Mum Can You Lend Me Twenty Quid

i newspaper 'What We're Reading This Week' December 2017 'Elizabeth's courage in speaking out is moving, and her ability to move others is impressive. This is a story that needs to be told, and needs to be heard.' - Theresa May, Prime Minister 'Elizabeth [is] someone who had the courage to tell her family's story and to challenge attitudes. Elizabeth has already made a difference and I am sure that all those who read this book will be both challenged and inspired.' - Chief Constable Sara Thornton, National Police Chiefs' Council 'I cannot praise this book highly enough . . . Born out of personal pain and tragedy, this story will lead you to the birth of DrugFAM . . . It is truly inspiring and wonderful what has been and continues to be achieved through this story.' - Sir Anthony Seldon, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Buckingham 'I would urge all parents, teachers and pupils to read this heart-rending book.' - FT Magazine 'A book that is moving and ultimately, inspiring.' - Waterstones Books Quarterly Elizabeth Burton Phillips was a teacher, an ordinary mother who had always tried to do the best for her children; she never imagined that her identical twin sons, who had been doing so well at school, would become involved in drugs. She was shocked when they were suspended from school for smoking cannabis; but this was just the start of a terrible descent into personal and family heartbreak. The painful journey ended in the way Elizabeth had always dreaded - a knock on the door in the middle of the night by the police. They gave her the devastating news that her son Nick had killed himself in despair at his heroin addiction. Since his death, Elizabeth has campaigned tirelessly to make parents aware of the pain and suffering caused to families by drug addiction; and her surviving twin, Simon, now drug-free, has contributed his own thoughts to this inspiring and gut-wrenching story that will shake every reader to the core. This new edition brings Elizabeth's story up to date, sharing the inspiring achievements of the author - awarded an MBE in the Queen's 2017 Honours List - and her charity DrugFAM, giving hope to families impacted by addiction.

i newspaper 'What We're Reading This Week' December 2017 'Elizabeth's courage in speaking out is moving, and her ability to move others is impressive. This is a story that needs to be told, and needs to be heard.' - Theresa May, Prime Minister 'Elizabeth [is] someone who had the courage to tell her family's story and to challenge attitudes. Elizabeth has already made a difference and I am sure that all those who read this book will be both challenged and inspired.' - Chief Constable Sara Thornton, National Police Chiefs' Council 'I cannot praise this book highly enough . . . Born out of personal pain and tragedy, this story will lead you to the birth of DrugFAM . . . It is truly inspiring and wonderful what has been and continues to be achieved through this story.' - Sir Anthony Seldon, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Buckingham 'I would urge all parents, teachers and pupils to read this heart-rending book.' - FT Magazine 'A book that is moving and ultimately, inspiring.' - Waterstones Books Quarterly Elizabeth Burton Phillips was a teacher, an ordinary mother who had always tried to do the best for her children; she never imagined that her identical twin sons, who had been doing so well at school, would become involved in drugs. She was shocked when they were suspended from school for smoking cannabis; but this was just the start of a terrible descent into personal and family heartbreak. The painful journey ended in the way Elizabeth had always dreaded - a knock on the door in the middle of the night by the police. They gave her the devastating news that her son Nick had killed himself in despair at his heroin addiction. Since his death, Elizabeth has campaigned tirelessly to make parents aware of the pain and suffering caused to families by drug addiction; and her surviving twin, Simon, now drug-free, has contributed his own thoughts to this inspiring and gut-wrenching story that will shake every reader to the core. This new edition brings Elizabeth's story up to date, sharing the inspiring achievements of the author - awarded an MBE in the Queen's 2017 Honours List - and her charity DrugFAM, giving hope to families impacted by addiction.

Barry Woodward grew up in Greater Manchester England. At the age of sixteen he left school without graduating and was drawn into the drug scene experimenting with marijuana amphetamines and LSD. This led to a heroin addiction and life as a drug dealer. For twelve years he was totally dependent on drugs during which time he served a number of sentences in prison. Miraculously his life turned around completely following an amazing sequence of supernatural encounters.

