Books with author John G. Parke

Since their foundation during the Second World War, the Parachute Regiment has acquired a formidable reputation as tough, fearless soldiers. 'The Red Devils' have played a key role in many of the battles of the past sixty years - the capture of Sicily, the D-Day landing, the heroic but doomed attempt to capture the bridge at Arnhem. In the savage wars of 'peace' since the Second World War, the Paras have seen action all over the world - from Cyprus, Palestine, Egypt, Borneo and the Falklands to Bosnia. For his authoritative book, John Parker has gathered together the testimony of numerous veterans of the Parachute Regiment. Their first-hand accounts of the major events in their history make enthralling reading, bringing home the reality and cruelty of combat.

R. L. Moore: Mathematician and Teacher presents a full and frank biography of a mathematician recognized as one of the principal figures in the 20th Century progression of the American school of point set topology. He was equally well known as creator of the Moore Method (no textbooks, no lectures, no conferring) in which there is a current and growing revival of interest and modified application under inquiry-based learning projects in both the United States and the United Kingdom. Parker draws on oral history, with first-person recollections from many leading figures in the American mathematics community of the last half-century. The story embraces some of the most famous and influential mathematical names in America and Europe from the late 1900s in what is undoubtedly a lively account of this controversial figure once described as Mr. Chips with Attitude.

With his breathtaking 1973 breakthrough performance in Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets De Niro forged an enormously fruitful collaboration—resulting in Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and Goodfellas, films which, alongside his roles in the likes of The Godfather Part Two, The Deer Hunter, and Once Upon a Time in America, read like a list of the top Hollywood films of the last 30 years. As a method actor De Niro lives and breathes his roles, notoriously gaining 60lbs for Raging Bull and learning to play the saxophone for New York, New York, while in recent years, films such as Analyze This and Meet the Parents have found him honing a previously unheralded talent for comedy acting. Offscreen, De Niro is notoriously reluctant to discuss his life, though his relationships with supermodels such as Toukie Smith and current wife Grace Hightower have often made the news. His forays into the director's chair as well as setting up his own production company, TriBeCa Productions, have seen him more willing to discuss his work, and he's been vocal about his politics. He is an active supporter of the Democrat Party, lending his support to Barack Obama, and has pledged to revitalize the TriBeCa region of New York following September 11.

The adventure begins! The novel that takes, educates and fascinates both children and adults on a journey through the vast expanses of the galaxy.Join Alfred Smith at the very start of his ride to the stars in the first book of the GWW series. Written by international space consultant John R Parker.For everyone from age ten upwards.The galaxy is a very large place. Number 53 Lime Lane is a small house. Alfred Smith is an even smaller ten-year-old boy. He lives there with his wonderful single mother Sarah, having lost his father to illness some years ago.Life is a struggle for the hard working single parent, but she does her best, and her son helps out where he can. Alfred loves the internet and surfing the World Wide Web using the cheap computer that Sarah got him for Christmas a year ago. This night is no exception. He is up a bit too late, something his guardian is not so happy about. She asks him to switch off the desktop machine, before banishing him to the covers of his bed. Alfred complies, but finds that his mind is just too busy for sleep. He returns to the computer for just a few minutes more, feeling sure that after this he would then be able to nod off without a problem. A storm is well underway outside, and the air electric with imminent lightening. Alfred's world is about to change. Indeed, far more than just his world is about to change!This 55,000 word novel is a science/fantasy story suitable for all ages but is primarily a children's book for age 10 years upwards. It is slightly challenging reading for the youngest, but the journey will be both entertaining, rewarding and educational. This is the first in the series of books that features Alfred and a host of other interesting characters, both terrestrial and alien. The author is physicist, engineer and environmentalist John R Parker, who has worked in the space industry for more than thirty years, the majority as an international consultant.

Since their foundation during the Second World War, the Parachute Regiment has acquired a formidable reputation as tough, fearless soldiers. "The Red Devils" have played a key role in many of the battles of the past sixty years—the capture of Sicily, the D-Day landing, the heroic but doomed attempt to capture the bridge at Arnhem. In the so-called years of peace since the Second World War, the Paras have seen action all over the world - from Cyprus, Palestine, Egypt, Borneo and the Falklands to Bosnia. Their service in Northern Ireland has been surrounded by controversy—the events of "Bloody Sunday" in Londonderry in 1972 are still the subject of fierce debate, and a continuing government inquiry. For his authoritative book, John Parker has gathered together the testimony of numerous veterans of the Parachute Regiment. Their first-hand accounts of the major events in their history bring home the reality (and cruelty) of combat. The events of "Bloody Sunday" are seen through their eyes, and will re-ignite the controversy over what actually happened.

