New Releases by Ian Williams

On a distant moon a festival is taking place that promises its guests a remarkable gift; they will be allowed to re-create moments from their past. Under the watchful eyes of those who inhabit the moon and organise the event, the visitors will become tourists of their own memories. Among those attending The Passing festival is Nate, a human who has decided to take a break from his hectic life as CEO of Earth''s largest space mining company, and is seeking relaxation. Though, he soon realises that this will not be possible. With the chance to experience physical re-creations of moments from his past he is thrown into a world of possibilities. Times, good and bad, are eligible to be brought back to life for people to explore and to enjoy as they see fit. He starts with a childhood memory of playing with his friends. What he experiences is beyond anything his own mind could have conjured from his memory. Down to the tiniest detail, thought long forgotten. But things don''t quite go to plan as a mysterious intruder decides to bring Nate''s vacation to an abrupt and almost fatal end. With the help of his local guide, L''Armin Hes, they must uncover the truth behind the unknown man''s intentions, before he strikes again. Along the way Nate and L''Armin form a strong bond that will be tested to near destruction as they search the past. This will be a trip none of them will ever forget. If they survive.

Cartoonist and doctor Ian Williams introduces us to the troubled life of Dr Iwan James, as all humanity, it seems, passes through his surgery door. Incontinent old ladies, men with eagle tattoos, traumatized widowers – Iwan''s patients cause him both empathy and dismay, as he tries to do his best in a world of limited time and budgetary constraints, and in which there are no easy answers. His feelings for his partners also cause him grief: something more than friendship for the sympathetic Dr Lois Pritchard, and not a little frustration at the prankish and obstructive Dr Robert Smith. Iwan''s cycling trips with his friend Arthur provide some welcome relief, but even the landscape is imbued with his patients'' distress. As we explore the phantoms from Iwan''s past, we too begin to feel compassion for The Bad Doctor, and ask what is the dividing line between patient and provider? Wry, comic, graphic, from the humdrum to the tragic, his patients'' stories are the spokes that make Iwan''s wheels go round in this humane and eloquently drawn account of a doctor''s life.

Shortlisted for the 2013 Griffin Poetry Prize. These are not love poems. These are almost-love poems. Jittery, plaintive, and fresh, Personals is voiced through a startling variety of speakers who continually rev themselves up to the challenge of connecting with others, often to no avail. Williams writes in traditional poetic forms: ghazals, a pantoum, blank sonnets, mock-heroic couplets, and creates forms of his own: poems that spin into indeterminacy, poems that don’t end. With a deft hand and playful ear, Williams entices the reader to stumble alongside his characters as they search, again and again, for intimacy, for love, for each other.

Ian Williams’s Not Anyone’s Anything is a trio of trios: three sets of three stories, with three of those stories further divided into thirds. Mathematical, musical, and meticulously crafted, these stories play profoundly with form, featuring flash cards and musical notations embedded in texts, literal basements, and dual narratives, semi-detached. Roaming through Toronto and its surrounding suburbia, Williams’s characters wittily and wryly draw attention to the angst and anxieties associated with being somewhere between adolescence and more-than-that. They are disastrously ambitious, cutting the flaps of skin between their fingers to play Chopin; they are restless and bored, breaking into units of new subdivisions hoping for a score; they continually test the ones they love, and, though every time feels like the last time, they might be up for one more game.

Ian Williams writes challenging poetry. His poems address the crisis of young, black masculinity in cities, paint starkly urban portraits of live and break open stereotypes. Sly humor laces through this collection, and Williams is adept at playing with language to change meanings in unexpected ways. For him it''s easy to turn the word go into gone.

Dorking and the Mole Valley past and present

Provides the basic education in the XSLT processing model that developers have requested The growth of XML content management applications is boosting the demand for XSLT and XPath skills. This beginning Wrox book provides a firm foundation in the XSLT processing model, giving developers an important skillset. If, like many developers, you''ve had trouble grasping the XSLT processing model, you''ll appreciate how this book focuses specifically on what you need to know. XSLT examples address the often-requested processing steps for typical XML document and data vocabularies. You will see exactly how XSLT relies on XPath, and how the processing model differs from most programming languages. A case study demonstrates how to build a static Web site using XSLT 2.0 elements and XPath 2.0 functions. Explains XSLT and XPath, covering both version 1.0 and 2.0 Covers using templates, control and branching, variable and parameters, sorting and grouping, and using modular stylesheets Also examines strings, dates, and numbers; working with multiple documents and text; generating identifiers; and testing and documentation All topics contain incremental code examples Addresses the much-requested processing steps for typical XML document and data vocabularies, including how the processing model differs from most programming languages Beginning XSLT and XPath: Transforming XML Documents and Data is the essential guide you need to thoroughly understand the important XSLT processing model. Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

Discover a host of watercolour sketches by Ian Williams that honestly capture the wildlife of Skye as seen whilst out in the field gathering inspiration.

Any individual seeking change and growth through personal coaching will embrace this book as a fresh approach to a market that is arguably overcrowded in self help material. Ian Williams has cleverly taken the four areas of Passion, Potential, Power and Performance, and broken each one into 13 sections (linked for easy reference and memory to the standard playing cards suits which in turn throughout the ages have been linked with the elements of air, water, fire and earth). At every page turn you are presented with a new topic within these four areas, exploring in detail subjects such as values, balance, character, persistence, vocation and so on. 52 subjects are covered in detail questioning and explaining how they impact on us as individuals, with well researched and relevant quotes provided throughout the book to further enhance the teaching contained within. The photos, full colour pages and exquisite sentiments throughout this book make it an ideal gift for any one at any time of life, or as a personal treat when searching for fresh perspectives on life and living well.

