I am in the process of writing four other books. The struggle is accepting I can’t write them all at once. They are presented here in a possible order of publication:
Grasp the Nettle: “How the world works, and your inherent power to change it.”
Angry, Disillusioned: “Why your most intimate relationships feel like a battlefield, and how to make them the bedrock of your resilience.”
Gender: Awake not Woke: “How to understand the complex reality of being human, so you can speak truth without being silenced by the noise of the culture wars.”
Pride without Prejudice: “The story of the ground you stand on, proving that your struggle for a better future is a continuation of Britain’s greatest strength: its capacity for self-correction.”
The Symbiotic Soul: “How to reclaim our sanity by transforming our cities using biophilic urbanity.”
Angry, Disillusioned: Understanding and Healing Societal Discontent
(The hyperlink above takes you to the book as it currently stands.)
This book investigates the disintegration of the traditional gender contract—where men were defined by economic provision and women by domestic management—and how this collapse has fuelled modern societal rage and frustration. It argues that we are currently living through the trauma of a fractured system that extracts an unsustainable cost in health, time, and relationship stability from everyone, regardless of their perceived success.
The narrative identifies three critical crises:
Economic Displacement: Particularly affecting young men (NEET rates), leading to a loss of identity and a lack of a stable anchor in the modern world.
Uncompensated Burden: The structural exhaustion and chronic illness disproportionately affecting women, who manage the mental load of a household alongside professional roles.
Social Collapse: The aggregate result of these fractures, manifesting in plummeting birth rates, family breakdown, and rising rates of depression and suicide.
Rather than just diagnosing the problem, the book uses detailed case studies—from the domestic reorganisation of the Rodsky family to the ecological rewilding of the Knepp Estate—to propose a new model of Shared Stewardship. It advocates for a transition from extractive systems to regenerative ones, where dignity is decoupled from market wealth and tied instead to meaningful contribution, care, and community resilience.
The book has moved past the conceptual phase and is currently being worked into a full draft.
Conceptualisation is complete. The core philosophy (Shared Stewardship, Antifragile Human) and the “four historical shocks” framework are fully realised and consistent across the chapters.
Structural Mapping is complete. A comprehensive 20-chapter outline exists, divided into six logical parts with a clear narrative arc moving from “Pain” to “Principles.”
Case Study Research is complete. Detailed narratives for the Rodskys, Schultes, Burrells, Rinaudos, Errol Beckford, and Zoë Desmond are already written or deeply outlined, providing the “visceral reality” needed for the opening sections.
Data Integration is in progress. Chapter 2 (Real Pain) and Chapter 17 (Regenerative Worth) specify the types of data needed—such as NEET rates and North East Real Living Wage statistics—but the specific figures are currently placeholders ready for final statistical insertion.
Drafting is substantial. Much of the Introduction and Part 1 (The Real People) are polished, persuasive text. Parts 2 through 5 appear as highly detailed summaries or abstracts that are ready for immediate expansion into full chapters.
Gender: Awake not Woke
(The hyperlink above takes you to the book as it currently stands.)
This book offers a quiet, sober, and intellectually rigorous examination of sex and gender, designed to move beyond the superficial and highly charged “woke” versus “anti-woke” binary. It advocates for an “awake” understanding—one grounded in evidence, open to complexity, and committed to scientific precision. By bridging the gap between biological realities and social constructions, the narrative aims to erode societal divisions and replace ideological dogma with genuine clarity.
The book is structured into eight distinct parts, navigating the following core themes:
The Nature of Nurture: Challenging the artificial dichotomy between biology and environment, arguing that it is our biological nature to be shaped by nurture.
The Biological Realities: A deep dive into chromosomes, hormones, and anatomy, illustrating that biological sex exists on a spectrum of natural variation, including intersex conditions, rather than a rigid binary.
The Social Construction of Gender: Exploring the “cultural scripts” of gender roles, the internal compass of gender identity, and the outward manifestation of gender expression.
Understanding Sexuality: Defining sexual orientation (who we are attracted to) as a distinct aspect of identity, fundamentally independent of biological sex and gender identity.
Contemporary Complexity: Addressing intersectionality, gender dysphoria, legal frameworks, and the “culture wars” with empathy and evidence-based analysis.
The book has moved past the conceptual phase and is currently being worked into a full draft.
Conceptualisation is complete. The core philosophy of “Awake not Woke” and the overarching principle that “diversity is normal” are fully realised and integrated throughout the 33-chapter structure.
Structural Mapping is complete. A comprehensive outline for all eight parts exists, providing a progressive journey from foundational definitions to nuanced philosophical and contemporary debates.
Primary Drafting is substantial. The Introduction and Part 1 (Foundations), Part 2 (Biological Realities), Part 3 (Social Construction), and Part 4 (Sexuality) are written as polished, persuasive text. These sections include detailed scientific explanations and theoretical frameworks (e.g., Kinsey Scale, Social Learning Theory, Gender Schema Theory).
Research and Case Study Integration is complete. The manuscript already weaves in the work of key thinkers such as Margaret Mead, Anne Fausto-Sterling, Judith Butler, and Alfred Kinsey, alongside a personal narrative thread that grounds the academic content in lived experience.
