Mustard Gas – a life saver? By Margaret Graham

Posted on September 29, 2016 by Margaret Graham

Out of darkness came hope, or so explained Justin Stebbing, Professor of Oncology, Imperial college, London at the Pink Ribbon conference on 17^th September.

Gerard Dugdill organized the Pink Ribbon’s 3rd breast cancer forum, in association with the Royal Society of Medicine, 1 Wimpole Street, London W1G and Frost Magazine was lucky enough to be there on the morning of the Patients’ Day.

A series of speakers spoke to an audience of patients and their relatives about many things, not quite sea and ships and sailing wax, cabbages and kings, but surgery, and nursing support. Frost’s own Dr Kathleen Thompson talked about the things she had learned during her journey through cancer, and had excellent ideas for navigating the system. It is a journey so amusingly but poignantly described in her award winning book From Both Ends of the Stethoscope. A book which is selling strongly internationally.

Then it was the turn of a plastic surgeon, and finally Justin Stebbing who kicked off his talk about what were the beginnings of cancer treatment, and where it appeared to be going now, as research speeds at a gallop into the future. He explained that immunotherapy which is being developed looks as though it could be the way to tackle cancer in the future. As he said, this is a mile ahead, but research is already a few yards into the journey.

But back to mustard gas. Justin told us how Dr Stewart Francis Alexander made the link from mustard gas to cancer treatment. He noticed that many of those caught in a mustard gas attack had, after several days, a surprisingly low number of immune cells in their blood – cells that, if mutated, can go on to develop into leukaemia and lymphoma.

Alexander hypothesised that if mustard gas could destroy normal white blood cells, it seemed likely that it could also destroy cancerous ones – thence the start of chemotherapy.

This was a hugely valuable day, one ultimately which gave hope that we are on the way in some years hence to non invasive treatment, and perhaps protection.

From Both Ends of the Stethoscope: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Both-Ends-Stethoscope-Getting-cancer-ebook/dp/B01A7DM42Q

Magnitone The Full Monty Brazilian Bombshell Edition Review

Posted on September 28, 2016 by Catherine Balavage

2016 is the year I became obsessed with electronic facial devices. It was while using one on my face that I thought how amazing it would be if someone invented one you could use on the entire body. Well my dreams came true with Magnitone’s The Full Monty Brazilian Bombshell Edition. The Magnitone facial brush is amazing for cleansing and toning the face but The Full Monty does, well, the full monty.

I am now obsessed with this face and body brush. I have been using it for weeks now, and it has made a huge difference to my skin. My husband always mentions how soft my skin is after I use it on my body. It exfoliates so well. I don’t fake tan, but if you do this would be a good preparation for it. You use the pedi brush dry and it gets rid of all of the dry skin on your feet. It also leaves your face cleansed and toned. This Vibra-Sonic 3-in-1 Skincare Brush deep-cleanses, tones, exfoliates and buffs skin. With 3 modes; face, body and feet and 3 heads, skin is left beautifully conditioned, from head-to-toe.

This vibrant, illustrated brush is inspired by the carefree spirit of Brazil. It uses award winning Vibra-Sonic technology with 3 modes (Face + Body + Pedi) to deep cleanse, tone and smooth your skin all over – giving you ultimate summer skin confidence. You can get your body Olympic worthy.

Double-Award Winning combo of sonic oscillations + pulsed vibrations = an energising daily cleanse and skin workout.

Gently wobbles dirt out of pores (where hands can’t go) and boosts micro-circulation to tone up skin
Don’t let your face reap all the cleansing and skin smoothing benefits. Max your skin’s fitness and do The Full Monty skin workout

It comes with 4 brush heads.

PORE PERFECTION – Breakout Busting Facial Brush (for oily/congested skin)
ACTIVE CLEAN – Daily Cleansing Facial Brush
GET BEACHED – Tantastic Prep and Prolong Body Brush
WELL HEELED! – Perfect Pedicure Head

And 3 modes.

FACE (SENSITIVE / DEEP CLEANSE / PULSELIFT™ TONING)
BODY EXFOLIATION
PEDI-BUFF

It comes with a 12-month warranty, a MyMagnitone Membership Card, a USB lead and a magnetic USB charging cradle.

It is available from magnitone.co.uk, boots.com, feelunique.com, and MyShowcase and I highly recommend it. It will change your skin. You can buy a Magnitone Full Monty Vibra Sonic Face and Body Cleansing Brush here.

BEST ENDEAVOURS: Best Of Days: Jane Cable’s Digital Publishing Journey

Posted on September 28, 2016 by Jane Cable

BEST ENDEAVOURS

Jane Cable’s blog about what happens once that digital publishing deal is in the bag continues.

BEST OF DAYS

That’s it – the manuscript has been emailed to Endeavour and acknowledged. In four to six weeks I’ll know how much more work I have to do.

So how do I feel? Exhausted – and suddenly very uncertain about my book. Of course the logical part of my mind tells me to get a grip; all I’ve done is a little tweaking and tidying up – they’ve read The Seahorse Summer, for goodness sake – and they’ve bought the rights. So of course it’s going to be fine. The tired, emotional part of my brain, however, is so mashed up I got motion sickness on the elevator in Sainsburys. No kidding.

