David James Smith

Another in the Only Series- Only Ponies' A family pony 'Cheeky Charlie', with Mary and Matt, win their first junior competition and then return next year to win against adults. See how they achieved a bursary and how you can too! "Charlie is famous, he helps Father Christmas!" From choosing a pony, care advice, and equipment,these guidelines ensure you are ready to train for success in whatever type of competition and level you choose. Meet Charlie's friends pictured inside, with poems and interactive activities to learn more together. Written by David James Smith a natural horseman with inherited skills from centuries of horse trainers. David passes on his knowledge having taught Mary among many others for competition success. As a breeder and trainer his own ponies and horses reached national success.

Author David Smith's childhood near London, England, helped pave the way for the young boy to plough his own furrow in life. In Only Fraud and Horses, Smith narrates his story which includes pieces of history, police, and horsemanship. In this memoir, Smith offers a humorous and poetic account of his skills, training, and professional positions from cadet to London policeman and to Scotland Yard detective and specialist. Only Fraud and Horses also shares representative sports details, contrasts Smith's Scots ancestry, and links developing European history, the long dependence upon the horse, and his inherited skills as a competitive, natural horseman. With photographs and historical notes included, Smith reviews a lifetime collection of family records and shares his discoveries-starting from England with surnames of Smith and Brown and going back to the 1700s in the Highlands of Scotland before Mediterranean origins.

Ruthless revolutionary; passionate womaniser; activist; hothead. Meet the young Mandela.Nelson Mandela has been mythologised as a flawless hero of the liberation struggle. But how exactly did his early life shape the triumphs to come? This book goes behind the myth to find the man who people have forgotten or never knew - Young Mandela, the committed freedom fighter, who left his wife and children behind to go on the run from the police in the early 1960s. But his historic achievements came at a heavy price and David James Smith graphically describes the emotional turmoil Mandela left in his wake.After meticulous research, and taking a lead from Mandela's trusted circle, the author discovers much that is new, surprising, and sometimes shocking that will enhance our understanding of the world's elder statesman. For the first time, we have evidence of a specific personal motivation for Mandela's fight against apartheid, and this book sheds light on the significant extent to which Mandela relied on white activists - a part of South African history the ANC has ignored or tried to bury. Sanctified, lionised, it turns out that Mandela is a human being after all, only too aware of his flaws and shortcomings. With unique access to people and papers, culminating in a meeting with Mandela himself, Smith has written the single most important contribution to our knowledge of this global icon.