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Agnes Meadows, poet: "Leaving Traces " is Mary Pargeter's second collection, and one which fully embraces life's tragedies, sorrows and regrets, as well as some of the things that amuse or remind us of nature's bounty. It is a collection packed with poignant, emotional images that haunt, staying with you long after you've read the poems. Evocative and nostalgic are words that spring to mind over and over again when reading Mary's exquisitely crafted collection. The common thread linking each of its four parts is sadness for what was once replete with life and promise, but which has now passed. There is a ghost-like quality about this writing, as if each word and phrase is a thread in the writer's rich tapestry of years and memories, the past an ever-present but remote reality, all of it imbued with elemental magic and the mystery of the natural world. Ultimately, I loved the whole collection because, despite its often painful and nostalgic themes, it was beautifully written by a poet who has clearly taken a great deal of time and thought to fine-tune each memory, real or imagined, allowing us to springboard our own regrets and disappointments. Well worth a read - a collection not to be ignored.

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Opening with his award of Membership of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, the book relates John's personal and family history from his English and Belgian parents and grandparents and their roles in two World Wars. His Belgian grandparents were evacuated to England in the first war: his father was shot at by the Germans during the liberation of Antwerp and his mother bombed in a pub in South London while serving in the London Auxiliary Ambulance Service in the second. Managing to get into veterinary college from a large comprehensive school in South London, John recounts tales from his studies and goes on to discuss various major debates which occurred during his career, including vaccinations and the anti-vaccine lobby. The role of badgers and TB is also discussed. The tale of his experience of meeting children with the drug-induced injury of thalidomide is both life-affirming and tear-jerking. His time in East Africa, including his experiences in Uganda under Idi Amin's dictatorship, is chilling but still funny and up-lifting. The tales of his experiences in general and specialist veterinary practice, with memorable farm, horse, dog and cat cases are enlightening, educational and sometimes sad but often very hilarious. The horrific experiences with foot-and-mouth disease will get any animal lover in tears and questioning what happened and why? But the option of a Vegan Utopia in a world without farm animals is dismissed as a sad alternative as demonstrated when large swathes of the United Kingdom were left without stock after the outbreak.

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GBP1 of each sale is pledged to making the twelve-part series Noah's Ark, commencing 11 January 2021 on Sky TV, as well as the series' You are Noah Tie-In books. Captured is a chance moment of mayhem. Flooding from two strong storms created a dam across an otherwise peaceful river, just before a pandemic swept across the world to isolate this spot along with the author. But, also captured along with manmade environmental destruction, is the transformation that took place from busy contrail skies to blue and verdant water scenes... and a pair of geese that made this their home. Then kayakers tackle the obstacle, boaters try to remove it, a swan performs... and a fox attacks...

