Belonging to Myself
A memoir – Learning to see what I feel
When young Michael crossed the stone bridge over the moat of a Dutch castle, he was entering another world. The England of his childhood lay behind him; an unknown life waited ahead.
In post-war Liverpool, he’d been the boy who didn’t join in — not because he didn’t want to, but because he hadn’t learned how. At home, no one said what they felt, and no one asked. He knew his mother loved him, but he didn’t feel her warmth.
Beyond that bridge, at a boarding school, there were friendships, a first love, but insecurity remained. When Henny arrived and showed her emotions, he struggled to understand her.
Belonging to Myself is the story of a man who finally discovered what he’d been missing all along: the ability to see and express what he felt. A memoir about silence, shyness, and the slow courage of learning to look inward — and to speak about what he found there.
Available from 1 September 2026 on Amazon
Letters from the Past
An English Family in the 19th & 20th century
A Shropshire village is Ann Handley’s home in 1851. Her father has destined her to be a farmer’s wife, and says she doesn’t need to read and write.
Feeling constrained at home, she longs to escape. But just as Ann begins to make her way out into the world, a shocking encounter brings misfortune and conflict to her door. She’s forced to leave the village and find work elsewhere; a pattern which future generations will follow.
While Letters from the Past shows where I came from, Belonging to Myself reaches into who I am.
How I Survived the Great War
Jack Handley was kicked out of home by his father when he joined the Territorial Force at the age of twenty-one in 1912. Jack didn’t regret joining the army and going to war, at least not initially. When the Great War started, he and his Liverpool Rifles comrades were sent over to France and Belgium to fight the Huns whom he hated.
He was involved in some of the major battles at Ypres and the Somme, and lucky to come out alive.
How I Survived the Great War is his story — the story of an ordinary man from Liverpool who joined the Territorial Force as a volunteer for home defence, signed up for professional service, and climbed the ranks from Private to Commissioned Officer.
His memoirs show his courage and humour, and the trust amongst comrades.