But last night in my favourite pub, The Victory Inn at Towan Cross in Cornwall, an important aspect of my book was validated when conversation around the bar fell to a former soldier who was going badly off the rails. In so many ways they could have been talking about one of the two GIs in my book, Paxton.

Now when you tackle a subject like combat stress it’s important to get it right. I was lucky enough to be introduced to a former para turned fitness instructor who was prepared to tell me what he’d seen and heard from the soldiers under his care in Afghanistan after they came home from setting up Camp Bastion. The sense of isolation when separated from their unit on leave. The struggle returning to normal family life and relationships after all they’d experienced. How combat can scar a man in ways unseen. How fireworks are never the same again.

Readers of Frost will be no strangers to Words for The Wounded, the charity set up by author and contributing editor Margaret Graham. The charity supports soldiers suffering from combat stress and I very much hope that I can do something with The Seahorse Summer that can help them in this work.

In the meantime, with the editing finished, what now? Feet up for a while? Not a chance… there’s a huge ‘to do’ list of tasks which have been swept to one side and too long ignored; a vast amount of marketing to be done – both in advance of The Seahorse Summer and for The Cheesemaker’s House and The Faerie Tree which have been sliding down the Kindle charts while I’ve been busy editing; and, of course, picking up the threads of my current manuscript again.

But as for today? I’m on the north Cornish coast and the sun is shining. Quite honestly, I think I deserve a little break.

Jane Cable is the author of two independently published romantic suspense novels, The Cheesemaker’s House and The Faerie Tree, and a sporadic contributor to Frost. The Seahorse Summer tells the tale of how two American soldiers born sixty years apart help forty-something Marie Johnson to rebuild her shattered confidence and find new love. Discover more at www.janecable.com.

The New Mrs Clifton by Elizabeth Buchan

Posted on September 27, 2016 by Tracy Baines

It’s so nice to be able to breathe out again. Talk about tension.

The New Mrs Clifton had me gripped from the off. I had eagerly anticipated its arrival and was not disappointed. I am still haunted by the characters of Elizabeth Buchan’s previous novel, I Can’t Begin to Tell You and now I can add Gus and Krista Clifton to the cast list that has taken residence in my head.

As the Second World War draws to a close, Intelligence Officer Gus Clifton surprises his sisters at their London home. But an even greater shock is the woman he brings with him, Krista – the German wife whom he has secretly married in Berlin.

Krista is still suffering from her experiences at the hands of the British and their allies as Berlin fell; she is all but broken by the horrors she cannot share. But Gus’s sisters can only see the enemy their brother has brought under their roof. And their friend, Nella, Gus’s beautiful, loyal fiancée, cannot understand what made Gus change his mind about her. Bewildered, they cannot fathom the hold Krista has over their honourable Gus. How can the three women get her out of their home, their future, their England?

The stifling atmosphere of the house oozes from every page, the suffocating tension between the women pervades each chapter.

We learn of the consequences of Krista’s arrival in the first two pages, so the reader is in no doubt as to what the end will be but the who, and the why and the how keep you hooked until the end.

An absolute eye opener to post-war England for anyone who is under the impression that once war was over it was a series of hope and happy endings. I couldn’t help but think of the war in Syria and the people of Aleppo as I turned the pages, drawing parallels, thinking about the future they face when war is eventually over. Let us hope that is sooner rather than later.

It is a story of deprivation and resolution, and what it takes to survive when the future is bleak. What choices we are left with.

A fabulous read from start to finish.

Elizabeth Buchan’s previous novels include the prizewinning Consider the Lily, Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman and I Can’t Begin to Tell You. Her short stories have been broadcast on Radio 4 and published in a range of magazines. Elizabeth is patron of the Guildford Book Festival and of the National Academy of Writing. She has been a judge for the Costa Novel Award and sits on the authors’ committee for the Reading Agency

The New Mrs Clifton is published by Penguin

www.elizabethbuchan.com

www.penguin.co.uk

Should People Who Don’t Have Children Be Allowed To Tell You How To Raise Yours?

Posted on September 27, 2016 by Catherine Balavage

Before I was married and had children I would always say that people who weren’t married should not give advice to people who are married, and that people who don’t have children, shouldn’t give advice to people who have children. Now that I am married and I have a child I can tell you that my belief has only hardened. I know that is controversial. I know some of you might want to slap me right now. I am worried that some of you may even thing I am coming across a bit Andrea Leadsom. But this is not a smug parenting thing. It is not an us versus them: it is simply the fact that parenting looks very different from the outside, and that unless you have been in the trenches, you have no idea what it is actually like.

There are some anomalies: live-in nannies, childcare professionals and the like. But if you don’t have extensive childcare experience, and you don’t have any children of your own, then don’t tell me how to raise my child. You would be surprised how much this happens. There is one specific person who criticises or makes a negative comment about my son, and how my husband and I are raising him, every time we see them. It takes everything I have to not point out to this person that they have never been around a child in their life and should therefore STFU. It is not even that this person has a point. Each criticism is something they have to seek and is nonsense: a comment on how our son is dressed etc.

