My Friends George and Tom


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 Friend My Father


Book Description

'It seems to me,' my father said quietly, 'that one always tries to leave a place better than one found it . . .' From the time when she was small enough to be held high above his head Duncan Sandison was the most important person in Janet's life . . . This remarkable novel, the story of a remarkable man who has appeared in many previous Friends, begins with Janet as a young child at Reachfar. As she grows up her admiration for Duncan deepens into a bond of true affection that sustains her through many trials and adventures. After her marriage to Twice Alexander it is her father's letters that bring the scent of the heather to the Caribbean, carrying with them all the comfort of his love . . .




Tom & Lucky (and George & Cokey Flo)


Book Description

The year is 1936. Charles "Lucky" Luciano is the most powerful gangster in America. Thomas E. Dewey is an ambitious young prosecutor hired to bring him down, and Cokey Flo Brown--grifter, heroin addict, and sometimes prostitute--is the witness who claims she can do it. Only a wily defense attorney named George Morton Levy stands between Lucky and a life behind bars, between Dewey and the New York governor's mansion. As the Roaring Twenties give way to the austere reality of the Great Depression, four lives, each on its own incandescent trajectory, intersect in a New York courtroom, introducing America to the violent and darkly glamorous world of organized crime and leaving our culture, laws, and politics forever changed. Based on a trove of newly discovered documents, Tom & Lucky (and George & Cokey Flo) tells the true story of a singular trial in American history: an epic clash between a crime-busting district attorney and an all-powerful mob boss who, in the crucible of a Manhattan courtroom, battle for the heart and soul of a dispirited nation. Blending elements of political thriller, courtroom drama, and hard-boiled pulp, author C. Joseph Greaves introduces readers to the likes of Al Capone, Dutch Schultz, Meyer Lansky, and Bugsy Siegel while taking readers behind the scenes of a corrupt criminal justice system in which sinners may be saints and heroes may prove to be the biggest villains of all.




My Friend Flora


Book Description

My Friend Flora is set in the 'Reachfar' country-the Black Isle in Rossshire-where the narrator, Janet Sandison, spent her childhood and which was the setting for the first of Jane Duncan's enchanting books, My Friends the Miss Boyds. The same marvellous sense of the countryside and its people gives its colour and warmth to the story of Flora 'Bedamned' and her family. Flore and the other Bedamneds (the bye-name, inherited from Flora's great-grandfather, is strikingly apt) first impinge on Janet's life when, at the age of five, she goes to the village school in Achcraggan in 1915. Jamie Bedamned and his forbears have cast their own special and sinister blight on the countryside for generations-morose, black-browed, independent, ill-favoured craftsmen better suited to the construction of dark, satanic mills than the bridges and buildings of the Highlands. But Flora's bedamnedness is of a more passive nature. When her mother dies, she leaves school to bring up her younger brothers and sisters, including the terrifying Georgie, and to keep house for her curmudgeonly old father. Janet, George and Tom and, in particular, Janet's young aunt Kate battle to improve the lot of the patient-maddeningly patient-Flora, a natural-born doormat. But in the end it is Flora who turns the tables on her would-be benefactors and is the means of bringing unexpected happiness to the Sandisons of Reachfar. My Friend Flora is without doubt one of Jane Duncan's finest books.







Uncle Tom's Cabin, etc


Book Description




Uncle Tom's Cabin


Book Description




Back in Her Husband's Arms


Book Description

All she ever wanted… After their heartbreaking separation, Sara Fielding can't resist one last unforgettable night with her soon-to-be-ex-husband, Tom. Their love has never diminished, but Sara so wants a family—the one thing Tom feels he can't give her. Their divorce seems certain—until Sara's new job unexpectedly finds her working with Tom. Soon they're learning more about each other than ever before. But will discovering Tom's deepest secret be enough to bring Sara back to his arms for good?




Historical Dictionary of the Friends (Quakers)


Book Description

The modern reputation of Friends in the United States and Europe is grounded in the relief work they have conducted in the presence and aftermath of war. Friends (also known as Quakers) have coordinated the feeding and evacuation of children from war zones around the world. They have helped displaced persons without regard to politics. They have engaged in the relief of suffering in places as far-flung as Ireland, France, Germany, Ethiopia, Egypt, China, and India. Their work was acknowledged with the award of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1947 to the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and the Friends Service Council of Great Britain. More often, however, Quakers live, worship, and work quietly, without seeking public attention for themselves. Now, the Friends are a truly worldwide body and are recognized by their Christ-centered message of integrity and simplicity, as well as their nonviolent stance and affirmation of the belief that all people--women as well as men--may be called to the ministry. The expanded second edition of the Historical Dictionary of the Friends (Quakers) relates the history of the Friends through a chronology, an introductory essay, an extensive bibliography, and over 700 cross-referenced dictionary entries on concepts, significant figures, places, activities, and periods. This book is an excellent access point for scholars and students, who will find the overviews and sources for further research provided by this book to be enormously helpful.




Help My People Lead!


Book Description

The desire to create this book began in 1985 when the words “Help My People” were whispered in the author’s ear. That began a thirty-five-year journey to determine what was meant by that phrase. It happened once more about ten years later. In the meantime, the author and his wife, as well as others, proceeded to create a consulting firm that helped client organizations do a better job to create the kind of organization culture the frontline workers mostly said they wanted. The consulting business prospered, and the author thought for sure he was the one that the whisper was meant to help change in his dealings with his clients. That all changed! The word “my” shifted to the center of the RGBProZone—a productivity zone comprised of groups that surround an individual capable of influencing others in a positive way because they think differently, thus filling voids. The meaning shifted from the one who had whispered in the author’s ear that day in 1985, to everyone having influence over others, backed by authority or reciprocal trust in the direction they were headed. The “my” pertained to the husband and the wife, the parent and children, managers, workers, neighbors, and those with authority and those without. This book traces the step-by-step process used to begin where you are and never end. It is the over thirty-five-year history of the author and his family, friends, associates, and clients. It begins anew with a new whisper that inspires. Most importantly, it contains a process that shifts the responsibility for change from the driver to include the driven. From organization leadership to those who work together for mutual success. Included is a ten-stage one- to three-year time line to help create a new reality.