Bradshaw Books

This is a fantastic book, and a great resource for teaching Bible study fellowships on marriage. I teach a class for blended marriages/families, and this book is a relevant resource several years after it was written.

"Where Do Dingoes Come From?" is an enjoyable children's storybook. It tells the tale of "Dingo the dog ... a fictional story about a real dog."

The storybook is a literary component of the Dingo the Dog Project. The project offers support to local animal shelters, and is a clever voice to promote pet adoption from these shelters. It also strives to educate children on the proper care of pets.

The storybook itself centers on a child's persistent request to hear her mother recite the story of where dingoes come from, specifically her own dog, Dingo. The mother complies and relays the story of how she used to care for Dingo when he lived in a special home for dogs, until one day she decided to bring him home.

The story is told in words that a child will comprehend and enjoy, plus it will touch on their emotions as they hear about Dingo's loneliness and desire to be loved and cared for.

The vibrant illustrations are very appropriate for the age level of the content, and add even more enjoyment to the reading experience.

This is a charming story with a very important message. I will definitely read this to the wee ones in my life.

Liteature is one of the best things you can give children to read, but kids need to be able to read decodable text at the same time. They need to feel the power of reading. They can with this book (and series). And, they can use their eyes, ears, mouth and body as they read, since Zoo-phonics is a kinesthetic way to learn to read. Great for kids!

This is yet another book in the series of the Zoo-phonics decodable reading series. This book becomes a little more challenging with each story. The animals tell the story, always positive story lines. The animals may have a little problem, but they resolve it with love and care. Great valueing lessons. A real advance in vocabulary.

I love this book. All the others are important because children can read them themselves. This one is more advanced. The kids really know they have learned to read by the time the get into this book. The stories are actually funny - and for teachers and parents - there are questions, other books to read on the subject and fun science activies to do. There's more to come, I hear!

This bitter farce tells the story of one Paul Pennyfeather, a young man who is expelled from an Oxford-like university due to a misunderstanding. Ever since this first scene the reader understands that he's reading a novel of the absurd. The point is never to tell a credible story with a tight plot, but to develop a savage satire on the British society, especially the educational system. After being expelled, Paul finds himself with no money and so is forced to get a job at a school of the worst level. His colleagues are pathetic and their small misadventures are hilarious. Of course, Waugh's humor is very British: caustic, understated, and at the same time some passages, like the athletic event, are excessive to the point of ridicule. At some point, Paul makes the acquaintance of the mother of one of his pupils, a rich and beautiful widow who proposes to him in marriage. This seems to be Paul's lucky break of a lifetime, and he eagerly accepts. But the woman runs a strange business which will produce the decline and fall of the title.

What develops as a hilarious farce ends up being a sad story. Waugh aims his mockery at every person and system included in the novel. Education, prostitution, jail, politics and business are all the target of this first novel which promises much about the future work of Waugh. Recommended.

In this his first novel, Evelyn Waugh lampoons the English education system, sporting events, theological study, the landed gentry, and prison reform, to name just some of the targets of his razor-sharp satirical barbs. Paul Pennyfeather, a third-year divinity student at Scone College, is kicked out after a prank is pulled on him leaving him indecently exposed; he then gets a job as a teacher in a prep school where his past is ignored ("I have been in the scholastic profession long enough," says the school's head Dr. Fagan, "to know that nobody enters it unless he has some very good reason which he is anxious to conceal."). From there the craziness only multiplies: a student is accidentally shot in the foot with a starter's gun at a track meet (and dies); Pennyfeather gets involved with the debauched Margot Beste-Chetwynde and goes to prison in her place as a white slave-trader (the truly insane practices of the prison seem right out of a Marx Brothers movie); he is somehow legally declared dead on an operating table in prison where he was to have his already-removed appendix taken out; and then miraculously finds himself back at Scone none the worse for wear.

As I read the book I was reminded often of ALICE IN WONDERLAND: the Caucus race and the track meet, the nonsense poems in both, the "reforms" that are worse than the problems they are addressing, the return to "normalcy" at the end as if nothing of consequence ever happened. Waugh's satire is biting and very, very funny, but never excessively cruel or mean. One begins laughing while reading this novel right on the first page (the party scene is hilarious in its destructive foolishness, "a lovely evening") and continues to do so with few interruptions to the end. It's scathing, brilliant comedy - something Waugh was a master at.

