Showing results by author "Sally Cook" in All Categories

Queuing is about the history of queuing, strange things that have happened in queues, the longest queues ever, when did humans form the first queues, which animals queue and why. What have been the most unusual queues and where, The future with virtual queuing...

Remote looks at the extensive use of the word and in particuar the invention and increasing use of remote controls from flushing toilets and closing garage doors to drone warfare to plantary exploration. The story lools at future uses of remote controls, their contribution to an enormous...

Just Do It implies high action, taking a leap, defying the odds, making a go of things. But there is the nagging daily obligation of Just Doing everyday chores. What are these and what were they for the average person in the Middle Ages in Europe. And what nay Just Doing It mean in the next 24...

Sandman tells the story of the origin of the Sandman, cultural sleeping habits around the world, sleeping in the Middle Ages, sleep remedies and potions, how humans fall asleep and where. and cultural customs and views regarding sleep as well as the plethora of things which keep us awake...

Haberdashery looks at elements of the Rag Trade from Medieval times with the earliest haberdashers of the 1300s to tailoring in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries along with secret pattern making, famous drapers such as famous writer H.G. Wells and the earliest tailoring guidebook of the...

Luis Armstrong's trumpet is buried undeground, so is a blackened fingernail from a Hiroshima survivor. And who would think that one of Cher's dresses would be buried as well as a script for Gone With The Wind. And then there are the items deliberately sent into space as well as accidental...

This story tells of a powerful older woman who has maintained her life through the war years and beyond via her love of reading and poetry. But 88-year-old Harriet is something of an enigma even to her daughters and granddaughter. Unusual events happen during this tale of love and loss even beyond Harriet's eventual death.

Melody's Radar tells the story of a downtrodden single mother who is sick of being pushed around and takes matters into her own hands. She tries to set a good example for her five-year-old daughter Amelia but the trouble is that Melody doesn't know when to stop. Her intensity becomes scary for anyone who is on her radar but her lack of personal understanding means she doesn't fully grasp the affect she is having, sometimes causing menacing ripples.

This story tells of a twenty-year-old girl who is house-sitting for six months in a seemingly calm and pleasant neighborhood where nothing peculiar seems to happen. That is, until Mandy hears screaming in the night, hears wailing and moaning during a heavy thunderstorm, feels an earth tremor beneath her feet and feels a man breathing over her in the night. And she has no one to confide in. She may be hypersensitive but does she catastrophize events or are they really happening and not very far below the surface?

Rhythm of Fire tells the story of 11-year-old twin boys who inadvertently kill an old woman. She dies of smoke inhalation in her rural shop crammed with Christmas decorations, A complex story unfolds leading to her identity and some unexpected developments following her tragic death.

Cafe Noir tells the story of an intimate online friendship between two artistic women who never meet but sustain each other emotionally during the rigors of COVID lockdowns. They share so many highs, lows and confidences from one personal bubble to another. It seems the perfect sustainable friendship until something goes wrong, with only one of the women truly understanding what is happening.

Wearing a Cape tells of a job working with clients from 50 different nationalities. Going to court with them, representing them at hearings, being with a murderer, and held captive by two psychotic clients - one of whom burnt an old people's home down. It is about working with the repressed, the under represented, the unfortunate and the fortunate. It portrays the stamina to work where there are courtroom threats, gifts of kindness, conflict, and resolution.

Two young lovers have a number of adventures together, much to the approval of those around them. They watch movies together, dance together, share beach and park catch ups, frolicking like no others. But one evening one of them becomes stuck under an old building where not even the fire brigade nor the emergency services can get them out. But as the last light fades there is a solution.

Walking Towards Gold tells the story of the author's pioneer colonist forebears who arrived in newly formed Adelaide, South Australia from Portsmouth, in June 1838 and how thirteen years later three of them walked 580 miles from Adelaide to the Victorian goldfields pushing a wheelbarrow.. There are intrepid accounts and interesting descriptions of early Adelaide and life on the Victorian goldfields. This is part of the Downer family's story.

It's Not Your Fault delves into what can only be described as communication nightmares as a patient of the medical system. This true accounts show how fragile the trust between medical practitioner and patient can be and how it can be psychologically compromised bringing about negative effects. For example the author was already halfway through her first pregnancy when a well known and respected obstetrician/gynaecologist began treating her for infertility and the possibility of a dangerously big tumor. That large lump turned out to be a baby.

The author is in court with a murderer, she is invited to drink tea from a urine filled pot, she covers theatre and cinema reviews as a London reporter, she works amid opulent carpets and heavy old typewriters with former criminals below in the printing works. She rides a Honda 90 motorbike across the English Fens on her way to cover stories in March, birthplace of the fabled March hare. She writes stories about a drunken turnip planter, a man named Jack Spratt, and another man who didn't travel as far as his own bees.

Ivy tells the story of a brave young woman who was awarded a special war commendation in signals during World War II in the Women's Arny Corp. She disarmed a German officer pointing a pistol in her face, survived strafing by a German bomber as she walked along a farm path as a Land Girl and lived in a garage with a dirt floor and cold water tap after migrating to Australia, She raised three young children after her husband dropped dead aged 39.

Mirrors is a look at the panopoly of mirrors we confront in our modern daily life - for better or worse. Ongoing self reflections are unavoidable and come in all forms from the expected to the unexpected.

Who's at the door tells the story of two dogs crashing through a beach wedding, of their rambunctious play on the sand, of another family dog knocking over a Christmas tree and eating all the chocolate decorations, of a guinea pig wearing sunglasses, of a rabbit wearing dolls clothing sitting in a pram and a Mexican walking fish blowing bubbles in a book case.. Not to mention a child and goldfish in the same outdoor bath.

Ask The Agent is an amusing look at some aspects of selling a house including when the wrong house is put up for sale, when the back of a bus is one way to see a dream home, when a kitchen leaks badly before an Open For Inspection and when a young couple render their house with mud, poo and glue.