The Life and Times of a Scallywag is an autobiography by the flamboyant Sidney (Siddy) James Carter.It tells of his exploits as a child on the streets and in the fields of the infamous Cray area of north Kent, through his brief school years and onto his chosen profession, one of the most notorious cat burglars in Britain.The book is brilliantly funny, heartbreakingly sad in places and features some colourful characters from The Crays and surrounding areas. His family features of course, through the good times and bad. This book is also somewhat of a history lesson of what life was like in the Crays during the 40's, 50's and 60's.Young Steak and Kidney (Sidney) went from skint to having so much money he didn't know what to do with it, but he learnt very quickly. His nickname around the Crays was "Champagne Sid", when he drank, everybody drank, life was one long party.Ultimately he got his collar felt, more than once, but his tales of escape and evasion will bring a smile to your face.It is written in the style of Sid himself, plenty of Cockney Slang and plenty of local dialect spoken by the travelling community. You will have to look past the odd grammatical error as well, but when a story is this good, it's more than worth it.

The Life and Times of a Black Southern Doctor, or LATOBSD as it will be referred to from here on in this condensation, is a saga of life in the panhandle of Florida from 1896 to 1956 and a bit beyond. Doctor Alpha Omega Campbell was an actual practicing physician in and around Tallahassee between 1913 and 1956. In 1956, at the age of 67, A.O. Campbell was convicted of manslaughter in the death of a Jacksonville mother of two, after allegedly performing a criminal abortion that eventually results in her dying. On in years and eyeing semi-retirement, he is sent Floridas hardest prison for four of his remaining years. LATOBSD begins 1 years into the doctors incarceration at the time of his dear wifes funeral. Maggie Lou Campbell did not do well with her husband hundreds of miles away. She has been watching their empire of wealth and real estate crumble around her, spurred on by numerous jealous conspirators who position themselves like sharks around a school of hapless fish. It is from that point backward, I transport the reader back in time, before Maggie Lou was conceived by her multi-racial mother with the help of one of Leon Countys most respected grocers and back when Alfrey (A.O.) Campbells family was beholding to a deep-rooted plantation owner; some called it slavery in the post emancipation south. From this time forward, I undertake the task of fictionalizing a seemingly unmeasurable share of people and events. Most of this recounting of the doctors affairs is true to history, used as a guidepost for the seventy-some year story line. There are many people amongst the ensemble that closely resemble many of those that truly did exist, back when the delineation between black and white was beginning to show signs of gray. Yet as close as the Campbells pushed that line towards equality, a stronger force bludgeoned them back where they belonged. As tempting as it was to make this biographical, I could not. Case in point, the considerable liberty taken, especially as it applies to the more famous characters I have inserted in this moderately loosely-tied account of what really happened. If you think historical fiction is tough, staying true to events, multiply that by two and you have a biography; there will always be someone who says: That isnt the way it happened.. So as we traipse our way into the wonderful world of fiction. Consider this list of names and events (In order of their appearance): I. The Spanish-American War II. 25th President: William McKinley III. The Galveston Hurricane1900 IV. 26th President: Theodore Roosevelt V. George Eastman (sister Judith) VI. Suffragette: Emmeline Pankhurst VII. The San Francisco Earthquake1906 VIII. Playwright: Sir James Barrie IX. World War I X. Mary PickfordEarly Hollywood XI. The Pacific Clipper Flying BoatsPanAm XII. Roswell, New Mexico: Area 51 Whoowah Nellie. What does any of this have to do with a black Southern doctor you ask? That is what makes history fun, even if much of this stuff did not come down quite the way I write it. I promise to dedicate the 20th chapter to the process of sorting the beef from the bull; the inconsistencies you all will gladly point out while reading along as the decades peel away. The bottom line is that LATOBSD is not just about the doctor.