This is the novel that made a young Evelyn Waugh's reputation in 1928. "Decline and Fall" is dripping with early glimpses of the comic satire that Waugh would come to produce. The story follows the improbable events of Paul Pennyfeather's life after he is sent down from Scone College, Oxford.

Pennyfeather, a meek and polite divinity student, runs afoul of a group of drunken students after a raucous old boy dinner of the Bollinger Club. After a misunderstanding about a school tie, the students take Pennyfeather's pants there on the school quad. Pennyfeather is expelled for indecency.

What makes the hapless Pennyfeather so, for lack of a better word, huggable, is that events happen to him, not the other way around. He meets a bizarre cast of repeating characters, in this funny if somewhat moody book. If you read "Decline and Fall" as the satire that it is, even the casualness with which a grizzly murder is handled is funny.

"Decline and Fall" is well worth reading, but it isn't Waugh's best work. His rather scattershot lampooning of every aspect of upper-middle class British life will be honed to perfection in later works like "Scoop."

It's a great read and a zany adventure for Paul Pennyfeather, and while it appears that the story ends where it starts, it doesn't. That is the key the satisfying conclusion that Waugh gives his tale that at times seems little more than a Monty Python skit. Penny feather is a changed man, even if England is the same. Evelyn Waugh was a great novelist, even in 1928.

When the First World War ended in 1918, Evelyn Waugh was fifteen years old. Over the next decade, he saw a continuation of the wrenching that England had suffered first on a material level, then on a moral and social one. In DECLINE AND FALL, Waugh expresses his dismay that the psychic underpinning that had bolstered England for the fighting proved incapable to lead it in the years that led to the Great Depression. Everywhere Waugh looked, he saw a gradual disintegration of the English social fabric, and for him, this fraying of that fabric allowed him to use his new found sense of biting satire that could lash out in all directions.

DECLINE AND FALL (1926) was Waugh's first novel. His protagonist Paul Pennyfeather is the contemporary English Everyman, a basically decent sort of chap who seeks to do the right thing, but finds out that all too often that he is the only one interested in doing that. Pennyfeather's approach to life is a passive one. When dire events happen, he tries harder to deflect their severity than to eradicate them altogether. The opening chapter sets the tone for his inability to confront dire evil with purposeful resolve. He is a student at Scone University who is subject to a mean trick by a group of consciousless upperclass cads, the result of which is that he is expelled for moral turpitude. Rather than fight to stay in school he meekly accepts his fate. From this point on, the novel descends into a series of events whose reverberations and ripples drag him ever more deeply into the muck and slime of existential disarray. He finds a job teaching vicious urchins at a tenth rate school, where he predictably encounters both students and teachers whose only purpose is to bedevil him. Eventually, he meets a woman who promises to be the Great Love of his life. She unwittingly involves him a white slavery deal that results in his imprisonment. By the time the novel ends, Pennyfeather has gone in a big circle. He returns to Scone University in a disguise (he needs one since he escaped from prison), but this disguise is external only. Inwardly, he is the same passive but good hearted naive youth that he was in the beginning.

DECLINE AND FALL proved to be the first in a series of novels that allowed Waugh to explore the bitter angst that bubbled beneath the surface in an English middle class society that increasingly came to see itself as having lost its moral compass in an age that prized breaking the rules over following them. As with all good writers, Waugh depicts a society that draws the reader inwardly, all the while urging that reader to judge the worth of that society as viewed through the bitterly satiric lens of a man who wants his reading public to feel the same sense of outrage that he does. In DECLINE AND FALL, Waugh succeeds admirably.

Waugh's notorious first novel, "Decline and Fall" brutally satirizes British society of the 1920s with his characteristic black humor. Based in part, upon his own experiences at Oxford and teaching at a private school in Wales in 1925, it lays waste British notions of honor, educational excellence, sportsmanship, the Church, and the upper class generally. In an age when most "humor" is visual slapstick, it is refreshing to read a writer who could be screamingly funny using words alone.

