Ignored by critics and readers of the time, these poems were written by Canadians who witnessed the horror of World War I first-hand, forming an anthology in which the forgotten experiences of a decade are finally remembered.

Sequestered in a top-secret government shadow agency's medical facility after sustaining injuries in a car-bombing, Nick Drizos tries to recover his memory and wonders who would try to kill a mild-mannered Florida bond trader. But Nick's memories eventually begin to resurface, and he suspects it has something to do with his two closest childhood friends, the senator's niece, or his mystical colleague. Tended by three gorgeous nurses and monitored closely by spymaster Ben Adams, Nick has little time to unravel the mystery while trying to find the turncoat hiding in his midst.

A man's journey to reconcile his staunch personal philosophies regarding friendship, success and love. Joe Luca seemingly had it all. The looks, the charm, the intelligence, the drive and a friends for life in David Sternequal to the task of every man's goal of conquering the world. Dr. Luca, a successful plastic surgeon and Mr. Stern, a self-proclaimed omniscient entrepreneur, had partnered since childhood to live the American Dream, believing at their core that fortune and fame held the meaning of a happy life. When the master-plan is abruptly thrown askew by evemts that spiral like a vortex of doom that has the entrancing love of a beautiful woman at its center, the two men are forced to re-evaluate everything they hold sacred and the nature of their very existence. ...Our course was laid down and exact for each of these encounters. But, something went wrong in Paris, with the girl named Alexis, the one with the Fairy inked in color on the small of her back that stared at me and offered up temptation no man could resist...Her skin looked invitingly soft and I could see myself touching it, nesting in it and thanking the stars of the universe for her, like other men had preceded me surely had done. Yes boys and girls. I was in trouble...

Frenchy Mandril considered Frank Bingham his best salesman and top producer. Many times throughout their many years together.Frenchy would always and still be held spellbound and amazed by Frank’s natural ability to close deals when certain customers were just in shopping prices and not really prepared to buy anything. On many occasions he would step out to the curb of his sales lot and yell across the busy boulevard to his competitors and yell…..” I wish I had a hundred and twenty Frankie’s working for me! I’d sell out every hour…..!”



Frank Bingham being in his early forties held contrary views and opinions of his boss. This was evidenced by most of their senseless conversations where his ending thoughts would be something similar in effect to----“Why did his parents choose to drop that perfected moron and afford him breathing space on this planet?”…..!” January Thornton, also single for years and about Frank’s age, lived next door. This however did very little to develop any facet of their relationship for more than twelve years. In plain talk, they had nothing in common except for a hedge line dividing the properties. This held true for like kind of people they individually worked for and others they held in short term friendships. In addition, there was this incommon wayward thinking that kept both of them mired in their individual and dysfunctional circumstances. Jan was and has been employed by a national hotel chain for a number of years, at one of it’s northern Ohio locations. Here he was it’s head chef and restaurant manager. His director was a W.Wenchman, for whom Jan had less then a finger tip of respect. This was brought about by most of their so called business conversations, which were of the off the wall variety and applicable to very little. Whenever W.W. summoned him to his office, it always was verbal launch time, directed toward Jan. ----After knocking lightly and slowly opening the door, he said. “I’m here boss, is it okay for me to come in?”-----“Now what the hell do you think Thornton? Like maybe I should come out there? Another thing! I was getting tired of holding my breath waiting for your appearance!” (“Dam! I should have waited another five minutes and then no more Wenchman.”) Thought Jan. Will a two week vacation to Florida bring about change to the never pals stale lifestyles and personal relationships? Some reading of their exploits may find them a bit humorous or even hilarious. But these two main characters seem to accept them as a matter of fact occurrences.

So what did Scots have to smile about this year? In politics, parties kept on losing their leaders, some folk, not us, voted for Brexit and Donald Trump flew in to give Scots his words of wisdom. In sport Andy Murray smashed it, Rangers returned, and we watched the European Championships from afar, and in The Herald we reminisced about supporters buses, stern refs, and sexist golf clubs. Meanwhile Scots continued to muse on the damp weather, why they didn t understand their kids, how to meet the opposite sex, and going to the pub. All these and more made up The Herald s funniest stories of the year, published every day in the newspaper s Diary column. And now the very best have been gathered here for you to enjoy all over again.

A catch phrase is a well-known, frequently-used phrase or saying that has `caught on' or become popular over along period of time. It is often witty or philosophical and this Dictionary gathers together over 7,000 such phrases.

Written in his own unmistakable voice and with a new afterword by the author, this is the frank and fascinating memoir by arguably the greatest bass player of his generation. Beginning with an East End childhood in a London barely recovered from the War, he takes us on a journey through the beginnings of punk and post-punk as a founding member of Public Image Limited, an illustrious forty-year solo career which has seen collaborations musical greats such as U2, Brian Eno and CAN and a Mercury Music Prize nomination through to the present day still playing to sell out audiences. Along the way we hear how Wobble navigated chronic alcoholism and marital breakdown and has emerged as a national treasure. If you ever wondered how got his name, the answer is here: his teenage pal Sid Vicious gave it to him when he drunkenly slurred Wobble's real name, John Wardle.

September 1914, and the whole of Europe was at war following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his beloved wife Sophie by Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28th June 1914. In France and Belgium, the British Expeditionary Force were struggling to hold back the German hoards as their casualties began to mount. Back in Britain the call went out for volunteers to join the ‘Pals’ battalions which were springing up in the northern towns of England, and one of the first to volunteer was young Jack Smallshaw of Accrington. On 15th September 1914, Jack became an ‘Accrington Pal,’ a member of a battalion of men who are remembered more than any other of the Pals battalions because of the appalling tragedy which befell them on the killing fields of the Somme. On that fateful day on 1st July 1916, the battalion attacked the fortified village of Serre and were virtually wiped out on the slopes in front of the village. Jack was one of the very few who survived. He continued to serve on the front throughout the remainder of 1916 and into 1917, where he took part in the battle at Oppy wood in May of that year. Shortly afterwards he was struck down by a second bout of trench fever and spent the rest of the year recovering in England. By February 1918 he was back in France serving on the front line, but Jack was never the same man. He was in the thick of the action again in March when the Germans launched their spring offensive against the allied lines. He weathered that too, and stuck it out to the bitter end. This then, is the story of a quite remarkable survivor of the ‘war to end all wars’, whose diaries have lain unpublished, in the possession of his family, since 1919.