

This unique resource book explores what wellbeing, community participation and independence mean to young people with profound and multiple learning difficulties (PMLD). Bringing together results of an extensive survey of more than 100 schools that teach young people with PMLD, the authors present many innovative ways in which schools are working to ensure young people with PMLD have lives of value that are as rich and meaningful as possible.

This book is available to pre-order online.

Mat Desforges (Geography and European Studies, 1994) has recently published his first novel Down...But not Out.

Mat Desforges had, like many of us, suffered from low periods during his life. It wasnt until he had a particularly difficult episode that he realised that if he didnt seek to resolve this - and quickly - then things could get a lot worse. Down But Not Out is an insightful, uplifting and sometimes funny story of the episode, how Mat sought help, his recovery and how he discovered the various reasons for his low periods; reasons which he believes lead to many people feeling like he did. Importantly, it also takes us through the sustainable solutions he found to help him live a generally happier life. Mat has worked abroad and travelled extensively. 

This book is available to order online.

David Ellis (Chemistry - Bsc 1987 and PhD 1991) has recently published his debut novel called A Book of Life.

In David Ellis’s A Book of Life, the stories come alive in the pages for the story is the Book itself, and the words within are solely for the eyes of the chosen. The privileged reader then has a choice…to ignore, or to believe…to walk on through life, alone, or to follow the old laws, to follow the Book…

This book is available to buy online.

Dr Michael Freemantle (Chemistry, 1964) has recently published The Long Purr.

Clawdia, a cat who lives in luxury, recounts a dream in which her twin sister Jet, a stray, meets Clem, another stray. Jet, like her sister, is able to read and write English. Clem, however, is illiterate and also sad because he cannot find his sister, Catrina. He thinks she headed south to the sea after their home was flooded. Jet and Clem set out to find her. During their travels they meet other cats and animals. Clawdia’s dream reveals how cats have made an impact on education, religion, history, science, and the English language.

This book is available to buy online.

Rory Ffoulkes (Classical Studies, 2003) has recently published the children's book Sarah the Spectacular Squirrel.

Sarah the Spectacular Squirrel has a dazzling talent for collecting nuts. But… Sarah’s a bit of a show-off. And she’s greedy. And she doesn’t like to share! So, who can stop Sarah from taking all the nuts in the forest and leaving the other woodland creatures hungry?! Written by Rory ffoulkes and beautifully illustrated by Irene Silvino, Sarah the Spectacular Squirrel is a delightfully funny children's picture book for kids of all ages with an important message: wouldn't it be nice to live in a world where the few people that have so much were more willing to share with the many that have so little?

This book is available to buy online.

Frank Gardner (Arabic and Islamic Studies, 1984 & Honorary Degree, LLD 2007) has recently published Outbreak.

Deep within the Arctic Circle, three scientists from the UK's Arctic Research Station trudge through a blizzard in search of shelter. They see a cabin ahead. It appears abandoned. No lights. No snowmobile outside. But as they push open the door, the smell hits them. Rank and foetid: there's something bad inside...Outbreak is an explosive new thriller featuring MI6 operative Luke Carlton on his most terrifying mission yet.

This book is available to buy online.

Harriet Lamb (Honorary Degree, LLD 2011) has recently published From Anger to Action: Inside the Global Movements for Social Justice, Peace, and a Sustainable Planet alongside co-author Ben Jackson.

From Anger to Action tells the stories of the citizens' movements charting new paths to tackle the big global challenges that lie behind the political upheavals of our times. Drawing on candid insights from citizens, activists, and innovators, and their own experiences as leaders of internationally recognized advocacy organizations, the authors give an insider account of the battle for change and how it can be won – as well as trenchant criticism of where traditional civil society has lost its way and needs renewal. While unflinching on the dangers of the current political crises, the book offers hard-edged hope and a vision for citizen-led change to reshape our fractured politics.

This book is available to buy online.

