I am a Yorkshire writer living in Lancashire since 1982. I have led a full and happy life and am currently engaged in writing up all my experiences. I am interested in astrology, tarot, drumming, gardening (particularly food growing), cooking, eating, walking, swimming, cycling, cycle-camping holidays on the continent - for which I would welcome company. I like talking to people who have something to say, but avoid like the plague those who don't. I have been married four times - anyone wanna make it five?
Go to www.pendlepeople.com/firequeen/publications.htm for more information, and for poetry booklets not featured here
The author became an initiated Priestess of Wicca in 1984, and kept a dream diary until 1995. This is a record of the dreams which assisted her spiritual development. A happy hunting ground for... More > psychologists, paranormal investigators and dream analysts. There is a second dream sequence running from 2007 to 2012 in which she lives a parallel life with her husband in Spirit, and also helps others with their dream development.< Less
When I set off on my cycling holiday to the Black Forest in 2010, I had no idea that my husband was coming along too. He had never been far from me in the four years since his death, but on this... More > holiday he was to appear in the most solid and tangible way. This is not at all a sad book, it is funny, exhilarating and entertaining. You will enjoy reading about the people I meet and the adventures I have, above all for anyone who has lost a partner, the knowledge that they live on, not just in our hearts, but in the most real way imaginable, will bring hope and happiness.< Less
Geraldine grew up in restrictive Cleckheckmondsedge, and was part of the rebellious rock n roll generation. Running off to London at 18, she met and married a sailor in under three weeks. Six years... More > later she was a single mother in a rundown farmhouse on the edge of Ilkley Moor, fending for herself and her two children. This is a story about 60s and 70s Britain, with its short skirts, free love and hot jazz, where children grew up free and untrammelled among streams, woods and fields. Geraldine worked as an office ‘temp’ and was a magnet for men, who drifted in and out of her life, contributing little apart from their entertainment value, though some stuck around long enough to marry her. Later, she followed her passion for cooking, training in hotel management and working as a Head Chef, an unusual position for a woman even now, and in the 70s and 80s, almost unheard of. Geraldine experienced the best and worst that the industry has to offer. Her tales of the kitchen are among the best in the book.< Less
Val Kirkham is a Yorkshire poet now living in Lancashire. This is a collected edition of her life work so far. It is wide-ranging and varied. She knows a great deal about the pain and pleasure of... More > love, and writes about it with searing honesty. She trained as a chef and has worked in a zoo, a banqueting outfit, a mediaeval castle, and an American college. In 1982 she decided to hang up her apron and devote herself to writing, saying she would go back to work when she got bored. She has not got bored yet. She was a performance poet in the 80s, in the North West. Adrian Henri once gasped at one of her poems, and the editor of Lancashire Life called her "the predatory sexual voice cruising in the fast lane of poetry". She sprang to national fame after reading poetry in a jacuzzi. She has been on radio and tv. You will be thrilled, chilled, brought to laughter and tears by this woman's perception and insight. If you are a prude or object to strong language, better pass this one by.< Less
Tired of looking down holes in the road for a 'real' man, Sally can't believe her luck when she finds one on a building site. Rough, bearded and covered in cement dust, he is just what she is looking... More > for. But Jimmy Pinchbeck is the site owner on his day off, and turns up to take her out wearing an Italian suit and white shoes, and driving a Merc. He is nuts on blondes, crazy about Abba, and appointing Sally as chef at his sordid sports club is all his dreams rolled into one. Read about shenanigans with staff and jollies in the jacuzzi as the club lurches from one financial crisis to another and Jimmy talks his way out of everything, while Sally struggles to hold the catering enterprise together and defend her staff from his depredations. Unforgettable characters in this book are Anna, the green-eyed girl chef who has Sally's heart in a whirl - Michael the Irish joiner - and Hector the hilarious guesthouse proprietor.< Less
Reprint of an 18th Century book by the celebrated showman Daniel Wildman, who performed on horseback, standing with one leg on the horse's back, one on his neck, with a swarm of bees about his face.... More > Daniel trained the bees himself and sold hives of his own design, bees and honey at his London premises< Less
In 2011, to celebrate 70 years on this planet, I set off to ride the Rhine Cycle Path. On the way, I decided to actively ask the Angels for help when I needed it. What I found was amazing. They... More > delivered on the nail, every time! Only sometimes I was too stupid to see it . . .< Less
A modern kitchen manual for the man or woman who wants to feed herself, himself, the family, or each other sensibly and well. It contains advice on equipment, stores and cooking methods and has a... More > comprehensive selection of recipes fully explained by a woman who has been housewife, mother and professional chef.
A good starter cookbook for novices, it will also intrigue and delight the experienced cook. Geraldine’s style is light but thorough - she never leaves you with a pan in your hand wondering what to do next. She will have you producing economical, varied and nutritious meals in no time, and the skills you develop will enable you to branch out in any direction you wish. The world, you might say, is your oyster.
Devout Christians can ask for their own expurgated edition which does not contain the recipe for Devil Food Cake.< Less
Two husbands under her belt, Sally enters the Cooks' Academy at the age of 34, determined to make a career for herself in catering. Coping with the demands of her two children, plus the punishing... More > schedule set by the charismatic - but deadly - Dr Fisher would be more than enough for most people, but her problems don't stop there! Hounded by Social Security, persecuted by her landlord, tormented by her growing obsession with the sexually rampant Dr Fisher, Sal muddles through with no very clear plan of action - apart from her deep-seated belief that the kitchen is her spiritual home. The adventures of Sally and her fellow students and the very real hard work they do in the kitchen, are told at a fast, racy pace - the way Sally lives her life. Whatever you think of Sally's morals, you can't help admiring her guts, her determination to stay the pace . . . . and her cracking love life!< Less
After a year at the Cook’s Academy, Sally is handed a certificate of competence and slung out onto the job market. At 35, she wonders who will employ someone so overqualified and... More > under-experienced, so jumps at the chance of a job in the Zoo, where she quickly finds that the chefs are more dangerous than the animals! Sweating in the intense heat of one of the hottest summers on record, Sal develops muscles as she rolls pastry for pies that would gladden the heart of Desperate Dan. Inevitably, the kids Cleo and Alex manage to escape their grandmother's clutches and turn up at the zoo, posing Sal a problem, not least in the romance department, Cleo now an extremely beautiful fifteen year old, knocking her mother into the shade, and throwing the monkeys into fits of jealousy when their keeper gets the hots for her. Add the Entertainers - re-enacting a bizarre 17th Century hanging every night, and you have a mix that is hotter than dynamite!< Less
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