Marathon Mum


Book Description

'It's the finish line, not the finish time.' In the late 80s, our Rachel was having a boss time as a podium dancer at the Pleasuredrome, Birkenhead. Fast forward several years and she's married, with the kids she's always dreamed of, but the body she's always dreaded. To make things worse, her husband Trevor begins to show his true controlling colours and Rachel blames herself, spiralling into depression. Until she discovers running. Buzzing from her epiphany, the 'Forrest Gump of the Mersey' is derided by Trevor, but catches the attention of some local women, all struggling and vulnerable in their own ways. These disparate women persuade Rachel to lead them in a running club, to get a bit of whatever she's on, where they all discover more than the mere chance to shed a few pounds in this burgeoning sisterhood. Dealing with the dark and many faces of depression with a refreshing lightness of touch unique to this working-class woman from the Wirral, Marathon Mum is an uplifting story of the healing to be found in community, and the corners we can turn when we push ourselves across the line.




Mum Runners


Book Description

The only thing Samantha has run is a ladder in her tights. Suzie cannot even run for a bus, and the only thing Sharon can run is paint, down a wall. But somehow they have each agreed to run the London Marathon next year. Samantha wants to impress a new colleague, Suzie wants to better her life, and Sharon wants another baby. The idea of running twenty-six miles is frightening to start with, but once they realize their end result, the training starts and it does not come without its problems. The three girls unite and name themselves Mum Runners. Samantha gets an injury, Suzie has a car crash, and Sharon has an unexpected visitor—but this does not stop their determination to cross the finish line.




Run Like a Mother


Book Description

Two elite runners share inspirational advice and practical strategies to help multitasking women make running part of their busy lives. Dimitry McDowell and Sarah Bowen Shea understand how the forces of everyday life—both external and internal—can keep a wife, mother, or working woman from lacing up her shoes and going for a run. As multihyphenates themselves, they have faced the same challenges. In Run Like a Mother, they share their running expertise and real-world experience in ensuring that running is part of their lives. More than a simple running guide, Run Like a Mother is like a friendly conversation aimed at strengthening a woman's inner athlete. Real achievement is a healthy mix of inspiration and perspiration, which is why the authors have grounded Run Like a Mother in a host of practical tips on shoes, training, racing, nutrition, and injuries, all designed to help women balance running with their professional and personal lives./




This Mum Runs


Book Description

The inspirational story of athlete Jo Pavey, the runner and mum who ran at a record-breaking fifth Olympic Games at Rio 2016. 'Come-back races? I've had more than a few, the night of 10 May 2014 was the ultimate long shot. I was a forty-year-old mother of two who had given birth eight months before. I trained on a treadmill in a cupboard by the back door and I was wearing a running vest older than most of the girls I was competing against. Was I crazy?' Jo Pavey was forty years old when she won the 10,000m at the European Championships. It was the first gold medal of her career and, astonishingly, it came within months of having her second child. The media dubbed her ‘Supermum’, but Jo’s story is in many ways the same as every mother juggling the demands of working life with a family – the sleepless nights, the endless nappy changing, the fun, the laughter and the school-run chaos. The only difference is that Jo is a full-time athlete pushing a buggy on her training runs, clocking up miles on the treadmill in a cupboard while her daughter has her lunchtime nap, and hitting the track while her children picnic on the grass. Heartwarming and uplifting, This Mum Runs follows Jo’s roundabout journey to the top and all the lessons she's learnt along the way. It is the inspiring yet everyday story of a mum that runs and a runner that mums.




