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I am a Yorkshire born writer living in Lancashire, Northern England. My combination of Sun and Rising Sign is described by Teri King as "A mind like a grasshopper and a heart like ice. Working for her is like signing over your soul to a lunatic. The best a husband can hope for is a quick divorce. Children will wish they had no such mother." Score so far: husbands four, children two. Grandchildren ask: who is the mad lady in the hat/african robes/straw-covered dungarees (strike out which does not apply). Born in 1941, I have worked as librarian and secretary before training and working as a Head Chef. Moving to Pendle in 1982 changed my life, but as I found out later coincided with major astrological developments. I became a full time writer and poet, did standup performance poetry around Manchester, and sitdown performance poetry in a jacuzzi. I kept falling over witches, thought fate must be telling me something, and joined them. I studied astrology, tarot and organic gardening. I am now into African drumming and website design. Whew! What next? PLEASE NOTE: you will find several different categories of publications here, so if you don't see what you're looking for at first, scroll down. There are semi-autobiographical novels about my life experiences; there are my annual Planting by the Moon and Witches Moon Calendar; there are books of poems; there are photographic calendars and last but not least, reprints of old books to help you with your gardening. I hope you will find something here to interest you. A NOTE ON POETRY: Originally the poems were available in separate booklets, created in the 80s with individually designed covers, produced on photocopier by a local printer. I have recreated the covers as near to the original as possible, and added further booklets to bring the whole collection up to date, so there are fourteen of them. For considerations of space, ie making this page too bulky and cumbersome, these are listed on my personal web. Do take a look, they are very beautiful - www.pendlepeople.com/publications.htm - follow the 'poetry booklets' link. Thankyou
You can see a showcase slideshow of all my book covers at http://pendlepeople.com/firequeen/showcase.htm
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Print: $16.48 Download: $10.20 How the Moon's progress through the signs of the zodiac can help your plants grow healthier, stronger and with better yields. Many satisfied customers return year after year for this guide because with it they achieve excellent results.
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Print: $16.48 Download: $10.20 This calendar contains everything the self-respecting witch needs to perform magic by tuning in to the Moon and planets, fitting the spell to the right day and time. With full moon readings for every month and moonrise moonset for every day of the year.
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Print: $16.48 Download: $10.20 The US version of the Ultimate Witches Moon Calendar, in Central Standard Time (gmt-6). Annual guide to magic making in tune with the Moon's cycles, phases and passage through the twelve signs of the zodiac. With planet positions at start of month, and changes during month. A fascinating read, a wealth of occult information by a real witch living in the shadow of Pendle Hill, home of the Lancashire Witches.
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Print: $14.05 Download: $6.28 after a chaotic career in catering, the irrepressible Sally Jackson hangs up her apron and sets out to discover how normal people spend their time. But normal people take cover when they see her coming, and she meets only sexual deviants, ufo enthusiasts and the certifiably insane. Falling over witches on a daily basis, she decides to join them. After a naked initiation into the Sisterhood of Wicca, run by an unemployed Father of Nine, she surprises him by taking the whole thing seriously, embarking on a magical career which she expects him to share. There are many by-roads on the path to Wicca, and this wouldn't be a book about Sally without her usual sexual peccadilloes - Gustav Prendergast the Performance Poet, Gareth Jones the sexbomb sports instructor, Horst the Hairy Hun - to mention a few. The Star Turn is undoubtedly the Father of Nine, whose fund of stories rivals the Arabian Nights. An uproarious romp, a tantalising mixture of witchcraft, sex and humour - just the thing for a wet weekend in Wigan
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Print: $12.54 Download: $7.85 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 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!
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Print: $12.54 Download: $7.85 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 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!
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Print: $17.19 Download: $11.77 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 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. What happens next is a trial of strength between diametric opposites - Jimmy, the archetypal conman, knows every trick in the book, but even he can't find out what makes Sally tick. 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.
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Print: $15.62 Download: $7.85 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 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.
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Print: $6.20 Download: $4.69 This volume is a selection from the first six books of the Val Kirkham Poetry Collection.
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Print: $12.54 Download: $7.85 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. Daniel trained the bees himself and sold hives of his own design, bees and honey at his London premises
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Print: $10.97 The rare 1886 classic book on beekeeping by Charles G. Anderson, Ref No. 386
Published in 1886 by Simpkin Marshall, London. Modern facsimile reprint. 16 pages, 8 full page illustrations.
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Print: $12.54 Download: $4.71 Charles Darwin studied worms in a field behind his house for thirty years - this book is the product of his research. Once you read it, you will never feel the same about these little creatures that have done so much for our earth, and still continue to do, in spite of all we throw at them. Your respect for them will grow and you will forever love them with all your heart. Give this book to the gardener in your life or read it yourself.
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Print: $23.77 Download: FREE Photographs taken in 2006 and 2007 of Killarney, plus a few of Mayo
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Print: $34.16 Download: FREE Our vacation in the Black Forest at Neukirch near Furtwangen in June 2007
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