Captain kevin Ivison GM

How many times can a man face death before he breaks

When two of his colleagues are killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq, young bomb disposal officer Kevin Ivison is called in to defuse a second even deadlier bomb just a hundred yards from the bodies of his friends. To make things worse, the entire area is under fire from snipers, and a crowd of angry Iraqis have begun to hurl petrol bombs… With little chance of living through this impossible task, Kevin leaves final messages for his loved ones and sets out alone towards the bomb that he is sure will be the last thing he sees. In this gut-wrenching and terrifying true story of heroism and survival, Kevin Ivison explains why he chose to be a bomb disposal expert in the first place, how he found the courage to face his death, and the unendurable stress that has given him nightmares ever since.

Released 7 July in paperback

Once again a box full of kiddies clothes and teddy bears has arrived safely, My contact in Cape Town will deliver them to the most needy Thanks everybody and heres a word from Jo

HI Nicky,

Thanks once again to all your friends in Mallorca – the parcel arrived on Monday.  Sorry it has taken me a while to confirm its arrival, but Mandela’s 67 minutes got in the way.  Many groups spent their time making sleeping bags for the homeless which meant I was on duty to demonstrate.  UCT have taken on this project in a big way – not the students yet, but the staff of various faculties.

I hope you won’t mind but I am giving the latest parcel to Dr. Paul Roux who is taking a whole heap of stuff up to Peddie on Friday.  I think I might have mentioned that he has started a clinic in the rural area and the people there are unbelievably poor.  Paul and Debbie (both members and ex Presidents of my Rotary Club) cycled 1000 kms from Peddie to Cape Town to raise enough money to purchase a vehicle to transport the ill and elderly patients from surrounding areas to the clinic. This they did while I was away.  They raised enough and Rotary then paid in the difference for the required vehicle.

Paul has come and gone with his 4 x 5 fully laden with kids clothing, adult clothing, toys, two bags of shoes and about 40 kgs of health bar off cuts I collected from Michaels & Michaels this morning.

I am trying to sort out my garage and to distribute anything I no longer will need in Shady Pines. I thought I had got rid of everything when I moved, but found two huge containers of photographs going back about 60 years.  I doubt my daughter will be interested once I am gone, so albums (minus a few photographs of friends) are all going into the garbage bin.  All the toys I bought for the grandchildren have gone with Paul as my spoilt grandchildren have enough of everything.  Books and puzzles will go to the paediatric ward at Groote Schuur.  See everything has a home somewhere.

Many many thanks Nicky – you know how much I and everyone appreciates the trouble you go to.

I will now have to make friends with the chaps at the Howard Centre Post Office in Pinelands.

Warmest regards and sincere good wishes to all,

Jo

Jo Maxwell

5 Pillans Court

Pillans Road

Rosebank

7700

Tel: 021 685-4517

C. J. Sansom

Heartstone continues the story of Matthew Shardlake and co…

It’s Summer, 1545. England is at war. Henry VIII’s invasion of France has gone badly wrong, and a massive French fleet is preparing to sail across the Channel… Meanwhile, Matthew Shardlake is given an intriguing legal case by an old servant of Queen Catherine Parr.

Terry Pratchet

‘I Shall Wear Midnight’ features the now experienced Tiffany Aching, settled in her role as Hag o’ the Hills, but facing the challenge of her life. A cast of more or less bizarre characters including, memorably, the Nac Mac Feegles, lots of tension, romance and drama, a good story line, mixed with plenty of Terry Pratchett’s delicious humour.

Released in Paperback 9 June 2011

Paul Preston

Preston knows a great deal about modern Spain. Here, he condenses, in nine brief biographies, the bitter divisions that racked the country during the civil war of 1936-39, ranging far outside those dates to explain what happened. There are three men and one woman from each of the Right and Left, and one neutral: included are Franco himself and Azana, the president of the defeated republic. A compelling book, full of savagery, pathos and insight.

Ernest Hemingway

In Death in the Afternoon, Hemingway shares the sights, the sounds, the excitement, and above all, the knowledge which fuelled his passion for Spain and the bullfight. This remarkable book contains some of his finest writing, inspired by the intense life, as well as the inevitable death, of those hot, violent afternoons…

Ernest Hemingway

High in the pine forests of the Spanish Sierra, a guerrilla band prepares to blow up a vital bridge. Robert Jordan, a young American volunteer, has been sent to handle the dynamiting. There, in the mountains, he finds the dangers and the intense comradeship of war. And there he discovers Maria, a young woman who has escaped from Franco’s rebels.

George Orwell

This is a very interesting book for those wanting detailed information on Spains civil war. Orwell’s personal account of his experiences of his build up, being in the front line and then after he was wounded, returning to the political complications during the ever changing scene in Barcelona. Provides a realistic picture of what those times were like and the ideals that were being fought for.

Gerald Brenan

Brenan’s account of his return to Spain after the Civil War makes fascinating reading: one of the first people to search for Lorca’s unmarked grave, he also muses on the great mosque in Cordoba and ancient synagogues in Toledo - little wonder that it was hailed as ‘the ideal travel book’ by the Observer.

Anna Nicholas

Having moved with her family to rural Mallorca to escape the stresses of London life, PR consultant Anna Nicholas continues to commute back to her glitzy Mayfair agency to earn a crust. Meanwhile she is harbouring a bizarre dream to open a luxury cattery on the island - unbeknownst to her long suffering Scottish husband, Alan, and son, Oliver.Life in the mountains is never uneventful as the author gets to grips with phantom sheep, midnight snail hunts, Catalan lessons, ghosts, floods and flighty hens. London also has its challenges, as she juggles eccentric, rich and often neurotic clients between Mayfair and Manhattan and is hotly pursued by lucrative deals. But increasingly Anna finds herself craving the simple life of her Spanish idyll because as she discovers, you can take the girl out of Mallorca, but you can’t take Mallorca out of the girl.Wickedly irreverent, laugh out loud funny and lovingly observed, “Cat on a Hot Tiled Roof” celebrates the wonders of Mallorcan rural life.