Michael Williams

'Diamonds for everyone.' That's what fifteen-year-old Patson Moyo hears when his family arrives in the Marange diamond fields, leaving his previous life, school and friends behind with hopes for a better life.

To Pass On a Good Earth is the candid and compelling new biography of one of the twentieth century’s most distinctive and influential scholars. The legendary ""Great God beyond the Sierras,"" Carl Otwin Sauer is America’s most famed geographer, an inspiration to both conservators and poets, yet no book-length biography of him has existed until now. This Missouri-born son of German immigrants contributed to many fields, with a versatility rare in his time and virtually unknown today. Sauer explored plant and animal domestication, the entry of Native Americans into the continent, their transformation of the land into prairies and cultivated fields, and subsequent European enterprise that fuelled prosperity but also triggered environmental degradation and the loss of cultural diversity. Providing profound and invaluable insights into the human occupance, cultivation--and often ruination--of the earth, Sauer revolutionized our understanding of the impact of European conquest of the New World. Author and fellow geographer Michael Williams had access to Sauer’s voluminous correspondence in the Bancroft Library at Berkeley and in family collections. Enlivened by these intimate letters to family and colleagues, To Pass On a Good Earth reveals the rare qualities of mind and heart that made Sauer one of America’s most treasured--as well as troubled--intellectual pioneers. He brought both historical rigor and humanistic understanding to the burgeoning environmental movement and ceaselessly championed an ecumenical approach in an age of increasing specialization.

The railways mobilised troops, transported munitions, evacuated children from cities and kept vital food supplies moving where other forms of transport failed.

Steeped in legend and mystery, the dramatic coastline of North Cornwall is riddled with stories of hauntings throughout history. The eerie wilds of Bodmin Moor, the haunted historic castles and of course the spirited, rugged coastline all have terrifying tales to tell. Michael Williams has been at the heart of some incredible investigations, and shares here some of the most chilling accounts of hauntings. Including previously unpublished accounts of ghostly activity, this is a treasure trove of original material and re-examined cases. It unravels stories which will send a shiver down the spine of anyone interested in the rarely advertised scary side of North Cornwall.

IN THIS book an attempt is made to describe briefly and accurately the main outlines of the organized system by means of which the Catholic Church carries on its work in the world today. Only the most elementary summary of this tremendous subject is possible within the limits of a single volume, not meant for ecclesiastical students, but for the average reader, whether Catholic or non-Catholic, who would like to know in a general way how the Church is constructed and how its various parts are put together to function within the framework of the institution as a whole. There are a multitude of works, ranging from the most profound theological, historical, and scientific studies of the universal Church, or of its various parts, down to the most elementary pamphlets, but so far as we know, there is no other book in English which provides the average reader with a non-controversial, general account of the whole subject. It is a non-controversial account in the sense that its authors (or perhaps its compilers would be the more accurate designation) make no effort to prove or to defend the fundamental, spiritual, moral, and intellectual teachings of the Church. These teachings are simply stated, or reported, when and where their statement is necessary for the reader to grasp the meaning, the purpose, . the end of the operations of the Church as an entity, or of any particular department of its intricate organization. There are at least two good reasons for believing that a book like this is likely to be useful today and in the years immediately ahead of us. There is, first of all, the interest created by the steadily increasing activities of the Catholic Church throughout the world and, secondly, the still more important fact that the effects and consequences of these activities are not confined to the avowed members of the Church, but are also affecting profoundly the whole human society of which Catholics form a comparatively small minority, yet a highly important one because of the social consequences of their beliefs as taught and controlled by a worldwide, centralized organization, by far the oldest and most deeply rooted of all human institutions. That the Catholic Church is, to say the least, certainly one of the major forces of the world-even if it only represents, as its enemies believe, a declining and baseless superstition-is generally admitted. Its own claim, of course, is that it is incomparably, uniquely, the supreme spiritual power in all the world. As we have already stated, it is not the purpose of this book to argue for the truth of this claim. Yet in order to make comprehensible even an outline sketch of the mechanism by means of which the Catholic Church attempts to realize this claim, it is necessary to give a brief definition of what is meant by the term, "the Catholic Church in Action." Upon that definition each and every item of the multitudinous activities of the Catholic Church absolutely depends for justification by the believers in the Church, and for correct understanding by others. First of all, then, by the term "the Catholic Church" we mean that visible society, real, one, and actively at work in the world today, which was established by Jesus Christ nineteen hundred and thirty-four years ago. Furthermore, we mean that visible society, real, one, and clearly present before the world today, which is in communion with the Apostolic See of Rome, and which accepts not only the supremacy of that See, but also the infallibility of its occupant, the Pope, when, as shepherd and teacher of all the faithful, he defines a matter of faith or morals

When tragedy strikes, Deo's love of soccer is all he has left. Can he use that gift to find hope once more? Just down the road from their families, Deo and his friends play soccer in the dusty fields of Zimbabwe, cheered on by Deo's older brother, Innocent. It is a day like any other ..until the soldiers arrive and Deo and Innocent are forced to run for their lives, fleeing the wreckage of their village for the distant promise of safe haven. Along the way, they face the prejudice and poverty that await refugees everywhere, and must rely on the kindness of people they meet to make it through. Relevant, timely, and accessibly written, Now Is the Time For Running is a staggering story of survival that follows Deo and his mentally handicapped older brother on a transformative journey that will stick with readers long after the last page.