Troubador Publishing Ltd – serie

How does advertising work? Does it have to attract conscious attention in order to transmit a ‘Unique Selling Proposition’? Or does it insinuate emotional associations into the subconscious mind? Or is it just about being famous... or maybe something else? In Paul Feldwick’s radical new view, all theories of how advertising works have their uses – and all are dangerous if they are taken too literally as the truth. The Anatomy of Humbug deftly and entertainingly picks apart the historical roots of our common – and often contradictory – beliefs about advertising, in order to create space for a more flexible, creative and effective approach to this fascinating and complex field of human communication. Drawing on insights ranging from the nineteenth-century showman P.T. Barnum to the twentieth-century communications theorist Paul Watzlawick, as well as influential admen such as Bernbach, Reeves and Ogilvy, Feldwick argues that the advertising industry will only be able to deal with increasingly rapid change in the media landscape if it both understands its past and is able to criticise its most entrenched habits of thought. The Anatomy of Humbug is an accessible business book that will help advertising and marketing professionals create better campaigns.

An entertaining and witty memoir from an author who has had a long and interesting life. The author has insightful views on a wide and diverse range of subjects such as what a possible side effect might be to the cure for malaria and why the UK population might be getting progressively more stupid.

“Oh God, Kate, what the hell have you talked me into?”“Only the best night of your entire life, Simon, and you can thank me later...”Simon knows nothing about the fetish scene. His only experience with dominant women was his lastgirlfriend. But that taste has left him longing for more. He dreams of meeting a Mistress to help himexplore his interest in femdom. After a drunken confession to his friend, Kate, she persuades him tojoin her at a BDSM club. Innocent and out of his depth, what would possibly go wrong?Simon hopes this exotic new world will offer him everything he craves. Too shy to find a partner,he lets Kate push him into another bad decision – signing up for the slave auction. Falling intodangerous hands, he becomes a pawn in a terrifying game.Will chasing his fantasies bring Simon everything he desires, or will he live to regret it?"This story definitely built suspense. I think this story showed that romantic relationships can come in so many different forms. Just because someone's relationship is different from what society deems as normal doesn't mean it's not full of love. I'd recommend it to anyone that enjoys romance novels." Lilliana-Rose, Wattpad

This is the third book in the Highland Journal series. Join Jack as he ranges across the Highlands and Islands, exploring the lonely moors and rugged peaks of Sutherland, the Rough Bounds, the Great Wilderness, Mull and Harris; remote places that would challenge the resolve and stamina of any hillwalker. In Book 1, the author got to the top of his first Munro and began his quest to climb all of them. In Beyond the Last Munro he reaches the final one and reflects on his achievement. For those with an interest in climbing these mountains, the books contain a route and relief map for each, as well as a clear index of all the Munros.Some of the chapters record days of high adventure, such as the crossing of the Carn Mor Dearg Arête but there are gentler days on Jack’s 'Hills of Home' in Angus, Wester Ross and Assynt; days when the focus is on the author’s passion for the rocks, plant life and wild creatures of the Highlands. The book has the colourful cast of characters readers have come to expect and there are many laughs along the way. A must-have for all lovers of wild places and a book to be treasured.

1960, Papua and New Guinea.Charlie K is suddenly thrust from a stone age society, having to navigate the alien culture of American schooling and university life.Overnight, the young man has to cope with extreme racial prejudice. He suffers violence but also experiences generosity of spirit, in an otherwise inward-looking America. We follow not only his adventures in the US, but later when he returns to his own country. He is living in a remote tribal area with vividly described episodes featuring unexpected and exciting encounters.  The Evolution of Charlie K follows the fortunes (and misfortunes) of a young native man from one of the most extraordinary countries in the world. It draws on the effects of war on his country during WW2. A country which, after its independence in 1975, is still a largely tribal society.