Readers with Politically Correct views, will probably be offended by this book (or any of Waugh's other novels for that matter), but those who believe that the only test of humor is whether or not it is funny will find it an enjoyable read.

Note: The movie version of another great satire by Waugh, "The Loved One," has only recently been released on DVD. With a screenplay by Terry Southern (who also wrote the screenplay for "Dr. Strangelove"), it is definitely worth buying, although you will enjoy it more if you read the book first. It is one of those rare films that does the book justice.

Creating Love: The Next Great Stage of Growth

My Spirit and soul awakened to Bradshaw's "Creating Love". How could I escape the truth when it was staring me in the face. He tells us how to demystify love and begin a new life in all of our relationships. He writes with such great respect, dignity and loving kindness.

I will gratefully bless him for the next 40 years!!! Thank you, John Bradshaw; for the FREEDOM to find me, awaken me, take care of me, love me and show me how to create love with other's.

Recommended by a trusted friend, the book has some valuable content; however, the author quoted a prayer he learned as a Catholic priest, only to follow it with his opinion that Mary was not a virgin. At that point, I closed the book and returned it to the library. To think I actually considered purchasing copies for my adult children...

This book cange my life in a lot of fields. I have read of self help books, but this book really helped me to understand so much i my life, and why other behave the way the do. I give this bokk five stars, read and bekome a new person :-)

Homecoming: Reclaiming and Championing Your Inner Child

I cannot think of another published work that deals effectively with healing the wounded inner child, like this book. Methodical and delibrate, Bradshaw explores territory unknown to our present conscious, but quite familiar to our subconscious. The earliest of memories, whether peripheral, non-descript "gut" feelings or vivid, clear, sensory-engaged recollections, can be stirred up with the meditations and mental exercises outlined by Bradshaw.

Those that are considering purchasing this book, and are reading the reviews to help your decision process, probably already discussed this with a trained spiritual counselor to truly do the work necessary, to undo years of damage in early childhood that somehow manifested itself into inappropriate social behaviors (misplaced anger or rage, attention-seeking, sexualized friendships, marital infidelity, covert sex, pornography), defense mechanisms (disassociation, projection, passing blame or guilt) and addictions (chemical, sexual dependencies). Emotional wounds sustained at such an innocent age really cannot be healed properly until an emotionally healthy parent, particularly a fully-functioning, fit mother, can teach proper coping skills that later fully develop and become integrated into adulthood. Some of us have not been as fortunate to have a parent, much less two, that offered appropriate emotional guidance. Those that need innerchild work done, are those that were raised by damaged parents and damage is passed onto their children as abuse, whether sexual, emotional, physical, and/or spiritual. Proper intervention is required to recalibrate the wiring in emotionally unstable adults and get them up to their appropriate EQ.

In doing the innerchild work, I caution those that try to accomplish this in solitude. The person in meditation may not know how to cope with the unearthed emotions (typically strong feelings of shame, guilt, and fear of unknown origin) unless a properly trained spiritual counselor provides enough guidance and tools to cope with the unpleasant, repressed feelings. It is also important to conduct the tasks in the order Bradshaw has outlined - Start at the infancy stage, do the meditation, and work on the emotions that surface, if at all. The best indication of how much damage was done to an individual is if the first task meditating at the infancy stage evokes a surge of unknown feelings. Then the work needed to get healthy requires the entire process suggested by Bradshaw. Skipping a chapter/exercise is not an option if the goal is to get emotionally fully integrated and healthy.

In closing, this book is really a new beginning to properly train and socialize a wounded adult back into society, the workplace, family life. Essentially, the process is likened to that of an infant learning to crawl, stand, walk, and explore the world around them, with the loving and caring guidance that lacked in childhood. Bradshaw also includes a section on forgiving and releasing resentment and bitterness of the perpetrator(s) of the emotional damage. I've witnessed miracles of healing because of the innerchild methodology, in lock-step with spiritual rebirth. Many times, the latter is overlooked when in fact the two complement each other in the healing and deliverance of an addicted, depressed adult. The spiritual aspect is alluded to, but not expounded upon, by Bradshaw. However, this omission does not affect the overall success of the process. I still give the book Five Stars and would recommend this to anyone in need of deep healing.