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Sci-Fi and sex on a trip to die for...__"IT'S DAMN NEAR IMPOSSIBLE TO PUT DOWN__ When Milla Carter is taken on holiday by her boyfriend Franklyn, their 'dream break' turns into the kind of nightmare that makes the Titanic's last voyage look like a collision between a toy boat and an ice cube. Maybe they were too easily taken in by the glossy brochure and oily sales patter, but their trip to die for looks in danger of becoming just that. Their ill-fated vacation is the focal point of Body Holiday, the debut science-fiction novel of Wallington's Derek E Pearson. This imaginative, sexually explicit book has more swear words in it than a Gordon Ramsay show, yet its edgy, 'in your face' writing and tightly structured plot are so addictive that it's damn near impossible to put down. It grips from the first to the last page as Pearson skillfully draws the reader into a future that's dysfunctional, cold and frighteningly voyeuristic. This is a world that has no respect for privacy, where corporate power wields a big, ugly fist and which is so saturated with hard core pornography that it's lost the power to even be offended. A refusal to condone murder is one of its few saving graces!No wonder Milla and Franklyn need a break, although they're not the ones looking to re-charge their batteries. Ex-glamour model Ruth (who is 62 but looks 30) and her rich 86-year-old husband Pearce (who's just as ageless) also want some time out. Swapping bodies and lifestyles with Milla and Franklyn through a process called 'Transition' should be a breeze; after all, there's no better way of getting reacquainted with a partner than through the body of a younger stranger. Unfortunately, though, something goes horribly wrong. The dream vacation descends into a brutal game of survival in which the couples are pitched against a malevolent force that has the knack of always being one step ahead. Can Milla/Franklyn/Ruth/Pearce escape the nightmare, or are they destined to spend the rest of their lives on the run trapped in each other's bodies.__Grand Theft Auto__ The car chases, small but chilling amounts of gore and explosions of Armageddon proportions give the story the adrenalin-coated rush of a Grand Theft Auto game. Yet there's also a quasi gallows humour running through the narrative, neatly alleviating the underlying tension.Pearson's characters are convincingly drawn - warts and all - but it's Milla who really stands out.She's a woman of action, the shining light in the darkness, which is why her anger is palpable when a shocking plot twist exposes a terrible betrayal. Yet Milla's integrity is a contradiction. By rights, it shouldn't exist in a world that disparages decency, yet somehow it stays intact. Body Holiday is a novel that entertains and raises questions: could an out-of-hand relationship with technology fray our moral compass? How much privacy should we surrender to a constantly changing world and what guarantees are there that what's thrown into cyberspace will be used responsibly? Pearson doesn't provide the answers, but then why should he? Good science fiction is as much about encouraging readers to discover the truth themselves as it is about providing the answers." SURREY LIFE magazine (UK) Jan 2015 (p. 62), Juliette Foster

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Surrey Life magazine, May 2015, TV presenter Juliette Foster: "She writes with the lightness of petals falling on water yet underscoring the mildness is an honesty that surprises with its intensity". In this first collection, English poet Mary Pargeter re-visits her childhood, loss of innocence, states of love, heartbreak and death, and reflects, with admirable frankness, on those universal rites of passage common to us all. The first poems present an idyllic childhood running free in the exquisite landscapes near Selborne, immortalised by the 18th Century naturalist Gilbert White FRS. That blessed landscape, now part of the South Downs National Park, is still referred to as Gilbert White country. With superb views across the South Downs, the rambling house of her early years had been built for entertaining, but is now the family's no-nonsense working market garden. Sadly, to the child's dawning awareness come warning signs that all is not well. Her father has not long returned from four years in a Japanese prisoner of war camp. The experience has left inevitable scars. Tiny and intelligent, she observes and struggles to understand.As she grows up, next come poems dealing with young love - emotional intensity, gradual decline and the trauma of loss to which she herself admits a contribution. Dealing with grief contributes to the third part of her collection. In her early 20s, Mary's parents both died. Thus she must tackle another kind of loss, as well as anger and other raw emotions, finally coming to terms with her life's unavoidable patterns. REVIEWS - Professor Carol Rumens, Guardian Books Online 'Poem of the Week' blog: "I have felt engaged with the work, and responsive to its emotional charge." Jay Ramsay, Caduceus Journal: "She lets detail speak, often exquisitely, through things as they are; there is no attempt to escape through fantasy." Female First online magazine, Lucy Walton interview with Mary Pargeter. Angus Morris (RAF retd): "My human experience has been enriched by reading these poems. It is up to you if you are open to enrich yours..." Full reviews/interviews are on: www.gbpublishing.org. The Author - In 1948 English poet Mary Pargeter was born at home in the Hampshire hamlet of Newton Valence.Her idyllic country childhood was marred when, in 1956, the family moved to Surrey and the child unhappily experienced a suburban life, with pavements lit by street lamps.In her poetry she reflects on that childhood, heartbreak, early loves, disappointments and the entry into adulthood and at last understanding. She neither married nor had children. A child of the 60s, Mary flourished in art school and became a successful graphic designer.

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