Inspired by a life-long passion for travel, Stuart McMillan embarked on a journey of over 2,000km, crossing the continent from the Baltic Sea to the Balkan coast. The book provides personal observations and reflections on a fascinating world hidden for decades behind an Iron Curtain. It gives the reader a glimpse of how the history, culture, years of oppression and brutal wars have shaped these beautiful lands and the people who live there.Starting in Lithuania, a journey weaving through the beautiful and often mysterious Slavic lands all the way to Croatia - taking in Ukraine, Hungary, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It includes travelling in a 44-degree heatwave; taking a short-cut via Moscow; experiencing a chaotic sleeper train out of Ukraine; coping with the failure of all air-conditioning and lighting on a long-haul train down to Serbia; learning about the legacy of both Nazi and Communist oppression; and seeing first-hand the scars and re-built splendour of Sarajevo and Mostar following the recent brutal, and often forgotten, Yugoslav wars.As well as recounting the beauty of the countries and cities visited, and reflecting on the years of oppression and wars that shaped the landscapes and cultures, it also captures the emotions of travelling alone for weeks through foreign lands – the freedom to experience so much of countries hidden away from the world for so long; the reliance on internal narrative for company; and the bouts of homesickness that often conflict with the author’s love of travel.

Meet Earl Grey, a down-to-earth but down on his luck small-time newspaper reporter. Earl is a bit of an unreliable mess, albeit loveable, if absolutely necessary. Much to Earl's lack of surprise, he is suddenly assigned a story far worse than his typical mundane day-to-day drudgery. Two days after the earth-shattering arrival of an alleged God in Phoenix, Arizona, in 2005, Earl is appointed as Media Liaison to this extremely ungodlike man. One who has been apparently working miracles after being found in the Arizona desert clad in Armani.With 'God' now restricted to a hospital room, Earl suddenly finds himself with exclusive access to the Almighty. And with great access comes great demand, as our less-than-intrepid reporter quickly discovers - meeting a feast of both loveable and despicable characters - each one not entirely what they seem. But one thing's certain, they all want something from this newly arrived God and plan to go through Earl to get it. However, Earl, a lifelong atheist and skeptic, has very different plans and sets about to uncover the true identity of this unusual man before His time on earth runs out. Thrust into global celebrity and a massive mid-life course correction, it isn't long before Earl is overwhelmed, paranoid, and plagued with crippling self-doubt. But, as usual, he'll have to sort out the whole mess for himself. Hopefully, before the world comes to an end.

Cousins, Captain Chris Waters of the Royal Engineers and Captain Jimmy Johnson of the Royal Welch Fusiliers were with the British Expeditionary Force in the defence of Dunkirk. In late May 1940, Jimmy (son-in-law of Admiral of the Fleet, Lord Keyes) was shot and captured near the Belgium border. Chris was captured after his regiment, which was attached to the 51st Highland Division, was forced to surrender at St-Valéry. Both men managed to escape their German captors and, accompanied by fellow officers, began separately to work their way through France into Spain. Having crossed the Pyrenees they were both re-captured but by an extraordinary coincidence met up in Barcelona. Chris and Jimmy recorded their escape in journals with Jimmy also writing many letters home from internment in France. Eventually the escapees, now in a large group, were released and arrived in Gibraltar. It was not the safe haven they had hoped for. One last cruel twist of fate would deny some of them a return home.

A wealthy oligarch, a failing business and a man who sacrificed everything for one final shot at freedom. When Danny accepts a job from wealthy Conrad Szekely to spy on his business partner, Jerry, he finds himself with a world of trouble. Within days of Danny’s arrival, the business is destroyed in a catastrophic fire, which also claims Jerry’s life. Torn between conflicting interests, Danny starts to suspect that Jerry’s business had been anything but straightforward, and finds himself trapped in a spiral of treachery and lies, which rapidly begins to degenerate into a cat and mouse chase across the fens. With former allies turning violently against him, Danny tries to solve the mystery that surrounds Jerry’s death. But can Danny find the answers when those answers themselves prove lethal?

Double Damned: English Tuberculosis Complex (2018) provided a history of errors in the attempted eradication of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) from the UK. Covid-19 appeared in 2019 and illustrated that the errors were embedded in the human race. Homo stupidus contains an update of the book, and much more. Human stupidity has and continues to hamper control and eradication of disease. For example, bTB is spread by movement of infected cattle and badgers. Incest is very rare in mammals. Male badgers move outside their social group to breed, and inadvertently spread disease.This long-established fact was ignored by planners. Badger bTB was localised to the West Country for at least 20 years, but is now widespread nationally. Badger to cattle and cattle to badger transmission occurs: once introduced, the major spread is within species. The disease was eradicated years ago from countries where it had not established in wild life.Aspects of the disease have changed during the past 50 years, but a possible solution is suggested. Simple fatal errors made in the control/eradication of Covid-19 are specified and discussed. Human and animal disease control/eradication is confounded by ignorance, misunderstanding, polarised viewpoints, fragments of information, conflicting ethics, political expediency and complex mathematics.

