Rancher, cowboy, gold and diamond miner, forest fire fighter, horticulturist, friend to Western novelist Zane Grey and famed botanist Luther Burbank, but in his own words, dreamer. In this little book, written while recovering from the ravages of alcohol abuse, Richard David Comstock uses rhymes to give the reader a brief look at his life of many adventures and escapades, with an unexpected poignancy. In Rhymes of A Raver, we discover not A Raver, but rather a brave and sensitive soul who survived numerous challenges and adversities, both in America and abroad, including a potentially deadly forest fire in Oregon, while serving alongside revered US Forest Service Ranger, Douglas C. Ingram. In a rhyme about an experience in his youth, Mr. Comstock relates a story of how his cherished Osage companion, Sleeping Fawn, saved his life during a longhorn cattle stampede on his Montana family ranch, but by 1929, the "useless, squandered years of poison booze" landed him, in his own words, "in the gutter." He was lifted out of that gutter, about a year later, thanks to the professional and compassionate treatment, provided by the staff of the New Jersey State Hospital at Greystone Park.By July 1930, Mr. Comstock once again, took his place in the world and created the horticulture services business, United Landscape Engineers and Foresters, in Flushing, New York. The catalyst to his recovery was a newly discovered passion for writing, when appointed, "Patient Editor" of The Psychogram, in the Print Shop of Greystone's old Industrial Building. He decided to publish his Rhymes because he believed, "The world should know of the indescribable good wrought here at Greystone." Sherri and Stephen Phillips, editors of King Alfred's Middle Earth- Books Most Necessary to Know, present this reprint, after confirming the book is currently in the public domain. The magnificent 19th century Kirkbride buildings of Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital may have been demolished in 2015, and the names of those who served in the old hospital long forgotten, but thanks to A Raver, this literary gem still stands to honor, "this refuge mercy-marked that's known to you as Greystone Park," the Castle of Salvaged Souls.

These are the songs that we have listened to, laughed to, loved to and laboured to, as well as downed tools and danced to. Covering the last seven decades, Stuart Maconie looks at the songs that have sound tracked our changing times, and – just sometimes – changed the way we feel. Beginning with Vera Lynn’s ‘We’ll Meet Again’, a song that reassured a nation parted from their loved ones by the turmoil of war, and culminating with the manic energy of ‘Bonkers’, Dizzee Rascal’s anthem for the push and rush of the 21st century inner city, The People’s Songs takes a tour of our island’s pop music, and asks what it means to us. This is not a rock critique about the 50 greatest tracks ever recorded. Rather, it is a celebration of songs that tell us something about a changing Britain during the dramatic and kaleidoscopic period from the Second World War to the present day. Here are songs about work, war, class, leisure, race, family, drugs, sex, patriotism and more, recorded in times of prosperity or poverty. This is the music that inspired haircuts and dance crazes, but also protest and social change. The companion to Stuart Maconie’s landmark Radio 2 series, The People’s Songs shows us the power of ‘cheap’ pop music, one of Britain’s greatest exports. These are the songs we worked to and partied to, and grown up and grown old to – from ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’ to ‘Rehab', ‘She Loves You’ to ‘Star Man’, ‘Dedicated Follower of Fashion’ to ‘Radio Ga Ga’.

--Book Jacket.

How Aussies came to belong to the hip-hop nation.

Don’t yell at Norman Walters. He doesn’t deal well with conflict. A psychotic breakdown follows during which his mind invents bizarre nightmare worlds with real villains and real victims. Evil abounds and requires vanquishing. Toward that end, Norman becomes Raver, a superhero with a caveat: his powers change from one twisted reality to another, to closely mirror but never exceed those of his enemies. If Raver should fail in these grotesque new worlds, Norman Walters wouldn’t get to return to the old warm and fuzzy one. Includes a new adventure!