General unsolicited advice is infuriating at the best of times, but when it is people telling you how to parent it is especially annoying. Being a parent is hard. There is no day off, no breaks, and certainly no sick days. I once worked on a film, a West End play and organised the launch party for Frost all in one month. It was brutal and relentless, but it was still nothing compared to parenting. To go back to my point about parenting looking different from the outside; before I had a child I would hear a baby crying, or be in a restaurant wondering why people were just letting their children run around. Now, there are still some days where I think what are you doing? (because I am human), but the thing is, that parent has probably done everything they can to stop the crying baby. The parents in the restaurant are just so tired they can’t move. You don’t know what lead up to that point or what that person is feeling. They are not doing nothing, they have already done what they can.

So don’t tell people what there child should be wearing or eating. Don’t tell them to shut their child up. The child has just as much right to be speaking as you do. Don’t be that person rolling your eyes because there is a baby crying on the bus (like I was!), because until you become a parent, you have no idea how hard it is and if you have one of your own you will feel very guilty indeed.

So should people who don’t have children be allowed to tell you how to raise yours? No. I am trying to swear less now I am a mother so I will use an acronym: that person should STFU.

Screen Time has Escalated by 42%

Posted on September 26, 2016 by Margaret Graham

Does this bother you? It certainly does me because this is leisure time.

New research reveals our screen-time has increased by a staggering 42 per cent over the past five years, with 6.5 hours of leisure time being spent each day in front of digital screens, excluding work computer usage.

What can be done? Well, if you wear contact lenses, (I don’t) friends say this sounds like a good idea.

Bausch + Lomb are launching the first innovation in reusable contact lenses in almost a decade to help our eyes embraceand keep up with digital technology – plus a new lens for presbyopia too. This means that there hasn’t been an innovation in reusable lenses since the iPhone was launched – and the evidence shows. Whilst three quarters of us do not know how to spot the signs of digital eye strain (also known as Computer Vision Syndrome) which include dry eyes, blurred vision, tired eyes and headaches, 60-90 per cent of office workers using computer screens suffer from some form of ‘computer vision syndrome’. What’s more, up to 20 per cent of Britons admit they are “addicted” to their digital devices.

These lenses retain moisture for up to 16 hours, providing high levels of surface wettability on the lens, and preventing dehydration. I’m told by friends who wear contact lenses that this is a problem for them. They also supply exceptional levels of oxygen transmission, provide consistent comfort throughout the day with a tapered edge design. All of this reduces digital eye strain throughout the day.

For more details: www.digitaleye-d.co.uk

Young Voices Thread: Kinky boots review by Megan Cannell

Posted on September 23, 2016 by Margaret Graham

I love musicals. In fact I love them so much that I listen to “Wicked”s sound track every morning on the way to school. When my grandma offered to take us up to London to watch Kinky Boots, I could not refuse. My friend went to see it on Broadway and told me it was amazing and that the songs were so catchy. At first I was a bit sceptical because of the name but when it started I knew that I was going to enjoy it so much.

The story is about Charlie Price, who turns an Northampton shoe factory which is on the brink of closing, into a success by making boots for drag queens who want thigh-high red boots. Hence the name, Kinky Boots.

At the same time, we see how Lola, the project’s design consultant who is also a drag queen, makes Charlie and his co-workers overcome their dislike of men in frocks. All ends happily at a Milan shoe fair where the collapsing business is joyously ‘rebooted’.

The songs were super duper good and the story line was very interesting and personally, I had my eyes glued to the stage the whole time. I would say that this particular musical is great for lots of people, but I personally would recommend it for ages 10+, just because of some of the language and scenes. The show was really funny and had me and my sister laughing, but some of it was quite emotional. Don’t worry I won’t spoil it. All in all I would really recommend this musical and I have been listening to the songs nonstop after seeing it.

See it at the Adelphi Theatre, The Strand, London.

Despite the Falling Snow by Shamim Sarif Review by Frances Colville

Posted on September 23, 2016 by Margaret Graham

Despite the Falling Snow by Shamim Sarif was first published in 2010 but has recently been reissued by John Blake to coincide with the release of the film (starring Charles Dance and Rebecca Ferguson) written and directed by Sarif herself. Two previous books, I Can’t Think Straight and The World Unseen have also been made into films.

Set partly during the Cold War in the post-Stalinist Moscow of the 1950s and partly in Boston forty years later, this is a vivid portrayal of love, life and loss. It’s a very visual book, made to be filmed, and at the same time a gripping read with some interesting twists and turns. A thriller with a difference, in fact.

But what I really like about this book is that it is essentially a love story with a spy story background, rather than – as is so often the case – the other way around. And although the main character, the central character, is a man, we are drawn from the beginning into the lives of the women in the story and much of the story is told through their eyes rather than Alexander’s. This might sound confusing, but in fact it makes for a clever, well-plotted and well-written novel which works on several different levels. I think it will make an excellent film and it’s certainly a good read.

Despite the Falling Snow by Shamim Sarif pub. John Blake. £7.99