Plays for Young People


Book Description

Red Red Shoes was commissioned by the Unicorn Theatre for Children and The Place. Based on the Hans Christian Andersen tale, this play uses dance, music and drama to explore the inner world of a traumatised child fleeing from war in Eastern Europe. (Ages 9+) Eye of the Storm offers a contemporary version of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, exploring father/daughter relationships and the need for independence. (Ages 12+) Playing From the Heart, commissioned by the Polka Theatre, is a poetic piece which follows the travails of the young Evelyn Glennie to become a professional musician despite her profound deafness. (Ages 8+)




Primary Sports Assemblies


Book Description




Never Broken - My Journey from the Horrors of Iraq to the Birth of My Miracle Baby


Book Description

When a bomb blast buried Corporal Hannah Campbell alive while she was serving in Iraq it was the start of an incredible journey of self-discovery. From the collapse of her marriage, to suffering horrific post-traumatic stress disorder, becoming morbidly obese, addicted to prescription drugs and suicidal, she went to hell and back. Hannah, who left her toddler at home to go to war, then made the extraordinary decision to amputate her own badly damaged leg so she could learn to live again and be a mum to her four-year-old daughter Milly. Within hours of waking up from the amputation she announced she would fulfil her dream of running the London Marathon even though at that time she was unable to walk. Just two months later she put on her first of many prosthetic legs and crossed the finishing line, running into the arms of her beloved young daughter. This spurred her to lose half her body weight before spending her army compensation on a ?52,000 cosmetic makeover which led her to find love again. In an amazing transformation of fortune, she became pregnant with miracle baby Lexi-River, astounding her doctors as this was a child she was told her she’d never have due to her blast injuries. Hannah’s story is one of true heroism and triumph over seemingly insurmountable adversity. But simply it’s also a story about how a mother’s love for her children can conquer all.




Confessions of a Ceo Mum


Book Description

Kari Burke and Danielle Stephens have built a multimillion dollar online business, but mixing and influencing other business-minded women has been their biggest achievement to date. Confessions of a CEO Mum is a story of how two ordinary Australians relied on passion, grit, and dedication to become successful businesswomen, and how if they can do it, anyone can. Both believe that with hard work, determination, and a willingness to be open to new opportunities, everyday mothers can have it all: health, wealth, family, and style. Learn how to: • spot and embrace new opportunities; • appreciate the power of network marketing; • build the confidence you need to be a CEO; and • find a balance between working and being at home. If you find yourself worrying about what your credit card bill will be at the end of each month, are skipping meals out, or are unable to give your family all that it deserves—or if you just want more—it’s time to make a change. Join two mums as they share what it took to build a business that pays them more in a single month than they used to earn in an entire year.




Challenges Encountered by Chinese ESL Learners


Book Description

This book provides a blended approach in outlining the properties of grammatical knowledge that have been causing difficulty to Chinese speaking learners, including tense and aspect, articles, passives, unaccusatives, plurality and motion verbs. It explains from different linguistics perspectives how these constraints/difficulties might be dealt with. It also offers readers a comprehensive account of these problems, and outlines the possible pedagogical solutions teachers can try in the classroom. These topics are selected because they bring substantial challenges and difficulties to Chinese English as a Second Language (ESL) learners. This book bridges the gap between acquisition theory and language pedagogy research, benefiting not just language learners but language teachers around the world, and all those who would like to witness collaboration between second language acquisition theory and second language teaching practice in general. It initiates future work in which researchers from different fields with diverging theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches will be able to develop studies that are compatible with each other. This overall can facilitate our understanding of second language acquisition, and how instruction might help.




Days Like These


Book Description

A care package for mums Mums are the greatest yet least appreciated humans and it's time they had their own huggable book all about mum care! Whether your child is 2 or 20, it can be easy to get lost in day-to-day survival mode and forget the long game - the magic you have already made and that they really will be OK in the end. Days Like These is an uplifting guide to supporting yourself and other mums you know. Let bestselling author Pip Lincolne remind you that it's fine to go slow as she helps you shift expectations (so many expectations!), drop the guilt, choose fresh ways to measure success, find yourself again and remember the things that delight you in the everyday. Because you are not alone and sometimes we all need a reminder that we're doing our best on this life-changing journey called motherhood.