Growing up during the New Atheist movement, Declan Murphy never quite believed in the existence of a higher power. But when life throws him a series of challenges, his lack of an axis mundi has him latching on to the one vision that feels right: becoming a Catholic priest.This emotional and thought-provoking story follows Declan as he navigates the conflicts between his personal beliefs and his family’s expectations. Will he be able to reconcile this contradiction? And at what cost...

A Scotsman Travel Book of the Year: A Welsh family's story of running off to a lush Greek island in the 1970s, and the new life they found there.Leaving their Welsh hill farm behind, Nick Perry and his family arrive on the little-known island of Ikaria in 1978, having impulsively boarded the first ferry leaving Athens. Escape to Ikaria tells the story of how they become involved with the islanders and their way of life. Nick tries his hand at anyth...

A child in an East End garden plays with an imaginary friend. One day she goes to the bottom of the garden and never returns. A homeless man desperately tries to stay awake, believing that whenever he falls asleep he wakes up in a different century. A London Underground maintenance engineer walks the two miles between adjacent stations in less than four minutes.While travelling on the London Underground one afternoon, Alice meets the gaze of a man standing on the platform ...

A memoir of two brothers using an unexpected inheritance to start an organic farm in 1970 Wales: "This is Bill Bryson with muck under the fingernails." —Brian MortonLondoners Nick Perry and his brother Jack were stuck in a bit of a rut. Nick, in his early twenties with a wife of infant twins, had been jumping from job to job; Jack chauffeured passengers around for their uncle's business. Then an aunt they barely remembered, to their complete surprise, left them a ti...

Great adventures often start with a drink—including Alice’s expedition down the rabbit hole, which began with a sip of a curiously labelled tipple. Drink Me invites you to do the same; learn how to mix 20 cocktails that will fill you with wonder and childish glee at the surreal flavor combinations, while amassing the perfect selection of drinks for your own spirit-soaked Mad Hatter's tea party.We have delved into the depths of the Pool of Tears in search o...

DCI Greave is on the hunt for serial killers in this gripping Radio 4 full cast crime series.Series 1:Each Roman Catholic parish compiles a Book of the Dead from the lists of departed loved ones submitted by parishioners. Printed on the front of the envelopes are three words: November Dead List. In this series, a young priest opens one such envelope and discovers - not a list of the dead but a list of people he knows to be alive, and members ...

Following the critically acclaimed Solution Focused Practice and Mental Health Crisis: Inclusive Support Towards Safety and Hope, this unique new book from Nick Perry provides an in-depth application of Solution Focused Practice (SFP) to the role of the Approved Mental Health Professional (AMHP) in England and Wales.The book explains how SFP assists AMHPs to interview ‘in a suitable manner’ and provide a more deliberative, strengths-based perspective on decision-making as ...

If you have ever wondered what led to the rise and fall of New Zealand's Telethon, or pondered the appeal of Metro magazine, or sought to understand the popularity of Billy T. James, this book is for you. The Dominion of Signs is a brilliant and provocative commentary on contemporary New Zealand culture.

Babelsberg Film Studios, 1929.A major new movie is in production when its star Krista Wolff suddenly disappears. The head of the studio and the film's writer are desperate to find her. Each have their own reasons.Nick Perry's suspenseful drama is set amid the creative ferment of 1920s Berlin, centred around Babelsberg Film Studio, the world's oldest large-scale film studio. Out of the darkness of military defeat, political chaos, poverty and hyperinflation ...

Hello Cleveland unlocks the hidden, larger-than life history and culture of Cleveland, Ohio, possibly the country's most misunderstood city. Locals, visitors, transplants, and people—who moved away as soon as they could—will gain a well-rounded picture of the city's passionate pursuits, dark corners, dubious claims to fame, and disarmingly friendly culture. Nick Perry, who grew up in Cleveland and then moved back as an adult, invites you to join him in taking a loving, brutally honest look...

‘Give me three years and we’ll be millionaires,’ Nick challenged his long-suffering family in 1980, when cash was king. ‘I’ve got an idea that’s going to take us to the top.’Tinkering with alchemy in an old stable he shared with a Shire horse, Nick discovered how to create the most convincing antique replicas ever made. He started by selling a few of his netsukes on a market stall at the Birmingham Rag Market and met extraordinary and eccentric people, the risk-taking gamblers with...

This book provides an interdisciplinary understanding of Solution Focused Practice (SFP) and how to use the approach when working with people in mental health crisis.The book takes a whole systems perspective, presenting SFP as a "common language" between different professional cultures and making the case for its use across all environments of mental health crisis care. The chapters explore the uniqueness of SFP, chart its history in the UK, and outline ways in which SFP can optim...