Meet Bono. A wild African dog who lives in Tanzania with his owner a young boy Ari. Bono loves digging and digs to far flung places going on adventures and learning all about the countries and people he visits. There is mayhem to be had but Bono and Ari make faraway friends. Dig Bono Dig opens children’s imagination up to the world around them. Teaching them about different cultures, food and traditions. Bono and Ari end up in all sorts of trouble but see how they navigate these encounters. An interactive book that will have families wanting to go on an adventure with Bono each and every time. In their inaugural adventure, this book see’s Bono and Ari digging a hole, through many far-flung exotic locations. where will they end up? What foods will they try? And most importantly who will they meet? Go on an adventure with Ari and Bono and have all these questions answered.

Into the Distance is a first-hand description of a world of truck driving that has long-since disappeared. Back in the 1970s and early 80s, drivers had to be independent and resourceful, in a world without mobile phones (and often even accessible landlines). Truck driving required skill and resourcefulness, was exciting, sometimes hazardous and, ultimately, very satisfying. It begins with a breakdown in Saudi Arabia, on Bennett’s first trip to the Middle East, from which he had to extricate himself unaided. It then backtracks to recount how, having graduated from university, he worked his way up in the trucking world from local work in Britain to long-haul journeys to Italy, communist Romania and the Persian Gulf. The book explains how crossing borders often required diplomacy, and how entering France routinely involved petty bribes to customs. It describes how truck drivers saw other countries from a unique perspective, as they mixed with all sorts of working people on their own home ground. Also discussed is the fine line between being a loner behind the wheel and being lonely, and how long-haul trucking with weeks away from home was often damaging to family relationships. The book describes breakdowns, break-neck schedules, brushes with smugglers, and how Bennett found himself stranded by riots in Iraq following the signing of the Israel-Egyptian peace treaty in 1979. He was caught up in two French lorry driver strikes, one of which blockaded the port of Dover, and in which he played a key role as an interpreter between the drivers and British officialdom. All part of the job.

Do you need help raising money for your charity? Not sure where to start? A Blueprint for Fundraising is going to help. In these pages, it will focus fundraiser’s attention on the detailed steps needed for success in raising money for any charity.The book draws together thirty-five years of practical experience in how to make fundraising work and work hard, based on campaigns that date back from 1985 to last week. It is an up to date, genuine blueprint that any user or team can apply in step-by-step implementation. Getting the best from digital, social, online and offline channels are all detailed, as well as many other aspects such as:How to build a donor base of loyal followers who actually respond to appealsHow to attract large, lump sum donations from wealthy benefactors you are yet to meetHow to build powerful In Memoriam giving programmesHow to achieve definite, valuable returns from Gifts in WillsAnd how to gain success in Grant applications and requests for support from companies.Turning willing volunteers into powerful advocates, A Blueprint for Fundraising delivers tools and resources that will boost any fundraiser’s skills and will help charity leadership to “stop running just to stand still”.

John and Adele have been together for over two decades and have a son. Their relationship has been on a downhill trajectory for many years. One evening, en route to their annual holiday destination, they run out of fuel in a remote location. To whom can they go for assistance? Suddenly, in the darkness, their lives take an unexpected turn. They meet three mysterious but benevolent strangers who offer to help them. In observing Adele and John, they pose to the couple an unusual challenge that seeks to address the core problems in their marriage. John and Adele find the proposal odd but intriguing. While it may have advantages, it could be risky and dangerous. But unresolved emotions and unhealed wounds, as well as long-buried memories can also have hazardous and unpredictable consequences. Will they dare to accept this challenge or not? This unique novel, while aimed at taking a fresh perspective on relationships, is uplifting, relaxing, and is meant to be enjoyed.

