Robert Stevens

This is a book of poems put into verse from memories and events starting in the 1930's through the war years and beyond. There are many stories that will take you back to the slums of Liverpool from walking the streets in bare feet or clogs, wearing donated clothes and money from the Public Assistance Committee to hunting for Jam Jars to get into the cinema. Stories of a child trying to help his parents with a few pennies and being evacuated during the war. Some experiences such as travelling on Milk trains and carts across country to attend a fathers funeral and missing it by minutes cannot be put into words. The poems take the experience of a young and innocent family landing in the continent of Africa, the wonders and challenges that presented especially with only a few pounds in the pocket are put into a few words to transport you to another world, in another time. Topics from the freezing streets of Liverpool to the hot savannah of Africa and pounding steel mills. Also it includes modern topics such as the NHS, the virus and the climate, but there are also a few lighter things from the Bankers Cat to following the heart in the stars and the spirit of the Steam Train. Several poems will give you the feeling of a hard lived life but also show the passion and love and life itself. It is produced and mostly written when the author was in his 90's, with the help, support and guidance of his daughter taking his ideas and words and breathing eternal life of the memories into words. The opening pages start with memories of the home followed by poems in memory of two daughters that have passed in the last 4 years. Then the journey through different streets, the parents, Christmas, war and onto Africa, the climate. There are poems written and dedicated to the NHS and nurses and also of those lost at Aberfan which was written at the time and also my brother assisted at. Some poems have also been previously published as winning entries in competitions which is what inspired the author to have all published in one book.

This is the paperback edition of Robert Stevens' acclaimed study of the English Judiciary from an historical perspective, with especial reference to its changing role in the 20th Century. Though the book was written and originally published before the most recent constitutional reforms were announced, it nonetheless brilliantly anticipated the direction in which the debate would move, and provides much valuable food for thought for those charged with shaping the role of the judiciary within the new constitutional settlement. The centrepiece of the book is a detailed study of the political influences on the judiciary and the influence the judiciary has had on politics in the 20th Century. It concludes with a series of proposed reforms to ensure that the English judiciary will both maintain its strength but enhance its utility in the 21st Century. It offers no simple-minded argument for separation of powers but analyses what is needed to clarify the balance of powers and to advance the debate about the role of an unelected judiciary in an increasingly democratic society.