This isn't a bad book - not at all! It's very helpful at helping one realize how events in childhood affect, no - form the person we are today. It has some very good exercises for getting in touch with one's inner child . .. I liked it, and found it useful. Worth the money and the time reading it -

This is a very well written book with a gutsy and strong heroine who wants to become a physician in ancient Rome. There is a pleasant side romance as well. After reading the book, I found myself looking up maps of Ancient Rome to plot the heroines travels from Ephesus to Alexandria. It really sparked my interest in early Christianity, the Council of Niccae, the Goths, etc. It is history with a great romance attached. It would be appropriate for Young Adults as well, especially teen girls who want a well researched story of female empowerment.

I was a great fan of Bradshaw's early Arthurian trilogy. Beacon at Alexandria is entertaining, informative and beautifully written. It's on my re-read
very few years list...my own version of a supreme compliment.

I just became acquainted with the writing of Gillian Bradshaw. The story was fast-paced with action, drama and love. I enjoyed reading about a woman who had a passion to be more than a pawn for marriage. It could be said the story wasn't too plausible - but then, what do we know of that era? Hypatia is a great example. Although Bradshaw admitted that she took some license with names and perhaps a few other details - but on the whole if you are looking for a good book to read, I recommend this.

There are not many historical novels about late antiquity (with the exception of the ages of Attila and Justinian), so I was eager to find what Bradshaw had made of the years leading up to the Gothic incursion in 378. In fact, she has done quite well, turning out a very readable story told from the point of view of an interesting if somewhat unlikely character, while being true to the facts as we know them. She has obviously done her homework, which makes it all the more surprising that (judging from her introduction to the original edition) she was completely unaware of J.C. Rolfe's 20th-century translation of Ammianus Marcellinus, the contemporary historian whose influence, as she acknowledges, is evident on every page.

At times it does feel as if the author is manipulating the story to cram in as many historical characters as possible (are we to think, for example, that the slave boy Alaric in the last chapters grows up to be the sacker of Rome?), but in general the scholarship is woven effortlessly into the background, and we get a reasonably accurate picture of fourth-century Roman and Gothic society.

As for the sensibilities, though, I don't find the book so convincing. Not that feminism was a complete impossibility in that era (one need only think of Hypatia), but Charis is just too modern in her outlook, to say nothing of her understanding of infectious diseases. And the world she moves through, despite its institutions of slavery and torture, simply doesn't feel foreign enough. The illusion that we're reading history rather than romance is shattered completely in the last chapter, where the awful catastrophe of Adrianople fades to insignificance beside the too-neat resolution of Charis's conflicting emotional needs.

I recommend the book as a good read, and you will learn something about the tumultous and fascinating fourth century, as long as you don't mind a little Harlequin mixed in.

Once again Gillian Bradshaw comes up with a novel that immerses you into the rich classical settings to which its reluctant heroine Charis of Epheseus must travel. From her native Greece to Egypt and to the frontiers of the far northern boundaries of the Roman Empire -the land of the Goths, this adventure is a roller coaster of non stop action across the Easter Roman Empire circa 4C AD.

The beautiful daughter of a rich Greek father she is blessed with a secure and pampered life of nobility and status in the province of Epheseus. However she is rebellious and determined to study medicine - something forbidden to women in her times. Charis see's her life planned out in all its dull glory; herself, the trophy wife in waiting for some influential suitor to be chosen by her father. When her weak willed father is pressured into betrothing her to a cruelty loving and dictatorial Roman Governor - Charis decides its time escape and seek a life of her choosing.

With support of her brother and governess she embarks on a lone journey to the strange city of Alexandria disguised as a male eunuch under the name of Chariton. Though her resources are meager to sustain her; she is determined to succeed and study medicine and heal people in this city - the centre of high learning in the Roman Empire.

Gillian Bradshaws beautiful prose brings the fictional Charis/Chariton to life and makes the reader identify and side with this unlikely but charming heroine as she encounters obstacles,predjudices and dangers and overcomes them with the assitance of her cunning and skills + a varied ensemble of unlikely supporters and admirers across the breadth of the Eastern Empire. Just when all sometimes seems lost and Charis/Charitons adventure at an end Gillian surprises the reader and a surprising twist takes place in the plot that keeps the story fresh and exciting.

