Tom Vaughan
My books
Hope... and the Hedgehog
How did life begin? How does it end? What happens to those qualities that make each of us alive as individuals after the bodies they animated die and disappear?
Taking inspiration from Sir David Attenborough's maxim 'Nature wastes nothing' and drawing on the wisdom of commentators as varied as NASA astronauts, the Dalai Lama, existential philosophers, a couple of prescient teenagers and even an engagingly 'human' gorilla - Hope . . . and the Hedgehog distils the thinking behind the principal interpretations of creation, before presenting them to the reader in an easily digestible summary.
This is not a religious book and nor does it extol religion - rather it offers the same kind of assurance Bear Grylls presents to his readers. In the same way, it helps unpick the enduring puzzle that prompted Steve Jobs, creator and co-founder of Apple, to enigmatically describe death as 'Very likely the single best invention of life.' Which reinforces the importance of hope addressed here.
The Other Side of Loss
From the violent cruelty of Caribbean drug gangs to the yearnings for love and physical contact of London’s social outcasts – from the money-driven hubris of Manhattan’s financial elite to the home-spun wisdom of rural New England – The Other Side of Loss is a modern-day parable of loss and redemption, of despair and triumph, of human weakness and the life-affirming salvation of human strength in all its meanings.
At its core the novel probes the spiritual and moral vacuum of present-day western life, exposing the ambiguities and paradoxes we all face in determining the boundaries between good and evil in our lives.
No Ordinary Experience
The Juliana's Story
This is the story of a company, our company, one that came into being as a young man's fancy nearly fifty-six years ago, but which today encompasses the globe and which, at the time of writing, currently produces annual net profits approaching two million pounds.
Juliana's was started by the two brothers in 1966 as a travelling discotheque service, catering to the private parties and debutante balls of the British aristocracy. The travelling discotheque branch of Juliana's remains a household word throughout England, Wales and Scotland. Juliana's then went on to become the world's largest discotheque company to date, in the world.