Search results for ""author mike leaver""

Two forcibly segregated, separate sex, and rurally isolated schools are inhabited by malevolent masters, petrified pupils, more-kindly matrons, and a handful of true heroes – including The Ice Cream Terrorist. This titanic tale of redemption shows how pupils and staff – blighted by dysfunctional, post-war, orphanage schools in Britain – escape and reform the brutal system. Join their journey through school suffering, then on a road trip to a coastal idyll full of kindness, safety, and real-life skills, and eventually different lives. Free from oppression with more enlightened care, they create progressive futures. Mike Leaver’s epic saga spans two decades, England and Wales, and many major themes of 20th century life – such as homelessness, rebelliousness, lesbian love, and loyalty. Mike is really experienced at escaping from State boarding school, and so aspects of his personal life feature – and are sometimes exaggerated – in the travails and adventures of his larger-than-life, fictional pupils!

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Yeti (male 28) seeks mate. Can be seen Christmas/Easter roaming Ben Nevis, Snowdon some weekends in between. Migrates to Alps around June. Very friendly, generally harmless, except on ski-slopes. Very safe experienced motorcyclist Britain and abroad – would get sidecar, if nagged. Please write. . . (Personal ad published in a national mountaineering magazine.) From an asthmatic childhood spent on post-war Birmingham bomb-sites, Mike Leaver escaped from cruel State boarding schools to careers as a lab technician, accountant, pleasure-boat captain, and local builder. Mike has also been: a homeless hermit inhabiting a derelict boat surrounded by drug addicts; an adventurer/mountaineer in the UK, Scandinavia, and North Africa; and finally, a semi-retired handyman writing books while enjoying an ideal life off-grid in a converted lorry in a pretty coastal town. Embark on an extraordinary journey of an eccentric pursuing dreams of love, writing and the path to happiness in a memoir that’s as charming as it is quirky.

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Two teenage girls from opposite sides of the tracks in 1960s Midlands England are forced into prostitution in this engrossing tale of loss, liberty, and love. Weep at the relationship between clever Janet and spoiled Priscilla, as their handsome, young English teacher, Mr Edwards – and his corrupting father – become embroiled in their tortuous journeys. But then a smart heroine Tara fatefully enters the fray on a secret detective mission. Dramatic and topical events include a city-slum killing, police malfeasance, newspaper-business bribery, emotional blackmail, destitute homelessness, and a mountaineering adventure. This saga combines a socio-political struggle by the under-privileged against repression, with both feminine and asexual insights into love, to produce a thought-provoking, yet stylishly old-fashioned, romantic rollercoaster.

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Upper-class teen Sara flees her parents' middle-England mansion after a disastrous party. She happens upon Nork, a mysterious young, orphan boy seemingly from nowhere. Together they go on the run. Evading the authorities and becoming ever more inter-dependent during their long journey, they finally land up in the Scottish wilderness. They find themselves in a small loch-side town, but will they become the victims of the ruthless, hotel owner McTavish – or can they discover a new life and purpose there? This is a coming-of-age story with comedy, romance and sexual references, that is both thought-provoking and amusing.

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