Douglas Smith Book order

Recognized with multiple prestigious nominations, this book stands out for its compelling narrative and engaging themes. It explores intricate character dynamics and thought-provoking concepts, appealing to a diverse audience. The accolades highlight its impact within the literary community, showcasing its quality and relevance. Readers can expect a captivating journey that resonates with both emotional depth and imaginative storytelling.

Struggling with violent impulses, Senecus must confront his darker instincts while navigating a world that challenges his morality. As he grapples with his inner demons, he seeks redemption and a path to control his urges, leading to a tense exploration of the human psyche and the consequences of unchecked aggression. The narrative delves into themes of self-discovery, the battle between good and evil, and the quest for peace in a chaotic existence.

The second half of life presents an opportunity for growth and fulfillment, yet many struggle with the changes that come with aging, such as shifts in family dynamics, health, and relationships. This book explores the reluctance to embrace these transitions and the tendency to cling to outdated habits that may hinder personal evolution. It encourages readers to accept the invitation to evolve and find deeper meaning in this stage of life.

Shortlisted, Maxine Tynes Nova Scotia Poetry Award, 2021Burden is the story of a seventeen-year-old British soldier, Private Herbert Burden, who was shot for desertion during World War IHe was one of hundreds so executed. It is now understood that many had committed no crime, but were suffering from PTSD. Burden’s story is told in the voice of Lance Corporal Reginald Smith, the author’s uncle. The author discovered years later in a box of papers that his uncle, Lance Corporal Smith, had befriended Private Burden but then was ultimately commanded to join in the firing squad that killed his friend. This slim book reaches below standard indictments of war―it shows us that “terrifying,” “senseless,” “horrific” don’t go deep enough. To utter them, the eye must already be closing over. Smith’s account is an object lesson in why poetry matters. It takes us to places even the best journalism can’t reach.

Who's for the Game? tells the story of the men from four prominent Birmingham sports clubs who lost their lives in the First World War. The four memorials to the men are within a mile of each other and for a time three of them were located at Moseley Ashfield Cricket Club. The story of the men is peppered across almost all the battle fronts of the War and only the navy is not represented. Jessie Pope's poem, which gives the book its title, is now seen as jingoistic but these men were anything but blinded by propaganda. They died as they played, giving everything for their team. WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.

The gripping human story of how American volunteers fought famine in Bolshevik Russia, saving Lenin's revolutionary government from chaos and millions of people from starvationIn 1921, after six years of unrelenting war and revolution, Russia was in ruins. ...

When Britain declared war on Germany on 4th August 1914 plans were already in place in case the war wasn't 'over by Christmas' and casualties were such that the provision of hospitals was inadequate. The government and military authorities began identifying suitable buildings to take over as hospitals and the Red Cross identified those that could be set up as auxiliary hospitals and convalescent homes. The first hospital in Hartlebury was at the Woodlands. It received its first contingent of wounded soldiers from the Southern General Hospital, Birmingham, on 17th March 1915. In June 1915 the hospital was moved to Hartlebury Castle, the home of The Right Reverend Huyshe Wolcott Yeatman-Biggs, Bishop of Worcester, who made a converted stable block available. It was equipped to accommodate 16 wounded soldiers and was classed as Worcester VAD 8. 'Cheer Boys It's Hartlebury!' tells the story of the 435 soldiers (and the nurses who looked after them) who left their stories in the autograph books kept by the Commandant, Francis Gibbons, and Nurse Stocks (held at the Hive Library, Worcester). It contains over 600 previously unseen photographs, drawings and poems taken from these books and gives a tremendous insight into the lives led by the soldiers as they convalesced at Hartlebury and revelled in its oasis of peace before, in many cases, being sent back to fight, and in some cases, to die.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE JAMES TAIT BLACK PRIZENearly a century after his murder, Rasputin remains as divisive a figure as ever. Was he really a horse thief and a hard-drinking ruffian in his youth? Was he a a devout Orthodox Christian, or was he in fact a just a fake holy man? Are the stories of his enormous sexual drive, debauchery, and drunken orgies true or simply a myth? How did he come to know the emperor and empress and to wield so much influence over them? What was the source of his healing power? Was Rasputin running the government in the final years of his life? And if so, was he acting on his own or on the orders of more powerful, hidden forces? Did Prince Yusupov and his fellow conspirators act alone or were they other parties involved in Rasputin's murder-British secret agents or even an underground cell of Freemasons, as has been claimed? And to what extent did Rasputin's murder doom the Romanov dynasty? Drawing on major new sources hitherto unexamined by western historians, Douglas Smith's book is be the definitive biography of this extraordinary figure for a generation.

Like any of us, the characters we meet in Impossibilia have things they hide inside-secrets, fears, aspects of themselves they keep locked away -- or try to. Only their things are a little ... different.