A Splash of Kindness by John Starley Allen [Book Review]
A Splash of Kindness by John Starley Allen My rating: 4 of 5 stars A Splash of Kindness by Allen is a feel good book. Full of anecdotes about how little kindnesses have had a much larger impact on how other people see the world. You cannot help but be uplifted when you read A Splash of Kindness. Most of the anecdotes come from the lives of the author’s immediate family or friends, although some have come from other sources. Each chapter features a single story about how one kind intervention has helped someone draw themselves out of a dark place and feel good about contributing to the rest of the world. Where possible at the end of the chapter there are some sources attributed, so you can check out the stories for yourself if you are so minded. There’s…
New Books of 2015 pt.6
New Books of 2015, When I started this series of articles on my new books of 2015 I've acquired I thought that I would do three or four of them, one covering the books I'd got around my birthday, another about now covering books I'd picked up over the summer and a final one in late December summarising where I'd got to. It never occured to me that despite being restrained in my book acquisition that I would have acquired 50 books by the end of August (and there are a few more on pre-order that I expect to arrive later this year). Anyway, there are 11 books in this instalment, bringing the running total to 49. I've read 18 hard copy books and have a few more that I'm part of the way through. At this stage I have to…
The Shepherd’s Crown by Terry Pratchett [Book Review]
The Shepherd's Crown by Terry Pratchett My rating: 5 of 5 stars The Shepherd's Crown is a fitting end to the Discworld stories. There was no diminution of the characters or story telling, despite Pterry's illness he kept this one up to his usual standard right to the end. I'm sure he knew that The Shepherd's Crown would be his last Discworld book, there are some interesting nods to that in the story. The Shepherd's Crown This is a Tiffany Aching story, although it also includes the other witches, and the Lords and Ladies too. There are some interesting new characters too, not just old favourites. I particularly liked Geoffrey, the calm weaver, and the old boys of Lancre who helped with the denouement. The Nac Mac Feegle are in there too, along with some of the lyrics from the Steeleye…
Refugee Crisis – How Can We Help?
I'm pretty sure everyone in the UK has seen the awful pictures of Aylan Kurdi, the three year old Syrian boy who drowned along with his five-year-old brother Galip and their mother, Rehan while trying to escape Syria and join relatives in Canada. I sincerely hope that everyone else who saw these pictures was as upset and angry about it as I have been. As a father of two, one of who is three years old, it made me cry. It also made me want to do something about it. I started with signing the UK Parliament petition for the UK to take more refugees. If you are a British Citizen or resident please do the same. Refugees not Migrants Language is important. We have a global refugee crisis. The people we see trying desperately to come here are refugees, not…
Getting A Civil Service Job
Today is my last day in my current civil service job. On Monday I will start a new civil service job, on promotion, with a different civil service department. 100 Parliament Street (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Figuratively, I will be at the other end of Government. Physically I'll be in Parliament Street, a five minute walk from my current building. I'll be quite sad in many ways. I've worked with some very good people on things that I've both found interesting and felt that it was improving things from a citizen perspective. I expect that to continue in my new job, just with new people and new subject areas. This is not the end of my first chapter, not is it the start of the last. I describe myself as a career civil servant, having had many civil service jobs since 1992.…