Gillian ties all the ribbons together and the action flows fast and furious as the novel drives to its climatic stages and we find out what fate has in store for Chariton/Charis.

If you love a novel packed with excitement,adventure and intelligent writing coupled with rich but not overbearing descriptions of a mysterious classical era long gone then this novel is truly enjoyable read.

You will have to be strong of will to put the book down and go to sleep, even if you have a toddler at home

This is a fictionalized account of Archimedes, at the time he first gained employment building war machines for his native Syracuse. As a self absorbed, yet benevolent genius, he is kind of fun. His slave/companion is an interesting, even credible character, and Sand Reckoner provides insights into the politics as well as the science of the day - in particular what it meant to be a neighbor of Rome. On the other hand the romance is juvenile, and most of the characters are stick figures, to the extent that I could not enjoy the novel sufficiently as even light fiction. Sand Reckoner is a very ordinary example of historical fiction. By way of comparison, I am currently reading Jackson by Max Byrd, which actually has literary merit.

Archimedes - a mathmetician living in Syracuse on the island of Sicily mightn't sound like the sort of ancient historical figure or setting that could stir up a memorable story but Gillian's beautiful writing, research and imagination (as she is blending fact and fiction) changes all that.

The events within the story are set within the 1st Punic Wars when Rome was a fledgling power(3rd C BC) and Carthage was a threat. Caught in between this is the Grecian influenced city of Syracuse - Archimedes home city. It gives an interesting and amusing view of how the Greek people perceived the Romans. "Amusing" in the sense that the Romans, who regarded most of their Empires people as "Barbarians", were actually held in similar low esteem by people of Greek culture.

Archimedes contribution is his ability to use his mathematical genius and combine it with his engineering know-how to produce war machines to defend his city. But its not so simple when your close friend and slave (Marcus) is a Roman with plenty to hide and whose people are camped outside your gates, you are enamored with the Kings gorgeous sister, some powerfull people close to the King detest you and others would like you to fail at a time you can least afford to.

The King seems a nice ruler, but Archimedes is not sure if the King is
someone to be feared or respected given his ambitions for the future and the Kings seem to clash.

The book is a nice study of the human psyche. How much we wish to follow our own ambitions vs those of others, how we adapt to the conflicting emotions caused by; loyalty vs betrayal, love vs rejection, desire for success vs fear of failure,etc.

The book is not non stop action or endless romance or adventure. Its primary focus is on the thoughts, motivations, and desires of Archimedes and those of the people around him at a time of crisis. Mathematics never was as interestingly used in a novel as in this one and you will actually be surprised how Gillian uses it to create interest in the telling of this tale and in Archimedes himself.

If you havent read this authoresses books before - The Sand Reckoner will give you a favourable appreciation i am sure of her.

Gillian Bradshaw is one of the top writers of historical fiction today. "The Sand Reckoner" proves it by combining a look at history, mathematics, and politics set against one of Rome's most stubborn campaigns: the siege of Syracuse.

To take a mundane (yet significant) historical figure like Archimedes and turn him into an interesting and human character is a major accomplishment.

At first glance a novel about the greatest mathematician of antiquity wouldn't be a big draw to me - maths certainly isn't my strong suit. But I liked the other books by Gillian Bradshaw that I had read so thought it worth giving this one a go.

How glad I am that I did! The Sand Reckoner is a hugely enjoyable, lighthearted tale about Archimedes and the way in which his engineering projects helped protect his home city of Syracuse. The author has woven a love story between Archimedes and the sister of King Hieron of Syracuse and there is also a side-love story between Archimedes' slave and his sister.

Mathematics does make quite a contribution to this story and works really well. Archimedes is portrayed as a genius sometimes completely lost in his own world with his slave Marcus keeping him safe. The characters all have their own voices and are believable - especially the difficulties that they have over mistakes that they make. King Hieron is almost too good to be true, but a historical note from the author suggests that he really was like that. Let's hope so!

It was also interesting about the differences between the Romans and the Greeks in antiquity and how they saw each other. Although the classics are often studied in schools and colleges this book really brought it to life for me. I highly recommend this book to those who like to transport themselves to other times in history through reading.

