Necessary Evil: How to Fix Finance by Saving Human Rights | Book of The Week

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necessary evil finance

When I first received this book I worried it might be bias. There was no need. It is well researched and balanced. Full of fascinating facts and persuasive argument. A compelling and thoughtful read.

Finance is the evil we cannot live without. It governs almost every aspect of our lives and has the power to liberate as well as enslave. With the world’s total financial assets–valued at a staggering $300 trillion–being four times larger than the combined output of all the world’s economies, there is, apparently, plenty to go around. Yet, while proponents of finance-driven capitalism point to the trickle-down effect as its contribution to wealth redistribution, there are still nearly a billion people across the globe existing on less than $2 a day; 14 percent of Americans are living below the official poverty line; and disparities in wealth equality everywhere have reached unprecedented levels. Evidently a trickle is not enough.

How can this be when so much wealth abounds, and when finance is supposedly chastened and reformed after its latest global crisis? How, especially, can it be in an age when human rights are more loudly proclaimed than ever before? Can the financial sector be made to shoulder more of the burden of spreading wealth, reducing poverty, and protecting rights? And if so, what role can human rights play in making it happen?

In answering these questions, David Kinley draws on a vast array of material from bankers, economists, lawyers, and politicians, as well as human rights activists, philosophers, historians and anthropologists, alongside his own experiences working in the field. Necessary Evil shows how finance can shed its conceit, return to its role as the economy’s servant not its master, and regain the public trust and credibility it has so spectacularly lost over the past decade–all by helping human rights, not harming them.

Available here.

Making Oscar Wilde Book Review

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making oscar wildeA wonderful and unique insight into Oscar Wilde. A must buy for any aficionado.

Witty, inspiring, and charismatic, Oscar Wilde is one of the Greats of English literature. Today, his plays and stories are beloved around the world. But it was not always so. His afterlife has given him the legitimacy that life denied him. Making Oscar Wilde reveals the untold story of young Oscar’s career in Victorian England and post-Civil War America. Set on two continents, it tracks a larger-than-life hero on an unforgettable adventure to make his name and gain international acclaim. ‘Success is a science,’ Wilde believed, ‘if you have the conditions, you get the result.’

Combining new evidence and gripping cultural history, Michèle Mendelssohn dramatizes Wilde’s rise, fall, and resurrection as part of a spectacular transatlantic pageant. With superb style and an instinct for story-telling, she brings to life the charming young Irishman who set out to captivate the United States and Britain with his words and ended up conquering the world. Following the twists and turns of Wilde’s journey, Mendelssohn vividly depicts sensation-hungry Victorian journalism and popular entertainment alongside racial controversies, sex scandals, and the growth of Irish nationalism. This ground-breaking revisionist history shows how Wilde’s tumultuous early life embodies the story of the Victorian era as it tottered towards modernity. Riveting and original, Making Oscar Wilde is a masterful account of a life like no other.

Available here.

TAKE FOUR WRITERS: TEACHING, THANKING, VENTURING, BOPPING

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CLAIRE DYER… TEACHING

This month I want to talk about what teaching teaches me. Like many other authors I don’t actually spend ALL my time sitting in splendid isolation in a writing garret. In fact, I spend precious little time actually writing, as life tends to get in the way!

And, one such distraction is teaching Creative Writing at Bracknell & Wokingham College. Whilst I relish the chance to encourage and inform my students, what is of perhaps greater benefit to me is the chance to practise what I preach. In my Beginners’ classes we cover the basics tools of writing and in my Improvers and Advanced classes, we take this up a notch. And what I find is that in teaching these topics I get a timely reminder to apply the techniques we cover to my own writing.

I also give my students examples of my early work to critique and this shows me how awful some of the stuff I used to produce actually was! A salutary reminder to keep the writing muscle flexed and working and mark my own writing much as a teacher would: 6 out 10 Claire, could do better. See me after class!

 

LUCY COLEMAN…. THANKING

It’s been a month in which to be very grateful and to say thanks, by running a series of competitions for my amazing readers.

With Lucy Coleman’s ‘The French Adventure’ wearing best seller flags in the Holiday Romance charts in Australia and Canada, hitting #53 in the main UK Kindle chart, and #1 in the iBooks Romance chart, I did celebrate.

One glass of wine, toasted by my other half, then straight back to work because it’s been a month of non-stop writing.

Next up? 4th September 2018 Lucy’s second novel will be released. Still no cover and the excitement builds… but I can share the title for the FIRST time: ‘Snowflakes Over Holly Cove’.