In Tudor times, paupers who complained about their treatment would be whipped. In modern times, charities that campaign too vigorously on behalf of their beneficiaries are accused of "political activity," and risk their legal status and government funding being withdrawn. The Alms Trade looks at how the concept of charity turned full circle under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher''s campaign to bring back Victorian values. Just as how, in the 19th century, the government broke its own laws, stealing from the poor to endow public schools for the rich, modern judges have ruled that private hospitals, because they do not explicitly exclude the poor, are entitled to charitable status. Ian Williams identifies the legal concept of "bounty versus bargain" as representing the two conflicting approaches that underlie both the development of charity law and the welfare services, and the relationship between citizen and state. He also discusses how the archaic privileges of the state church were extended to all other religions and cults, with effect ranging from the comic to the disastrous, and how religious intolerance was converted by judges into the doctrine that charities may not engage in political activities. A lively, well-written examination of a neglected area of public interest, this is a work that, in the present political climate, is of critical importance. Liverpool born and educated, IAN WILLIAMS is a freelance writer specializing in activist journalism. Twice president and twice vice president of the United Nations Correspondents Association, he is a regular contributor to The Nation, China Economic Review, Middle East International, Salon, Open Democracy, AlterNet, and other publications. His books include Rum: A Social and Sociable History of the Real Spirit of 1776 and Deserter: Bush''s War on Military Families, Veterans and His Past. He lives in New York.

Rum arguably shaped the modern world. It was to the eighteenth century what oil is to the present, but its significance has been diminished by a misguided sense of old-fashioned morality dating back to Prohibition. In fact, Rum shows that even the Puritans took a shot now and then. Rum, too, was one of the major engines of the American Revolution, a fact often missing from histories of the era. Ian Williams''s book -- as biting and multilayered as the drink itself -- triumphantly restores rum''s rightful place in history, taking us across space and time, from the slave plantations of seventeenth-century Barbados (the undisputed birthplace of rum) through Puritan and revolutionary New England, to voodoo rites in modern Haiti, where to mix rum with Coke risks invoking the wrath of the gods. He also depicts the showdown between the Bacardi family and Fidel Castro over the control of the lucrative rights to the Havana Club label. Telling photographs are also featured in this barnstorming history of the real "Spirit of 1776."

Riding in Africa captures the escapades of more than twelve journeys to Africa. Author Ian Williams offers sage-if somewhat tongue-in-cheek-advice on how to get from one end of an African horse safari to the other without killing yourself. Read about African flora and fauna, evolution, history, language, the eccentricities of human character, and above all, the perspectives of a scientist-adventurer who puts himself on life''s edge. Williams tells of succumbing to pneumonia in the foothills of Mount Kenya, his experiences in a small African cottage hospital and later in the Nairobi Hospital, part of which he spends in morphine-induced delirium and part in the hospital room reserved for former Kenyan strong man, Daniel arap Moi. Williams also shares stories of adventures with horses and people while riding through the savannahs of Kenya, the mountains of Malawi, the swamps of Botswana, the deserts of Namibia, and the Lapalala Wilderness, home to the fearsome black rhino. Riding in Africa is about middle passages: the leap from one side of fifty to the other and the fine line between life and death.

Deserter looks objectively at the military record of George W. Bush, his role in the armed forces, and his treatment of them. Over the past year, Bush’s military poses have been contrived to convince the American public that he is a National Security President. Others have found his playacting less convincing. While George W. Bush supported the Vietnam War, his contribution was to enlist in a nepotistic unit of the Texas National Air Guard, which, short of World War III, was guaranteed never to see military action. Even in this safe position, Lieutenant Bush broke under the strain and went AWOL for the best part of a year. In contrast, American National Guardsmen have not only been called up for frontline action in Iraq, but they have had their terms of service extended. While the military budget soars, the war is being fought with a dangerously inadequate number of troops. The dead and disabled are shipped home under cover of darkness; those who eventually return in one piece find that their veterans’ medical benefits and facilities are being axed. Deserter strips away the illusion of Bush as “commander-in-chief” to reveal a hypocrite who has betrayed his troops and his country.

This text shows developers how to solve form design and implementation problems using InfoPath 2003, an important new Microsoft Office application tool for programmers working with XML.

Environmental Chemistry provides a comprehensive, balanced introduction to this multi-disciplinary area of chemistry. Intended not only for chemists, but also for environmental and other science students, this text carefully introduces the chemistry needed to fully appreciate this subject, placing it in an applied and practical setting. Written in an accessible and readable style, the book assumes only a basic knowledge of chemistry, with the more advanced chemical concepts carefully introduced as needed. Opening with a general introduction to the subject and the practical skills that need to be known, the text then moves on to cover areas of specific interest to environmental chemists. Each chapter starts by covering the theory and concepts, and then describes a selection of experiments that can be undertaken. Environmental Chemistry: * Provides a comprehensive introduction to environmental chemistry, covering all the key areas. * Includes a balanced coverage of both the theoretical and experimental aspects. * Maintains a careful and logically-structured approach, with theory being covered first, followed by laboratory experiments and student problems. * Assumes only a basic knowledge of chemistry, with more advanced chemical concepts introduced as needed. Environmental Chemistry will be invaluable to students in the chemical and environmental sciences, as well as engineering, physical, life and earth science students interested in environmental chemistry.