My Friends George and Tom

My Friends George and Tom PDF Author: Jane Duncan
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
ISBN: 1447298136
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
Janet Sandison comes home to the small fishing village of Achcraggan in Scotland. Behind her are ten years of happiness with her husband Twice, whose death has brought to an end their life on the island of St Jago in the West Indies. Before her lies a new career as a novelist and a return to the countryside of her childhood-and above all to George and Tom who were her closest friends, mentors and allies, in those early days. But now, Reachfar, the family croft on the hill overlooking Poyntdale Bay, has been sold and George and Tom in their old age are living cheerfully if haphazardly in Jemima Cottage in the village. Janet, George and Tom quickly take up their lives together after nearly forty years apart; Janet buys and converts an old barn on the shore and the three of them set up house. Janet, who has not found it easy to face the loss of her beloved Twice nor to adjust to the strange new world of the professional writer, rediscovers with delight that the old Reachfar values still hold a firm grip on her family and neighbours, but the one thing she cannot face is the ruin of the Reachfar croft itself. Not even the urging of her young nephews and niece- the Hungry Generation-will persuade her to climb the hill. This psychological problem is only a small part of the dramas and happenings, some sad, some joyous, which fill the pages of this enchanting and wonderfully enjoyable book. Readers of any or all of Jane Duncan's 'Friends' novels will rejoice particularly in My Friends George and Tom, for the wise and funny characters of the title have played important supporting parts in many of the earlier books and finally have a book which is triumphantly their own.

My Friends George and Tom

My Friends George and Tom PDF Author: Jane Duncan
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
ISBN: 1447298136
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 265

Get Book Here

Book Description
Janet Sandison comes home to the small fishing village of Achcraggan in Scotland. Behind her are ten years of happiness with her husband Twice, whose death has brought to an end their life on the island of St Jago in the West Indies. Before her lies a new career as a novelist and a return to the countryside of her childhood-and above all to George and Tom who were her closest friends, mentors and allies, in those early days. But now, Reachfar, the family croft on the hill overlooking Poyntdale Bay, has been sold and George and Tom in their old age are living cheerfully if haphazardly in Jemima Cottage in the village. Janet, George and Tom quickly take up their lives together after nearly forty years apart; Janet buys and converts an old barn on the shore and the three of them set up house. Janet, who has not found it easy to face the loss of her beloved Twice nor to adjust to the strange new world of the professional writer, rediscovers with delight that the old Reachfar values still hold a firm grip on her family and neighbours, but the one thing she cannot face is the ruin of the Reachfar croft itself. Not even the urging of her young nephews and niece- the Hungry Generation-will persuade her to climb the hill. This psychological problem is only a small part of the dramas and happenings, some sad, some joyous, which fill the pages of this enchanting and wonderfully enjoyable book. Readers of any or all of Jane Duncan's 'Friends' novels will rejoice particularly in My Friends George and Tom, for the wise and funny characters of the title have played important supporting parts in many of the earlier books and finally have a book which is triumphantly their own.

My Friends the Mrs. Millers

My Friends the Mrs. Millers PDF Author: Jane Duncan
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
ISBN: 144729789X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 261

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Book Description
'This Paradise community doesn't seem to me to be the secure, feudal, friendly affair that everybody likes to think. There's a change working . . .' As the turbulent island of St. Jago reaches a turning point in its way of life Janet and Twice Alexander are once again deeply involved in the daily life of the community. Many loved Friends reappear and now added to these are the gentle Mrs Miller from Achcraggan, a link with Janet's childhood; the widowed Mrs Miller in the toils of a mixed marriage, and coloured Mrs Miller who becomes Twice's secretary. When a double crisis occurs in her personal fortunes, Janet finds a new maturity.

My Friends the Hungry Generation

My Friends the Hungry Generation PDF Author: Jane Duncan
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
ISBN: 1447298012
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 283

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Book Description
It was a long journey from the West Indies to Scotland - but Janet's holiday turned out to be unforgettable . . . It was a wrench for Janet to leave her husband behind-but Twice's heart condition did not permit him to leave the West Indies. So she set off to Scotland without him, to spend a holiday with her family-her brother Jock, his wife and their three lively children, Liz, Duncan and George. Having to take their mother's place while she is in hospital, Janet finds the Hungry Generation almost too much for her . . . but stories of her childhood at Reachfar prove the first step towards a surprising alliance . . .

My Friends the Misses Kindness

My Friends the Misses Kindness PDF Author: Jane Duncan
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
ISBN: 1447298101
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 261

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Book Description
After her husband's death and her own breakdown, from which she has been rescued by her good friend Sashie, Janet Sandison sets sail from her West Indian home to return to Scotland and make a new life for herself as an author. She is beset by doubts, but as the days pass aboard R.M.S. Mnemosyne the personalities and dramas of her fellow passengers claim her attention more and more, not least of all the puckish child Helga, and the three elephantine sisters, the Misses Kindness, whose mission in life is to make everyone as much like themselves as possible. Behind their backs they are soon nicknamed 'The Friendly Ones' for, like the Furies of Greek mythology, they must be placated as well as, if possible, avoided. There are other Furies aboard too, for each passenger has his or her private interior demon; but in the young Second Engineer Janet finds an unexpected and rewarding friend, and as the ship draws near to England the threads of all their lives dramatically come together for a while. The deep vein of truth that underlies all Jane Duncan's books is here at its most impressive and, together with her sharp observation of human nature and her story-telling skill, make this one of her most compelling novels.