Many words have been used to describe John Pope Hennessy, the former governor of Hong Kong. “Controversial” is perhaps the briefest way to outline his character. Yet we may be guilty of ascribing modern ideas to our understanding of characters of the past. An Irish Catholic raised during the age of empire and rising nationalism, a devout Tory and Disraeli follower, a believer in both the benefits of empire and a patron of local talent in his postings, it is easy to view Pope Hennessy as a man of contradictions. This volume traces Pope Hennessy’s history from his early beginnings in famine Ireland to his attempts to rise through the ranks in London. It goes on to cover his early postings to Labuan, West Africa, and, of course, Hong Kong, as well as his final days with his family. His actions and his personality are laid bare for readers fo form their own opinions of one of Hong Kong’s most enigmatic governors. “As to Sir J. P. Hennessy, the less said the better. His acts speak powerfully enough. The centre of his world was he himself. But with all the crowd of dark and bright powers that were wrestling within him, he could not help doing some good…” - Dr Ernst Johann Eitel, Missionary, sinologist, and John Pope Hennessy’s private secretary

After reuniting with Jazmin, Shawne is a top college quarterback, on the verge of making all his dreams come true. Top draft pick into the pros. Becoming a father, and marry the woman he loves. But old flames are not easy to extinguish when you’re placed in familiar environments. Can Shawne maintain his marriage, family friendships and faith, all while attempting to lead his team to a championship?

This true life adventure story is the saga of four ordinary Englishmen—a pair of banished, first-time petty thieves and a couple chosen to be settlers—who charted a course that led them to help build and mould an infant country on the remotest continent in the known world. Two of their offspring united to continue the adventure. Vivid first-hand accounts have been pried from the daily, hand-written journals and writings of first-class passengers, crew, and one of the convicts aboard the small wooden sailing ships, as they battled winter storms on the treacherous North Atlantic and Southern Oceans and endured scorching doldrums in the equatorial region. Mutinies, inventions, discoveries, and wars have been chronicled to provide a backdrop of the prevailing international, societal, and interpersonal relationships of the period. Characters from history’s stage weave their way through these pages—figures including James Cook, Horatio Nelson, Robert Emmet, Jonathan Swift, William Bligh, Lachlan Macquarie, Samuel Marsden, Walter Lawry, Alfred Howitt, and some long-forgotten souls like the tragic Margaret Sullivan. Artwork of the period is included to help stimulate the imagination and help place the reader beside the characters as they toiled to eke out an existence. The primary objective of this biography is a quest to achieve a broader, deeper understanding and appreciation of the typical person—including their struggles, challenges, and contributions—in early colonial New South Wales, Victoria, and New Zealand. The goal is to further the development of a robust comprehension of the Life and Times that these Six Australian Pioneers experienced, as well, the millions of other pioneers just like them. This book will also appeal to those with an interest in eighteenth and nineteenth-century Australian, European, and New Zealand history; late eighteenth-century ocean voyages; and those with an interest in artwork of the period.

Musician, political critic, and hedonist, international superstar Fela Anikulapo-Kuti created a sensation throughout his career. In his own country of Nigeria he was simultaneously adulated and loathed, often by the same people at the same time. His outspoken political views and advocacy of marijuana smoking and sexual promiscuity offended many, even as his musical brilliance enthralled them. In his creation of afrobeat, he melded African traditions with African American and Afro-Caribbean influences to revolutionize world music. Although harassed, beaten, and jailed by Nigerian authorities, he continued his outspoken and derisive criticism of political corruption at home and economic exploitation from abroad. A volatile mixture of personal characteristics -- charisma, musical talent, maverick lifestyle, populist ideology, and persistence in the face of persecution -- made him a legend throughout Africa and the world. Celebrated during the 1970s as a musical innovator and spokesman for the continent's oppressed masses, he enjoyed worldwide celebrity during the 1980s and was recognized in the 1990s as a major pioneer and elder statesman of African music. By the time of his death in 1997 from AIDS-related complications, Fela had become something of a Nigerian institution. In Africa, the idea of transnational alliance, once thought to be outmoded, has gained new currency. In African America, during a period of increasing social conservatism and ethnic polarization, Africa has re-emerged as a symbol of cultural affirmation. At such an historical moment, Fela's music offers a perspective on race, class, and nation on both sides of the Atlantic. As Professor Veal demonstrates, over three decades Fela synthesized a unique musical language while also clearing -- if only temporarily -- a space for popular political dissent and a type of counter-cultural expression rarely seen in West Africa. In the midst of political turmoil in Africa, as well as renewal of pro-African cultural nationalism throughout the diaspora, Fela's political music functions as a post-colonial art form that uses cross-cultural exchange to voice a unique and powerful African essentialism.