Sharon Merz (PhD Anthropology, 2018) has recently published Totemism and Human–Animal Relations in West Africa.

This book explores human–animal relations amongst the Bebelibe of West Africa, with a focus on the establishment of totemic relationships with animals, what these relationships entail and the consequences of abusing them. Employing and developing the concepts of "presencing" and "the ontological penumbra" to shed light on the manner in which people make present and engage in the world around them, including the shadowy spaces that have to be negotiated in order to make sense of the world, the author shows how these concepts account for empathetic and intersubjective encounters with non-human animals. 

This book is available to buy online.

Kunle Olówósejéjé (MSC Engineering & Management, 2012) has recently published a collection of prose, poetry and tales called Perspective.

Perspective is a panorama of our world. It navigates the emotions, feelings and situations faced over the course of the toughest journey of Kunle's life. A documentation of interactions, presented in experiences embellished by words. It explores the sweet and bitter taste of relationships, the hope to one day drive to fulfilment, and the awareness of our existence.

This book is available to buy online.

Geoff Pridmore (MA History, 2019) has published his first novel The Reunion.

Summer 1963. Former 'POW' Hugo, his wife Rene and young family set out from Cornwall to introduce their children to their Bavarian cousins at a family reunion. His belief: that if children are brought up to know one another, there will be no more wars. However, there is one thing he hasn't taken into consideration - The Wall. The journey in a Morris Minor van is long and tedious. On the continent, memories of his wartime experiences are triggered, and Hugo finds that the 'ghosts' of his past haunt him at every turn...

This book is available to buy online.

Rob Schofield (MA Creative Writing, 2017) has recently won the Northern Debut Award for Fiction in the Northern Writers' Awards 2021 - congratulations Rob! His story ‘The Latest Draft of Me’ was highly commended by the judges of the Manchester Fiction Prize and another, ‘Late Capitalism’, appeared in The Blue Nib.

Lakshmipriya Venkatesan (MSc Food Security and Sustainable Agriculture, 2018) has recently published a collection of poems called Reflections.

Reflections may just seem like mirror images on water, but they gloriously differ with the eye of the beholder. They are what the viewer perceives them to be, from their view. This collection of poems, Reflections, encompasses musings on nature, human interactions and the emotions that connect us all. These are reflections, as seen by my eyes.

This book is available to buy online.

Philip Hamlyn Willams (Humanities, 2008) has recently published Dunkirk to D-Day: The Men and Women of the RAOC and Re-Arming the British Army.

At Dunkirk, the withdrawing army left behind most of its equipment, yet only four years later, on D-Day, troops would wonder at the efficiency of supply. This book looks at the lives of some of the men who led the monumental effort which led to this result. The story begins in Victorian south London. It goes out to Portuguese East Africa and then to Malaya, before being caught in the maelstrom of the Great War. Between the wars, its leading characters work at Pilkington, Dunlop and English Steel; they serve in Gallipoli, Gibraltar and Malta; they transform the way a mechanised army is supplied. They supply in the desert and the jungle. They build massive depots, and relationships with motor companies here and in the USA. After the war they work for companies driving the post-war economy: Vickers, Dunlop and Rootes. Many died, exhausted, years before their time.

This book is available to buy online.

Emma Wright (French and German, 2009) has published her debut novel called How Do You Stop A Magpie Mobbing Your Mind?

We all want quiet. We all want beauty. We all need space. Unless we have it, we cannot reach that sense of peace in which whispers of better things come to us gently. Can krabfoodling pheasants bring laughter to a silent, sorrow-saturated world? And could prickleballing bunnies help mend a broken heart? Aural superpower unleashed, Ella Pearson attempts to unshackle her magpie-personified grief following her dad’s untimely death. But will the unexplored undulations of the Washwell Valley cure her anorexic mum? And what becomes of the obsidian-eyed peregrine, the glimmer of hope in her upturned universe?

This book is available to buy online.

Date: 21 September 2021