Jennifer Kavanagh – författare

In 1861, the great journalist and social advocate Henry Mayhew published London Labour and the London Poor, an oral history of those living and working on the streets of Victorian London. Nothing on this scale had been attempted before.On the surface, the streets of London in 1861 and in 2019 are entirely different places. But dig just a little and the similarities are striking and, in many cases, shocking. Taking Mayhew's book as inspiration, Jennifer Kavanagh explores the changes and continuities by collecting and mapping stories from today's London.Beggars, street entertainers, stalls selling a variety of food, clothes, second-hand goods, thieves and the sex trade are all still predominant. The rise of the gig economy has brought a multitude of drivers and cyclists, delivering and moving goods, transporting meals and people, all organized through smart phones but using the same streets as Mayhew's informants. The precarity faced by this new workforce would also be familiar to the street-sellers of Mayhew's day. In terms of resources, gone are the workhouses, almshouses, paupers' lunatic asylums. Enter shelters, day centres, hostels, and food banks.Let Me Take You By The Hand is an x-ray of life on the streets today: the stories in their own words of those who work and live in our capital.

In 1861, the great journalist and social advocate Henry Mayhew published London Labour and the London Poor, an oral history of those living and working on the streets of Victorian London. Nothing on this scale had been attempted before.On the surface, the streets of London in 1861 and in 2019 are entirely different places. But dig just a little and the similarities are striking and, in many cases, shocking. Taking Mayhew's book as inspiration, Jennifer Kavanagh explores the changes and continuities by collecting and mapping stories from today's London. Beggars, street entertainers, stalls selling a variety of food, clothes, second-hand goods, thieves and the sex trade are all still predominant. The rise of the gig economy has brought a multitude of drivers and cyclists, delivering and moving goods, transporting meals and people, all organized through smart phones but using the same streets as Mayhew's informants. The precarity faced by this new workforce would also be familiar to the street-sellers of Mayhew's day. In terms of resources, gone are the workhouses, almshouses, paupers' lunatic asylums. Enter shelters, day centres, hostels, and food banks. Let Me Take You By The Hand is an x-ray of life on the streets today: the stories in their own words of those who work and live in our capital.

Home - one of the most emotive words in any language. But it can mean different things to different people and, based on extensive interviews, Jennifer Kavanagh explores our outer and inner identities and asks: ‘What does home mean to you?’ Home is not just four walls or the country in which we were born. It is not a locked door, an investment, a legal address, or a nation with rigid borders. Home is where the heart is: a yearning for a precious past, a dream of something that has never been, or a present reality. In relationship – with our families, in community, and with the whole of creation. In this compelling and immensely readable book, Kavanagh suggests that we will never be at home unless we are at home to ourselves. Home is where we all want to be.,

As we consider the plight of our consumer-driven economy, it is easy to forget that money is about relationship: between individuals and between communities. In our current financial mess, it is worth reminding ourselves of community-based alternatives, and to look closely at microcredit, a model of peer lending to enable people to move out of poverty. From Bangladesh, from South Africa, from Ghana, and from the East End of London, we are given a worm's eye view of small scale work, of personal transformation, and the building of community. Small and local is still beautiful, and has much to teach us.

The concepts of success and failure are embedded in our culture, but how real are they?From a wide range of answers and her own experience, Jennifer Kavanagh explores some of the stereotypes on which these concepts are based, and reveals what people feel really matters in their lives. There is a growing acceptance that failure can not only lead to success but can open us to profound change. If we let go of the quest for individual perfection, and accept what is, our lives and relationships will be enriched. If we let go of our judgemental behaviour, we will no longer view life in terms of success or failure. If we let go of the need to control our lives, we will let go of goals and expectation. If we let go of our attachment to outcomes, we will be content with where and who we are. We may even go beyond the duality of opposites to an understanding of essential unity. Putting one foot in front of the other, neither afraid of failure nor triumphant with success. Living, in other words.,

What if the facts on which we base our lives are shown to be unreliable? What if our expectations are confounded? What if we let go of those assumptions and expectations? What if we let go of our familiar, habitual ways of thinking? What if we let go of the very need to know? Unknowing is at the centre of spiritual life. It is only by creating a space in which anything can happen that we allow God to speak; only by stepping back that we allow space for that unpredictable Spirit that brings us gifts beyond any of our imaginings..."God dwells only where man steps back to give him room."

B is not a child of his time. As an outsider, he hides his secrets well. Freedom is all he dreams of. But when it comes at last, it is in the most unexpected way - and at a considerable cost.

Our screens and newsfeeds are full of violent images; our world is full of poverty, inequality and injustice. We find it hard to live together, in our families, communities, or in the world at large. At the same time, we are surrounded by the beauty of the natural world, and daily life is full of acts of compassion, kindness, friendship and love. How do we reconcile these differences? What does the universe, with its countless examples of mutuality, have to teach us? Science, religion and our own experience teaches us that the whole of creation is a web of interconnectedness. This book explores the oneness at the heart of existence - and what this means for how we act in the world.