Vex is a ten-year-old juvenile delinquent headed toward a life of gangs and crime in the Outer Galaxy. After the death of a good friend, he decides to turn away from gang life and discovers a growing talent for gaming. Despite his poverty and limited education, the ambitious young boy has dreams of winning the premier prize that signifies he's the best gamer in the galaxy, the Super Rumbles Tournament. He knows that his planet's education system is poor and his options are limited. With a mind set on escape, he studies hard for entrance exams to a prestigious boarding school in the Inner Galaxy, which would give him the edge he needs to succeed as a gamer. His ambitions are interrupted when his father is taken into custody and he finds himself an orphan at a group home. His struggle is complicated by the fact that he is being heavily recruited by a violent, criminal gang known as the Tri-Town Boyz. Vex's troubled past as a juvenile criminal and a homeless street kid may derail his future dreams. Will he achieve gaming success? Can he stay out of trouble? Can he overcome his obstacles for a better life or will the pull of the Tri-Town Boyz and gang life be too much?

Cross numbers are the mathematical equivalents of crossword puzzles. The earlier puzzles in the book only require simple arithmetic and basic knowledge, but, as the sequence continues, so the level of difficulty increases. The later ones also demand some enjoyable logical reasoning to tease out the solutions. For the final puzzles, access to a calculator would be helpful and some would say essential. Anyone who enjoys arithmetic and likes to search for patterns and relationships between numbers will find much to please them in this book.

DOIG AND LANSDOWNE JOURNALS tells the story of a teacher’s life in two Indian “day schools” in northern Canada in the mid-1950s. The book is made up of the diaries and letters written by John Groarke at Lansdowne House on Lake Attawapiskat in northern Ontario and Doig River, B.C., and is the second volume in a two-volume set of books featuring the writing of John and Charlotte Groarke. John Groarke came to Canada from England. He was initially appointed as a “welfare teacher” at a Roman Catholic “Day School” run by the Department of Indian Affairs at Lansdowne House. In his letters and journals, he reports on the hardships suffered by the Cree at Lake Attawapiskat, where they were being settled by the department, so that their children could receive schooling. His writing discusses the policies followed by the Canadian government and describes the role of the HBC (the Hudson Bay Company) and the churches in the north. He also records many details of life in the bush and writes about the missionaries, public officials, fur-traders, bush pilots, hunters and trappers that gave colour to life in the north. His journals provide a rich source of the table-talk in northern Canada during the 1950s.When his wife and four sons joined him in Canada, John Groarke transferred to the Doig River Indian Day School in the Peace River District. The Doig River School stood on the banks of the Beatton River, outside Rose Prairie and the boom town of Fort St. John. It served the children of the Cree and Beaver, who had settlements further north on the Doig and Blueberry Rivers. The nomadic life of the natives was still based on hunting and trapping, and depended heavily on the use of horses. Their traditional patterns of life were slowly collapsing, however, under the social and economic pressures of oil development and the influx of “veteran” farmers in search of land. The vignettes in John Groarke’s journals document these changes, highlight many of the people and places in the north Peace River Block, and immerse the reader in the rhythm of life in a northern outpost. DOIG AND LANSDOWNE JOURNALS is a thoughtful, frank account of a difficult time in the history of the reserve system, when the federal government was trying to settle native peoples in permanent communities. The book recounts the author’s attempts to improve conditions on the reserves, his struggle to ensure the attendance of his pupils, and the daily challenges at the edge of the wilderness. As a devout Catholic, who believed in social justice, his thinking reflects his wider concern with poverty and marginalization. Like many of his generation, he placed his hopes for the future lay in a firm belief in progress and the science of economics. His writing captures the emotional tenor of the north in post-war Canada, with its particular mix of hard realism and physical hardship, mitigated by a sense of unbounded opportunity in a new frontier.John Groarke was born in Lancashire. He originally wanted to become a journalist but was dissuaded from doing so by his father. When the Second World War broke out, he enlisted in the Royal Air Force, where he was trained as a radio operator and became an instructor. He was eventually posted to India, and later Ceylon, where he spent the rest of the war manning a transmitter in daily contact with London. On de-mobilization, he entered the teaching profession and taught in London, England. After leaving Doig River, and teaching high school for many years, primarily in Calgary, he re-entered journalism and edited a number of weekly and monthly newspapers.