Refinement is in progress. Parts 5 through 8 are currently held as robust, detailed summaries and abstracts, ready for immediate expansion into full narrative chapters. The Glossary is already fully developed to ensure terminological precision.
Pride without Prejudice: A History of the British
(The hyperlink above takes you to the book as it currently stands.)
This book seeks to reclaim the middle ground in the increasingly polarised debate over Britain’s national story. Rather than viewing history as a simple choice between unadulterated pride or absolute shame, the narrative presents a “nuanced patriotism.” It uses the British Monarchy (not as a royalist, but as a chronological scaffold) to examine the messy, contradictory, and evolving story of the land and its people—from the signing of the Magna Carta to the contemporary reign of King Charles III.
The book is guided by two central philosophical pillars:
“Biting the Hand That Feeds You”: This concept argues that Britain’s historical successes—its maritime dominance and industrial wealth—created the intellectual and social space for self-critique. It frames movements like Abolitionism not just as reactions to evil, but as products of a society that had gained the freedom and resources to dismantle its own injustices.
The Paradox of Freedom: The narrative reframes the modern British tendency for fierce historical debate and self-loathing as a sign of institutional strength. It argues that the ability to publicly vilify past heroes and scrutinise the Empire is the ultimate evidence of a healthy, free society—a liberty that is, in itself, a source of national pride.
The book has moved through the research and mapping phases and is currently in the active writing stage.
Conceptualisation is complete. The “nuanced patriotism” framework and the core arguments regarding the “Paradox of Freedom” are fully established and serve as the lens through which every historical era is viewed.
Structural Mapping is complete. A clear eight-part structure is in place, beginning with the foundations of the modern state and concluding with the monarchy’s role in a post-imperial, globalised world.
Historical Research is complete. The key “anchor” events—such as the Tudor Revolution, the Hanoverian involvement in and abolition of the slave trade, and the Victorian industrial engine—have been researched and selected for their narrative and thematic weight.
Drafting is substantial. The Introduction and early chapters (The Tudors and Elizabethans) are in a polished state. Later sections, particularly those dealing with the 20th century and the identity crisis of the post-war era, are currently in robust, detailed draft forms.
Thematic Integration is in progress. The author is currently weaving the “Biting the Hand That Feeds You” philosophy through the middle chapters to ensure the transition from imperial expansion to moral evolution is seamless and intellectually rigorous.
The Symbiotic Soul: How to Reclaim Our Sanity by Transforming Our Cities through Biophilic Urbanity
(The hyperlink above takes you to the book as it currently stands.)
This book addresses the “disconnection syndrome” of the 21st century—the profound psychological and physiological cost of living in high-density urban environments that are biologically alien to the human nervous system. It argues that the modern city has become a “digital hive” of media interruption and fragmented time, shredding the human capacity for focus and sustained attention. By introducing the clinical application of biophilic urbanity, the narrative provides a blueprint for transforming our concrete infrastructure into a “living sanctuary” that restores the urban metabolism and heals the fractured mind. Using Newcastle upon Tyne as a primary laboratory and prototype, the book illustrates how these principles can be scaled to any post-industrial city globally.
The narrative identifies three critical restorative pillars:
The Blue-Green Metabolic Hub: Moving beyond decorative greenery to functional “sponge city” infrastructure. This involves daylighting buried rivers and establishing urban forests to act as the city’s circulatory and respiratory systems, mitigating flash floods while providing essential cognitive cooling and air filtration.
The Auditory and Visual Shield: Utilising the fractal geometry of trees and the “pink noise” of moving water as a clinical intervention. These natural stabilities act as a shield against the acoustic violence and flickering stimuli of the extractive city, allowing the prefrontal cortex to exit a state of constant high-alert and enter a state of “soft fascination.”
Shared Stewardship of the Commons: Proposing a new model of high-value labour through “System Stewards” and “Neighbourhood Guilds.” This addresses the risk of job losses in an automated world by creating roles for tech-augmented stewards who manage the biological and hydrological health of the city, turning maintenance into a high-skill act of civic care.
The book has moved through the conceptual and structural mapping phases.
Conceptualisation is complete. The core philosophy of nature as a functional utility and the clinical need for “Focus Sanctuaries” are fully established. The concept of the “extractive city” versus the “symbiotic city” provides the primary narrative tension.
Structural Mapping is complete. A comprehensive 12-chapter outline exists, moving from the biological mandate (neurobiology and “Deep Time”) to the living infrastructure (Blue-Green Urbanity and Auditory Shields), concluding with the fiscal and legal frameworks (The Right to Nature).
Integration Framework is complete. The book is explicitly designed as the final resolution to the problems posed in Angry, Disillusioned and Gender: Awake not Woke, providing the physical stage for Shared Stewardship to function.
Research and Case Study Mapping is complete. While anchored in specific applications like the Blue-Green City initiatives in Newcastle and the coordinating role of NE1, the research incorporates global models from Singapore to Portland, proving the universal scalability of the symbiotic model.