Lily Page, fifty years of age, biddable, amenable, has lived her entire life in the family home in North London’s Islington, brought up after her mother’s early death by her indomitable aunt and classicist father with an implied sense of obligation. An abortive love affair years before has been her only deviance from a prescriptive path. But it is 1983 and change is the air, social, political and personal. When her elderly father dies, Lily is conflicted by a sense of freedom that she feels ill-equipped to embrace after a lifetime of compliance. Meeting by chance a mercurial young woman, Stella Fox, and a middle-aged failing actor, Hugh Murray, she is drawn to the pair by the prospect of filling a vacuum in her life that she fears. She feels a maternal concern for Stella and with Hugh craves a relationship that will render her, a very ordinary woman by her own reckoning, status to defy her sense of insignificance. But as the year passes, doubts about the integrity of both Stella and Hugh begin to surface and Lily, amidst a changing world, needs to shake off the hooks of the past and the snares of the present to define her own future.

How does a man with little intellect, little education, physically inept and below average good looks become the most famous man in the world in a few short years? How did a Jew create the SS and draft its appalling protocols? How many people within the Third Reich knew that Enigma was a done deal as plotters sought to destroy Hitler whilst big business and Industry determined to keep him as their obedient puppet. A woman desperate to survive scrabbles up a flight of steps as the final bombs rain down on Berlin. An assassin sneaks away hoping never to be heard of again. A politician works desperately to cover his blood-soaked guilt. A patriot who thought that he was doing a noble deed screams his final torture induced agony as he realises that his patriotism was nothing more than murder of his own. They have all lived the life of power and luxury. It is time for a reckoning but even now some of them can’t help but think back yearningly to those glory days of frenetic hedonism.

Have you ever struggled with your mental health, your terrible relatives or a dysfunctional relationship? Or simply wondered what the hell is wrong with you? This story is for you. Finley recounts her chaotic life with deadpan humour and honesty, wryly embracing her colourful lovers and a series of futile attempts to fix her. When a catastrophic encounter in France sends her into meltdown, she winds up receiving daily psychoanalysis on the NHS with a cast of unsettling characters - mainly the therapists. On leaving hospital, Finley stitches her life back together, living for a short time with a Bristol theologian before finding domestic bliss with a transgender civil servant. A cutting-edge approach to mental illness eventually leads her to a key revelation about her past, and she finally understands herself through the lens of her history. Aware at last of what she has survived, she faces an agonising decision about her future. Trauma has never been so funny or so shocking. Finley de Witt is a writer, bodyworker and trauma specialist.

Umbria 1943. Nazi troops are massacring whole villages in retaliation for help being given to even a single fugitive. Outside a pretty country town is a prison camp of six hundred British, Commonwealth and American soldiers seething with hatred for Italians. When young widow Lucia does a deal with FitzGerald, all six hundred escape into the hills or make their way out of Nazi occupied Italy. FitzGerald himself moves from farm to farm until his contempt for Italians turns into admiration for the impoverished people who risk everything to succour a stranger. He sees in the women, children and old people left on the farms, a courage greater than that of soldiers. Instead of taking up arms again, he shepherds the villagers as they fly from extermination. But can he, and his rescuer, escape To the River, the border between two armies?

1942. The Jewish Ghetto in Amsterdam. When Jozef and Trudi’s father dies in a concentration camp after being falsely arrested in 1941 as a saboteur, their mother goes into hiding, putting them in a children’s home for their safety. But when a decision is taken by the Nazis to kill all Jews including children, they are destined for deportation to a concentration camp and almost certain death. Their 22-year-old cousin, a nurse working in the Jewish hospital, decides to rescue them. Can Hetty save her cousins from the dangers and threats that face them all? Don’t Look for Me is based on a true story of love, loss, escape, and survival. It’s the story of a rebellious and determined young woman and her young cousin in the Nazi occupied Netherlands during WW2. Three quarters of the Jews living in the Netherlands in 1940 were killed during WW2. This is a story of survival against the odds.

John and Adele have been together for over two decades and have a son. Their relationship has been on a downhill trajectory for many years. One evening, en route to their annual holiday destination, they run out of fuel in a remote location. To whom can they go for assistance? Suddenly, in the darkness, their lives take an unexpected turn. They meet three mysterious but benevolent strangers who offer to help them. In observing Adele and John, they pose to the couple an unusual challenge that seeks to address the core problems in their marriage. John and Adele find the proposal odd but intriguing. While it may have advantages, it could be risky and dangerous. But unresolved emotions and unhealed wounds, as well as long-buried memories can also have hazardous and unpredictable consequences. Will they dare to accept this challenge or not? This unique novel, while aimed at taking a fresh perspective on relationships, is uplifting, relaxing, and is meant to be enjoyed.