My Friends the Miss Boyds

My Friends the Miss Boyds PDF Author: Jane Duncan
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
ISBN: 1447297652
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
Here, seen through the uninhibited eyes of eight-year-old Janet Sandison, is a vanished world-an isolated community living by its own unquestioned code of decency and integrity. Into this remote backwater come the 'Miss Boyds'-a clutch of flighty, townbred sisters. At first they are figures of fun, but the tragedy that overtakes them arouses all the compassion of the highland people. Full of humour, incident and colour, this delightful novel brings a forgotten era vividly to life, captures all a child's excitement as the world expands around her.

Reappraising Jane Duncan

Reappraising Jane Duncan PDF Author: Rita Elizabeth Rippetoe
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786498870
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 195

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Book Description
Scottish novelist Jane Duncan's semiautobiographical My Friends series was dismissed by postwar critics as lightweight, at a time when a coterie of "angry young men" monopolized the attention of the British publishing establishment. Yet deeper themes are at play in the 19 novels. Modern readers will recognize feminist motifs, a wide-ranging examination of women's education and work in the 20th century, a woman's view of the rising societal tensions of the 1920s and 1930s, and an outsider's perspective on the racial divide in the soon-to-be-independent West Indies. This book explores Duncan's body of work, out of print for decades, though sought by loyal fans. Her characters run the gamut--drunken tinkers, Lowland housewives, Irish miners, members of the London fast set and English marchionesses, all portrayed with telling detail. Her novels--two of them recently reprinted for a new generation--reveal a charming and perceptive recorder of the changes Great Britain underwent in the past century.

My Friends the MacLeans

My Friends the MacLeans PDF Author: Jane Duncan
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
ISBN: 1447297989
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 261

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Book Description
'Janet, what do you mean? What has been going on between you and that bloody boy?' When Janet Alexander learns that young Roddy Maclean intends to defy his parents and become a writer, not an engineer, she readily helps him run away from St Jago. Her impulsive action infuriates Rob and Marion Maclean, and harsh words end a long friendship. Interwoven with Janet's discovery of deeper currents under the placid surface of the Paradise estate, are unrest among the plantation workers, the convalescence of Twice Alexander, and the advent of Madame Dulac's grandson Edward, who falls more than a little in love with Janet. Not until Roddy unexpectedly returns to the island does Janet come to know the truth about her friends the Macleans . . .

My Friends from Cairnton

My Friends from Cairnton PDF Author: Jane Duncan
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
ISBN: 144729792X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 239

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Book Description
'I think you are forgetting one thing, Twice,' I said. 'You seem to forget that my home is where you are.' Janet is unhappy in St Jago. Although Twice Alexander is now convalescing from his serious illness, the strain of the past year has caused an emotional rift between them-and Reachfar, her beloved childhood home, is sold. Friends from Cairnton, past and present, unknowingly provide the help she needs. The rich, pathetic Lady Hallinzeil arrives with Mrs Drew, her malignant companion; and later come those beloved friends of Janet's schooldays, Violetta Cervi and Kathleen Malone-now a famous singer. When these memorable characters leave, Janet and Twice are able to face their new life together with hope and understanding.

Tom Swan and the Head of St George

Tom Swan and the Head of St George PDF Author: Christian Cameron
Publisher: Orion
ISBN: 1398718912
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 575

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Book Description
1450s France. A young Englishman, Tom Swan, is kneeling in the dirt, waiting to be killed by the French who have taken him captive. He's not a professional soldier. He's really a merchant and a scholar looking for remnants of Ancient Greece and Rome - temples, graves, pottery, fabulous animals, unicorn horns. But he also has a real talent for ending up in the midst of violence when he didn't mean to. Having used his wits to escape execution, he begins a series of adventures that take him to street duels in Italy, meetings with remarkable men - from Leonardo Da Vinci to Vlad Dracula - and from the intrigues of the War of the Roses to the fall of Constantinople.

Tom Swan and the Head of St George Part Two: Venice

Tom Swan and the Head of St George Part Two: Venice PDF Author: Christian Cameron
Publisher: Orion
ISBN: 1409127362
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 85

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Book Description
Venice: part two of a fast-paced serialised novel set in the turbulent Europe of the fifteenth century. A young Englishman, Tom Swan, travels to Italy in the bodyguard of a Cardinal. He finds it a different world. Food is delicious, women are beautiful, men are quick to make friends and quick to draw knives. Swan likes it, and dives into the politics and the plotting, the art and the fashion - and the bordellos - of Renaissance Italy. He's not a professional soldier. He's really a merchant and a scholar looking for remnants of Ancient Greece and Rome - temples, graves, pottery, fabulous animals, unicorn horns. But he also has a real talent for ending up in the midst of violence when he didn't mean to. Having used his wits to escape execution in part one, he begins a series of adventures that take him to street duels in Italy, meetings with remarkable men - from the pope and Hunyadi János to Sultan Mehmet II - and from the intrigues of Rome to the Siege of Belgrade.