Suzie and Orbs are in their thirties and have been together for a couple of years. Orbs reluctantly makes a living in the City and Suzie is a respected financial journalist, but each has another life hidden from the outside world... Their secret existence is threatened first when Suzie is offered a highly visible job, and then by an accident that turns their lives upside down. This is their struggle to survive as partners.

Are Quakers mystics? What does that mean? How does it translate into how we are and what we do in the world? 'Jennifer Kavanagh has written a lovely book which I found to be to be compelling reading. In a very practical way she explains the meaning of mysticism for Quakers and how an experience, which some might regard as being esoteric, can be truly meaningful for many today.' Terry Waite Practical Mystics is Jennifer Kavanagh's first addition to the burgeoning series Quaker Quicks, which examines very aspect of what it means to be a Quaker, from John Hunt Publishing imprint Christian Alternative.

I will if you will.' What is the mystery of the dying flowers in a dark doorway with an ever-open door? And why does it matter so much? Two very different women are brought together by love, loss and their struggles with very modern moral choices - whether to act against injustice, and just how far to go.

Do Quakers Pray is a short book for the Quaker Quicks series that considers questions such as “What is prayer?” and explores whether, when and how Quakers might pray. Do we pray together? Do we pray alone?

Thread of Life is a portrait of the twentieth century - its times of war and peace - seen through the lives of three generations of Jewish women. At its heart are Dora, a romantic and tragic figure, a concert pianist born in Riga, who lived in St Petersburg and was killed in the Riga Holocaust; her daughter, Genia, born in 1915 in St Petersburg, who lived in many places around the world before dying in England at the age of 102; and, in their different threads and versions of the truth, their legacy to author Jennifer Kavanagh, who shares her moments of discovery while addressing themes of Russia, Jewishness, motherhood, music, home, and language, as well as the vagaries of memory.

The dedicated religious life of monks and nuns has a fascination for many of us-at a distance. We live in the world we have, and it's hard to figure out how to do it in a God-filled way. "The World is Our Cloister" is about the new religious life; a life to which Protestant, Catholic, Hindu or those with no label can relate. It is a guide to living the devotional life, not behind the walls of a monastery, but in the world. It's about engagement in the world as well as withdrawal, the balance between a life of action and one of contemplation; how to be in the world but not of it. It is also a guide to the mystical experience at the heart of all religion. Beyond the barriers of belief and practice lies the stark and simple reality of relating to God: "the practice of the presence of God".

To see what life would be like if your answers are 'Yes!' then the voices of these twelve Quakers will speak to you. For they follow a way that embraces maximum spirituality with minimum religion. Their spiritual path is as simple, radical and contemporary as it was when it began over 350 years ago. Having guarded probably the best kept spiritual secret in the world, because of their refusal to proselytise, Quakers now feel, in the face of climate change and religious extremism, this is the time to speak out and share a way that is tolerant, liberal and compassionate: a way that makes life meaningful, happy and helps to heal the world.

In folk history and religion, from the Shakers to Zen, simplicity has generally been considered a good thing. Our own motivation may be to leave a smaller carbon footprint, to express a compassionate solidarity with those who have least; or simply to downsize. Whatever our concern, it is likely that the motivation to live a simpler life will spring from within. At heart, simplicity is a focus on what matters. Reducing the clutter in our lives, whether in material objects, use of time or money, or in our religious practices, leads to an increased clarity of vision and a focus; a view of life and its priorities that is in itself simple. Step by step we can move towards a state in which our attitudes and life are all of a piece, integrated and made one. Simplicity is the outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace. With this inspiring book, discover how simplicity can become a way of life.

This new edition includes the following:• A new chapter on the powers of government and the separation of powers which includes analysis of the landmark Supreme Court judgment in Kerins v McGuinness;• An expanded section on the impacts of Brexit on the constitutional position of Northern Ireland;• Recent judgments on the powers of government in interregnum periods;• Expanded analysis of journalistic protection in the wake of the Corcoran case;• Further analysis of current socio-economic rights issues such as the debate on the position of a right to housing in the constitution;• Detailed discussion on recent referendums such as Repeal the 8th, removal of blasphemy and time limits for divorce.Staying faithful to the First Edition the author has designed and written this text with the student in mind introducing and outlining the key principles of Irish constitutional law including the following:• The constitutional history of Ireland;• The concepts of the Nation and State with relation to the constitutional position of Northern Ireland, Ireland in the EU and International Relations;• A consideration of the doctrine of the separation of powers, the organisation and powers of the organs of government, including the Oireachtas, the Cabinet, the Courts and the President;• Constitutional Rights including Family, Life, Education and constitutional justice;• The process of constitutional interpretation, amendment and reform including a consideration of proposed referendums.