Books published by Ashwood Publishing

Jonathan Sturm''s "... blog is unusual in that, although chockablock with his opinions, it''s not overwhelmingly about him. Instead, his focus is on ideas. And what a range of interests he has - from Tasmania''s electoral system to food, from software to building a house of steel." So said ABC Radio''s Richard Aedy in 2002. So when Jonathan finally fulfilled his promise of finishing his second book on gardening, you might expect it to be a little different to most gardening books. And you''d not be wrong...This Gardening Life contains the accurate, concise and useful information you need to grow vegetables organically, and above all successfully. But this is a Sturm''s eye view of not just gardening, but living the Good Life.Jonathan is a Stoic with wide-ranging interests and a mind that sees connections specialists tend to miss. For example, growing plants affects the environment in ways we don''t usually pay attention to. So Jonathan includes climatic effects of fertiliser use.Like his previous and very successful book, Complete Organic Gardening (1992), This Gardening Life includes useful illustrations and a host of tabular data usually only found by consulting multiple sources.Warning: This book contains graphic and explicit descriptions of traditional horticultural practises, including seed-sowing, harvesting, cultivation of the soil and weed control.

After her own experience of breast cancer, Heather Goodare began to explore the connection between traumatic life events, depression and anxiety, and breast cancer in the lives of famous women in history. From Anne of Austria (1601-1666) to Audre Lourde (1934-1992), the author found repeated instances of this same pattern of trauma, followed by depression, followed by cancer. The book includes stories of women who experienced breast cancer at times when modern medicine was not available to help: in spite of this, several of the women recovered well and went on to live productive lives. One was the novelist Fanny Burney, whose mastectomy was performed by Napoleon''s best surgeon; the Bloomsbury artist Vanessa Bell was another. In these two cases their creative fire was not foiled: they both went on to do more admirable work. The feminist theme of restrictions on women''s use of their talents is another major theme in the book. The author argues that there is a connection between foiled creative expression and poor health outcomes and advocates strongly for a holistic approach to breast cancer treatment. This book will be of interest to members of the general public who have experienced cancer, together with their doctors and nurses, and academics working in the field of cancer and the mind. It is unique in its approach to the subject.

John Young first left England, at 10 days old, for Sierra Leone with his missionary parents in 1934. Thus began a life of adventure, travel, and zest for new opportunities. After a childhood spent between Africa, the Yorkshire moors, and English boarding schools, he set off at 17 alone for New Zealand to be a forester and then to university, paying his way with an assortment of jobs from boatbuilder to wharfie to postman. Pursuing a career on the stage was somehow combined with completing an MA degree, as John energetically threw himself into working out where to live, what to do, and who to love. Marriage, a return to England to take a degree at Oxford, and starting a family, were followed by a move to South Australia and an academic career.Through all this, there were always wooden boats. A leaky skiff held together with pitch, old rope and a father’s love. Summers spent making himself useful to owners of other boats. A boat to sailas a young couple in New Zealand; a sloop built in the backyard and sailed amongst the Fijian islands mapping ancient fortifications; the 100-foot sail training ship, One and All, built with community perseverance and now gracing the waters of South Australia. Boats built with unique Tasmanian timbers, after John and his wife moved to Franklin to establish a school of wooden boatbuilding and helped a town recover its remarkable maritime identity.At 85, John looks back on the many choices made and turns taken in his life with some pride in his achievements as well as regret at his failures—and still wants to build another boat.Dr John Young is the author of Australia’s Pacific Frontier (1967), Adventurous Spirits (1984), A Touch of Magic: The Building of the One and All (1984), Sustaining the Earth (1990) and numerous articles on New Zealand, Australian, Maritime and Pacific History, environmental issues and the educational value of wooden boatbuilding.