A snapshot of life in a small Caribbean island, an unwanted remnant of empire that Britain would like to but cannot ignore. In the hope that it might pay for itself it has been encouraged to become a tax haven with all the usual (and unusual) associated activities – and a luxury holiday destination. People who belong there adjust as best they can to the bombardment of new ways, ideas and businesses. Some try to ignore it, some are bemused, some adapt, and the sharper ones take full advantage. There are new visitors - tourists, idealists, escapers and businessmen of varying degrees of honesty. And there is one feisty lady who only wants to care for animals but who inadvertently gets caught up in matters that she knows nothing about.

Lexie and Pippa have been best friends since they met at university, but now their hopes and ambitions are taking them down very different paths.Lexie, driven to find help for her autistic brother, works for a pharmaceutical giant. Tough, self-sufficient and practical, she has sacrificed personal relationships in her quest for money and influence. In contrast Pippa is an idealistic homeopathic doctor who is driven by her desire to truly care for people. She’s devoted to her husband, RAF pilot Oliver, and their young son. She feels more and more alienated from the values of her erstwhile best friend.Home on leave, Oliver attempts to thaw the frosty relationship between the women. But the chemistry between him and Lexie leads to a night of passion that will change all their fates. And Oliver harbours another, far more shocking secret. When it is revealed, can the broken bonds of love and friendship ever be healed? Or have professional rivalry, bitterness and betrayal fractured those bonds forever?

As machine software develops, it becomes more and more intelligent. More capable of doing things that we humans have been used to doing, have assumed that that is our job, our role, our responsibility. As this Ai Tech age advances, so the world is being faced by a challenge: can Technology and People continue to live harmoniously together, a world where the Tech supports, enables and complements what People can do? Or will the machines take over?Such is the pace of technology-driven change that companies around the world are scrambling to catch-up, to transform, reinvent themselves for this Digital Tech age. FinTech, InsurTech, Blockchain, Bitcoin, Cloud, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Virtual Reality, Robotics, Cyber Security, Internet of Things…there’s seems no end to what new Tech is generating and with it the substantial challenges, and opportunities, for every organisation.This new book sets out a possible roadmap and blueprint to help companies navigate their way through these changing times. It looks at best practices and lessons learned and aims to distil that into a clear set of guidelines and working advice.

Young British miner Harry Speares is no admirer of Josef Stalin.But when, in the late 1930s, his communist father Joseph is invited to work at the headquarters of Moscow’s global subversive network, the Comintern, he reluctantly accompanies him - lured by promises of an education denied him at home.In the Hotel Lux, foreign communist leaders live alongside exiled revolutionary fighters, teachers, writers and spies. Here, Harry meets Rosa Zander, a beguiling German woman who verses him in the mysterious rites of his new home. Rooms hum with debate, laughter and music. Children play in the corridors. But for Harry, the outsider, there is something unsettling about those ‘believers’ so set on remaking the world.As the threat from Nazi Germany escalates, Stalin turns against his loyal servants in the Lux. Rosa struggles to explain a bloody betrayal that bewilders and infuriates Harry. But Harry's fascination with her grows, along with his fear of her power, as she draws him into the darker corners of the Comintern. Is she friend, sweetheart or jailer? Desperate to escape Russia, Harry embarks on a perilous journey into Moscow’s criminal underworld that leads him to the gates of the British Embassy. Where he goes, Rosa follows.

Samuel Bass is fighting for his country, for himself, for forbidden love and for African Americans held in bondage. Leaving his wife and children, Samuel joins General Washington's newly formed Continental Army. Fighting at the battle of Germantown, he is badly wounded. Lieutenant Colonel John Laurens, aide-de-camp to General Washington, rescues him from death and takes him to the home of a Quaker family in nearby Philadelphia to recover. Here he falls in love with the young woman slave assigned to care for him. Thus begins a tumultuous and, at times, dangerous journey into inner conflict, divided loyalties and a personal mission to provide equal education for everyone, regardless of their colour. In this sweeping narrative, the author skillfully gives an imaginative portrayal of one man’s life set against the background of American War for Independence but which, at the current time of global tension, addresses issues and conflicts that still resound today, such as the struggle for power and the destructive influence of widespread racial prejudice.