My Christmas stories are never solely about Christmas, but this one has a dusting of snow and a lot of heart. And it was written last summer, but it wasn’t quite as hot as this July!

 

ANGELA PETCH… VENTURING

Writers live within their heads most of the time, amongst imagined scenes and characters. In Italy, far from distractions, I have plenty of time to dream up plots and conflicts. But sometimes, like a tortoise, I need to pop my head out of my carapace and venture into the real world.

So, last week I boarded a plane from Bologna for Leeds and my first RNA Conference. All apprehensions were swept away as soon as I entered Leeds Trinity University and was warmly welcomed. It was a buzzing weekend, packed with interesting and sometimes hilarious talks (how to write sex scenes foremost), food and wine a-plenty and many new friendships. How good it was to talk writing without the fear of boring non-writers. I pitched to three different publishers and came away from Bookouture and Harper Collins with encouraging advice.

Back in Sussex, I joined self-published fellow CHINDI authors as we held our ghost tour around the fascinating seaside town of Littlehampton.

This tortoise is almost ready to retreat again. But first of all, I have granny duties. Our fifth grandchild is due any day now. I feel a children’s story coming on.

 

JACKIE BALDWIN… BOPPING

Hello again! The first half of this month I spent in Greece hiking, swimming and reading books, which was a welcome change. A few days after I returned it was time to go to Harrogate Crime Festival! I was also lucky enough to be invited to read at Noir at the Bar on the Thursday evening along with some amazing authors. The venue at The Blues Bar was packed with readers, writers and bloggers so the audience was amazing!

Highlights of the festival for me included hearing John Grisham interviewed by Lee Child and bopping away to ‘Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers,’ including Val McDermid and Mark Billingham, I also loved the New Blood panel. I shall be sneaking new books into the house the way other women sneak in shoes!

I had such a great time that I have already paid a deposit for next year!

 

 

 

 

The Bomb Girl Brides by Daisy Styles | Recommended Reads

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The Bomb Girl Brides by Daisy Styles

The latest Daisy Styles novel
___________

It’s 1944 and Britain is a country at war. The young women of the Phoenix munitions factory are giving their all to the cause, but romance is beckoning . . .

The life of a Bomb Girl isn’t usually glamourous. But Maggie is getting married, so she is going to make sure her wedding day is – even if she does have to spend every other day slaving on the factory floor.

This blasted factory was not what Julia had in mind either. She had always dreamed of attending Oxford University rather than getting her hands dirty and the easy laughter of the other women intimidate her terribly.

But they are all here together in this munitions factory in a Lancashire mill town, sharing firsts, pitching in and getting on. Despite rationing, dangerous hard work and new situations these Bomb Girls are going to do their best at work, and in love.

Available here.

Don’t underestimate the danger of the sun on little ones in their prams and pushchairs

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Frost Magazine is interested in anything that keeps children that little bit safer, so we were interested in LittleLife’s new Buggy Blackout. I test drove it on my granddaughter’s pushchair in this VERY hot weather. It worked a treat. Before we tried it she couldn’t rest, seemed far too hot (well, weren’t we all) but once we put it on, she was so much cooler and more cheerful. This is what LittleLife says would happen. I like it when the product does what it says ‘on the box’.

Frost Magazine found the research by Swedish Paediatrician, Dr Svante Norgren frightening. It revealed that covering your child’s pram with a blanket or muslin can lead to stifling temperatures as high as 37oC inside the buggy, putting your baby at a high risk of overheating or even Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). The research showed that covering the pram with a thick blanket dramatically increased the temperature from 22oC to 34oC and then 37oC, resulting in a dangerously hot environment for babies who can’t regulate their temperature.  LittleLife’s new Buggy Blackout offers a far safer solution because it’s made from cool and breathable fabric so our grandchild was  not only cool but also protected

Part of LittleLife’s new 2018 Sleep Accessories collection, the Buggy Blackout has a universal design that can be used together with a wide range of pushchairs, buggies and strollers. Ideal for creating a cool and dark environment in which your baby can nap peacefully. As well as blocking 99% of UV rays from reaching your child’s delicate skin, the mesh fabric also offers protection against flying insects and wind chill to keep the child comfortable.

It’s also easy to put on, so Grandma isn’t fiddling in this heat to get started on the walk.

What I did think the research revealed, and needs highlighting is that  when babies become too hot they will become quiet and limp, meaning you may assume they are sleeping peacefully rather than in significant danger.

So with this Buggy Blackout you can check easily because it has a practical design with a zipped double door at the front. The double-layered door means that you can easily check on your little one without disturbing them and one door can be left open and secured at the top of the blackout for greater air circulation when temperatures rise.