My Beautiful Daughter is an inspirational true story about a daughters fight against drug addiction through the eyes of her mother. Louise goes from a happy contented child, to a self destructive drug addict. The impact that it would have on her family especially her parents is key to it all. The story starts where the mother is looking back over the years to when it began, and how she coped with trying to help her daughter, but at the same time having to come to terms with the fact that she may lose her. It covers the constant battle over the lack of help and advice for parents from the professionals. Whilst dealing with her grief on a daily basis, she struggles to understand why this is happening. Then she has to come to terms with the revelation that a terrible event caused her beautiful daughter to take heroin in the first place, leaving the whole family distraught. Finally as her daughter battles to stay clean, a serious life threatening health problem is diagnosed which is one of the consequences of her years of drug abuse. Every time her mother thinks that its nearly over, another challenge emerges and another fight begins. This is a very emotionally charged account of pure desperation from her parents, determined to get back the daughter they feel is lost to them, never giving up hope and at times barely keeping sane, and while their daughter fights her addiction they have to face up to the trauma that led to her drug abuse.

Will Self possesses one of the greatest literary imaginations of any writer working today. How the Dead Live is his most extraordinary book yet—a novel that will challenge, entertain, and truly astonish. Lily Bloom is an aging American transplanted to England who has lost her battle with cancer and lies wasting away at the Royal Ear Hospital. As her two daughters—lumpy Charlotte, who runs a hugely successful chain of stationery stores called Waste of Paper, and beautiful Natasha, a junkie—buzz around her and the nurses pump her full of morphine, Lily slides in and out of the present, taking us on a surreal, opinionated trip through the stages of a lifetime of lust and rage. A career girl in the 1940s, a sexed-up, tippling adulteress in the 1950s and ‘60s, a divorced PR flak in the 1970s and ‘80s, Lily presents us with a portrait of America and England over sixty years of riotous and unreal change. And then it’s over: Lily catches a cab with the aboriginal wizard Phar Lap Jones, her guide to the shockingly banal world of the dead. It’s a world that is surreal but familiar, where she again works in PR and rediscovers how great smoking is, where her cohabitants include Rude Boy, the son who died at age nine and now swears a blue streak, and three eyeless, murmuring wraiths, the Fats—composed of the pounds, literally the whole selves, she lost and gained over her lifetime. As Lily settles into her nonexistence, the most difficult challenge for this staunchly difficult woman is how to understand that she’s dead, and how to leave the rest behind. How the Dead Live is an unforgettable portrait of the human condition, the struggle with life and with death. It’s a novel that will disturb and provoke, the work, in the words of one British reviewer, “of a novelist writing at the height of his powers.”

BOOKER PRIZE WINNER • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A novel that follows a middle-aged man as he contends with a past he never much thought about—until his closest childhood friends return with a vengeance: one of them from the grave, another maddeningly present. A novel so compelling that it begs to be read in a single setting, The Sense of an Ending has the psychological and emotional depth and sophistication of Henry James at his best, and is a stunning achievement in Julian Barnes's oeuvre. Tony Webster thought he left his past behind as he built a life for himself, and his career has provided him with a secure retirement and an amicable relationship with his ex-wife and daughter, who now has a family of her own. But when he is presented with a mysterious legacy, he is forced to revise his estimation of his own nature and place in the world.

Round the Bend follows the life of Tom Cutter, an Englishman who becomes a pilot and settles in the Middle East after World War II. Tom starts an air freight business and becomes fascinated by the spiritual beliefs of the local Muslim population, which leads him to start his own religion called "The Way." Through his travels and teachings, Tom attracts a group of devoted followers and becomes a spiritual leader. However, his unconventional beliefs and practices lead to conflict with some of the more traditional religious and political authorities in the region. Despite the challenges he faces, Tom remains committed to his beliefs and the pursuit of a more peaceful and harmonious world. The novel explores themes of religion, spirituality, cultural differences, and the clash between tradition and modernity.