A great way to being an Authurian trilogy! Bradshaw is one of the pro's at this! This was really one of my first historical fiction books I picked long ago.. and even after thousands of apges later, its still one my favorties. Highly reccommned.

Well written, I loved this book and I highly recommend it, It doesnt matter if you know nothing of the Arthurian legends- or if you know alot- this is a good book to add and keep in your collection

This story is about a boy who will try anything to get his father's approval. He, at first, was going to take the path of darkness and throw everything else away. But when the darkness seeks to claim his younger brother as well he can't take the path of darkness any longer. He leaves his home and seeks to join King Arthur's army. But the king's trust will not be free. Can he achieve Arthur's trust and accomplish his duty.

Editor of the Hoppin Readin Review

Gillian Bradshaw's Down the Long Wind trilogy (Hawk of May is book 1), is undoubtedly one of my favourite retellings.

Hawk of May is literally a joy to read - the whole book sings, especially at the end, with Gwalchmai's gladness at being able to fulfill his dreams.

The first person narrative (told by Gwalchmai), is brilliantly executed. Bradshaw manages to bring across the sweetness and gallantry - the sheer ideal of chivalry - inherent in Gwalchmai's character without ever once falling into the 'goody-two-shoes' cloyingness that accompanies the 'warrior-knight' archetype.

And she does this by letting you see through his eyes. She keeps him human, doubts and fears plague him - yet writes in such a way that there's no feeling of "Oh, there goes the protagonist sinking into self-pity again," but rather, she allows you to see how he faces and masters his uncertainties.

Many authors fall into the trap of simply TELLING the reader over and over how good/amazing/wonderful their hero is, and this is something Bradshaw never does. Even when Gwalchmai is praised (in songs, by Arthur's warband, etc), he takes it lightly, and with a grain of salt. Indeed, one of the things that is never mentioned in the book, yet shines through so clearly, is Gwalchmai's inherent humility.

I have re-read this book many, many times over the past 10 years, and Bradshaw's Gwalchmai remains, for me, one of the best realisations of the archetype of the Good and True Knight. One with a human face, and not the gaggingly sweet norm that has you rooting for the villain!

And it's not just at Gwalchmai's characterisation that Bradshaw excels - there are no two dimensional characters in this trilogy, everyone comes across as a rounded person with his or her own reasons for being. There are no characters that seem to exist solely to further the plot.

If you like Arthurian retellings, this book (and this series) is a must-read.

This book was a double winner for me. I bought it used on Amazon.com for about $1 and it was GREAT! I liked the new perspective on the sons of King Lot. If you are familiar with the basics of Arthurian legend, you know King Lot's sons have played key roles in the legends in one form or the other. They go by different names, the quantity of sons differs occassionally, as does the name of their mother. In this case, there are 3 boys mothered by Morgawse and fathered by...???...well, raised by King Lot. Hawk of May focuses on the second son...Gwalchamai or "Hawk of May". In perhaps typical middle child uncertainty, he doubts his ability to follow his elder brothers warrior prowess and seeks his own identity by bonding with his beautiful yet frightening mother. However, the author takes us to the brink of darkness and sorcery only to deliver Gwalchamai to a more divine destiny. The journey is not nearly that simple, however.

The book is an enticing and enjoyable read. The author provides a beneficial note on the pronounciation of the Welsh spellings used and I found them to be not the least bit daunting. In fact, I liked the change to an otherwise very familiar legend. I found that the name and location variances kept me from "assuming" I knew where the story was headed. I like the author's descriptions of key characters and was excited that Guenevere received barely a nod in this book with no sign of Lancelot yet. Too many authors put too much into the love triangle and miss the mark when describing Arthur. Bradshaw has done a marvelous job...I found myself torn between disliking Arthur and sharing in the feeling of awe that he inspired amongst his men and his people. There is a trace of magic introduced, but none of the Merlin shape changing and time travel that bogs down too many Arthurian attempts. The lore and myth seems more believable - as if the door really stood open at that time in history and we, today, have simply drifted too far away from it. At any rate, the book is excellent. I see many copies on Amazon for a bargain - GET ONE!!!