I thought it a genuinely important and efficient product. Anything that keeps our children just that little bit safer is priceless.

For convenient storage between uses, the LittleLife Buggy Blackout comes with a handy storage sack.

For more information about the Buggy Blackout or the rest of LittleLife’s Sleep Accessories collection, visit www.littlelife.com.

* https://www.svd.se/varmen-blev-farlig-i-barnvagnen  or  https://www.thelocal.se/20140711/swedes-risk-infants-lives-by-covering-up-prams

 

 

Strictly Briks Stackable Baseplates

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These Strictly Briks baseplates are a clever idea. There are 36 colours to choose from and they work with all bricks. The people behind Strictly Briks have over 20 years experience in the toy industry. The baseplates are brilliant and allow vertical construction. Children love them. Highly recommended.

Strictly Briks Baseplates are available here.

Pop-Up Opera are back with Bizet’s famous masterpiece La Tragédie de Carmen reimagined.

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Pop-Up Opera are back for autumn with a reimagining of Bizet’s famous masterpiece La Tragédie de Carmen as they continue to challenge the perception of opera and bring it to the next generation.

In 1981 Peter Brook collaborated with composer Marius Constant to reimagine this emotive opera and, now, Pop-Up Opera will stage this stripped back incarnation. Sung in French with Pop-Up Opera’s signature ‘silent movie’ captions in English, this dark and thrilling piece may not always be as you expect.

Their retelling of this intense and tragic tale follows the four key multi-faceted characters in a thought-provoking drama of unhinged love and jealousy.  Actions are not without consequences and the stark reality of the repercussions for Don José are laid bare as the story unfolds in a series of his tormented flashbacks.

Director John Wilkie comments, Peter Brook’s incarnation of Prosper Merimee’s Carmen has fascinated me for many years – everything is trimmed away from the grander adaptations with which many are accustomed to focus on the intense interaction, the tragedy of the four protagonists. This production will be set at the end of the Spanish Civil War and we will investigate
the psychological elements that lie at the heart of this retelling of Carmen’s tale. I am immensely looking forward to bringing life to La Tragédie de Carmen with this very exciting team.

Pop-Up Opera’s combination of unique venues and cast of outstanding singers showcase this innovative opera

company’s  consistency in capturing the essence of this incredible refined and raw art form.

Tour:Sat 22nd Sept Court Gardens Farm, East Sussex, 7.30pm Orchard Lane, Ditchling, Hassocks BN6 8TH

Tues 25th Sept Asylum Peckham, 7pm Caroline Gardens Chapel, Asylum Road, London SE15 2SQ

Find out other tour dates (and there are many):  Website www.popupopera.co.uk

Twitter @PopupOperaUK, #LaTragedieDeCarmen

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/popupopera

Bored With the Same Old Drinks? by Dr K Thompson

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‘What would you like to drink?’

Do you find yourself struggling to think of an option that would really thrill?

Well, Frost has some great new ideas for you.

First – alcohol (of course). So why not try Britain’s oldest wines and spirits merchant – Berry Bros & Rudd, St James’s, London? Besides all their amazing wines, I can recommend two other of their products.

First – the ginger liqueur – named King’s Ginger, because it formulated by them in 1903 for King Edward VII, no less.  And I can see why the king liked it. Smooth and light with the ginger warmth at the back of your throat – delicious neat or with ice.

Second – No 3 London Dry Gin – named after their premises – No 3 St James Street. A classical dry gin, celebrating juniper at its best.

And – great news – you can try these and their other products, because they also host private events – fine food dining and wine tastings within their (two acres) of cellars, deep below the London streets. What a fabulous experience. See their website for details.

 

 

But what if you’re driving, or simply don’t want alcohol? Well, easy – go to The London Essence Company for some really special beverages.

I was blown away by their Grapefruit and Rosemary Tonic Water – in a large glass, with plenty of ice, this delicious mixer, created from distilled botanicals and natural flavourings was perfection.  And, if needed, it will complement a good gin too. Other flavours include bitter orange and elderflower, and pomelo and pink pepper, in addition to classical tonic water.

And if tonic water is not for you, try their very special ginger ale, made from steeped ginger root and aniseed distillate, or their rhubarb and cardamom crafted soda.

Stocked by Waitrose and Ocado.

Well, after all that writing, I think I need a drink.

 

By Dr K Thompson, author of From Both Ends of the Stethoscope: Getting through breast cancer – by a doctor who knows

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01A7DM42Q http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01A7DM42Q

http://faitobooks.co,uk