Amidst the turmoil of the Vietnam War, the line between loyalty and betrayal is blurred in this gripping romantic spy thriller. Amelie, a French journalist born in colonial Indochina, navigates the treacherous landscape of espionage as a communist spy working for the North Vietnamese. Under the guidance of her handler, Tran, Amelie finds herself entangled in a deadly game of cat and mouse, operating between Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. When Amelie receives crucial evidence from a burned CIA operative in Bangkok, she becomes further embroiled in the war's chaos and her emotions are torn between two men: Magnus, a dashing Scottish reporter, and Tom, a charismatic American officer. As the stakes heighten and allegiances are tested, Amelie must confront the devastating impact of violence on her life and the cost of loyalty, duty, and love. Can she survive the war, find love, and uncover the truth without losing herself in the process?

In the shadow of a failed international intervention in Somalia, Gareth Owen lands in war-torn Angola, thrust into a besieged city teetering on the brink. Malanje, encircled by UNITA rebels deploying medieval tactics, becomes ground zero for a crack team of Irish aid workers fighting to stave off starvation for tens of thousands of children. Amid mortar fire and minefields, Owen bears witness to haunting violence and unwavering human spirit. His eight-month emotional descent unfolds as a complex tapestry of deep camaraderie, visceral fear, and the painful reckoning of his own privilege. At the heart lies a brutal legacy —colonial plunder and Cold War complicity – tempered with the inspirational humanitarian ethics of a bygone era. Three decades later, Owen’s story resurfaces—raw and unflinching. Unhealed Wounds interrogates the mythology of white saviourism, sheds light on forgotten lives and demands remembrance in an age of eroding global solidarity. Powerful and evocative, this memoir invites readers to urgently contemplate what has been lost from the true embodiment of humanity’s collective cause: connection between and respect for all peoples. Far more than a personal account, it is a searing moral reckoning for our divisive contemporary times of eroding internationalism and encroaching global catastrophe.

Behind the elegant façade of No. 28, a Victorian terraced house in a tree-lined avenue, five women try to outrun the darkness that threatens to consume them. Cloistered in separate apartments, seeking ways to fill the hours of solitude, their privacy is assured, each woman remaining oblivious to a strange secret that binds them all. The owner of No. 28, and occupant of the attic apartment, is unravelling at an alarming rate. Her psychiatrist, an enigmatic figure coaxed out of retirement, believes he is more than qualified to take on Alana’s case. But, as the sessions with his client dive deeper, the line between memory and fantasy blurs, and he begins to question his own view of reality. Those who cross paths with the residents of No. 28 find themselves drawn into a growing maelstrom of deception and chaos. And when the storm breaks, lives will be claimed. Darkly humorous and deliciously unsettling, No. 28 is a suspense-laced study of fractured minds and fragile alliances. A cautionary tale, it explores the tapestry of invisible strands that binds the fate of unsuspecting souls, and the destructive forces unleashed when the anchoring thread snaps.

Behind the elegant façade of No. 28, a Victorian terraced house in a tree-lined avenue, five women try to outrun the darkness that threatens to consume them. Cloistered in separate apartments, seeking ways to fill the hours of solitude, their privacy is assured, each woman remaining oblivious to a strange secret that binds them all. The owner of No. 28, and occupant of the attic apartment, is unravelling at an alarming rate. Her psychiatrist, an enigmatic figure coaxed out of retirement, believes he is more than qualified to take on Alana’s case. But, as the sessions with his client dive deeper, the line between memory and fantasy blurs, and he begins to question his own view of reality. Those who cross paths with the residents of No. 28 find themselves drawn into a growing maelstrom of deception and chaos. And when the storm breaks, lives will be claimed. Darkly humorous and deliciously unsettling, No. 28 is a suspense-laced study of fractured minds and fragile alliances. A cautionary tale, it explores the tapestry of invisible strands that binds the fate of unsuspecting souls, and the destructive forces unleashed when the anchoring thread snaps.