Stephen Barker

This book develops a new metaphysical framework in which time is motion through a higher dimension. In other words, time literally flows. It breaks through the long debate about time flow and temporal experience in metaphysics by offering an entirely new approach that reconciles psychological time with the time of science. Our experience of change and our own being in time reveals a relentless motion or passage. Time really appears to flow. This apparent time motion is a profound enigma for currently well-known conceptions of time. This book develops a new theory of time that renders temporal passage fully intelligible. It treats time motion seriously by building in motion as a metaphysically fundamental feature of the physical universe, whose principal form is through higher-dimensional space. This motion-first metaphysics rejects the orthodox view that motion is explained in terms of space and time; rather, it uses space and motion to define time. Furthermore, it solves puzzles of time, change, and persistence, and is consistent with special relativity. The Metaphysically Dynamic Universe will appeal to researchers and graduate students interested in philosophy of time, metaphysics, and philosophy of physics.

The Flying Sikh tells the unique story of the only Sikh airman to fly with the RFC and the RAF during the First World War. It is the remarkable account of one man's struggle to enlist, against discrimination, and then his service as a fighter pilot over the battlefields of Flanders. This book represents the only detailed study of an Indian national enlisting in Britain's armed forces during the First World War. It is an account of India's role in the war; the rise of Indian nationalism and the challenges of Indians to take up the status of a commissioned officer in His Majesty's Armed Forces. Malik started his new life in Britain as a fourteen-year-old public school boy, who progressed to Balliol College, Oxford, before attempting to join the Royal Flying Corps after graduation with friends from university, but was denied a commission. Keen to participate in the war, he served with the French Red Cross in 1916 as an ambulance driver and then offered his services to the French air force. Ultimately, one of his Oxford tutors wrote on Malik's behalf to General David Henderson, the former head of the RFC, and secured Malik a cadetship Above all though, it is the story of a man who was a county cricketer who played for Sussex and Oxford University, an outstanding golfer and fighter pilot who fought over Passchendaele in the autumn of 1917. Being a devout Sikh, he wore a specially designed flying helmet that fitted over his turban. Malik claimed two kills until he was shot down, crashing unconscious to the ground behind Allied lines. His Sopwith Camel was riddled with over 400 bullet holes. Malik was only one of a small number of Indian nationals who served with the RAF during the war. In later life, Malik became the first Indian High Commissioner to Canada, and then served as the Indian Ambassador to France.

Stephen Barker was in his mid-thirties and leading a pretty normal life ... until his world was turned upside down when he went blind. In this inspiring and humorous memoir, Stephen chronicles how, within a relatively short time span, he had to face the fear and the challenges of blindness and the trauma of losing close family members to cancer. The turning point came when he discovered the Lions Foundation Dog Guides program and was given his "new set of eyes," a black Labrador named Zulu. With his furry guardian angel, the first of two guide dogs over a period of ten years, he regained his independence and a reason to live. His descriptions of training at the dog guides school and the day-to-day incidents that he faces as a blind person make for at times hilarious and always fascinating and insightful reading. Stephen's sense of humour and hope, combined with the kindness shown to him by so many people, help him overcome everything that life throws at him. His path from light into darkness was one of self-discovery as he came to understand that he went blind for a reason. His journey has brought him to a different form of light, with the conviction that you never really see until you stop seeing. Now he's paying it forward -- and still making people laugh.

When the Great War began in 1914, it demanded the mobilisation of the entire population and the recruitment of a citizen army. The 8th (Service) Battalion, East Lancashire Regiment was in many ways a unit typical of the British Expeditionary Force. Yet, in recent years, military historians have tended to concentrate on recording the stories of the major Pals units raised by corporations and towns, meaning many of the unknown, but no less important battalions of the New Armies have been largely ignored. Stephen Barker and Christopher Boardman have constructed a very readable and fascinating account of this little-known battalion, have trawled local and national sources, examining personal letters, newspaper obituaries and a varied selection of photographs, many of which have never before been published. The soldiers' every-day lives are described and the actions in which they fought are forensically examined, making a contribution to the current debate about the extent to which the British Army was on a 'learning curve' during 1916-18. The story leads the reader from the initial euphoria of recruitment into Kitchener's Army, through the initiation into trench warfare, to the battles of the Somme, Arras and Passchendaele. It is an account of fortitude, endeavour and duty.