Glamorous Powers Part II

Francis has taken on the role of mentor to Jon.. and tells him that he was sure that he would fall in love - albeit he had led a celibate life for many years and seemed fulfilled by it. Jon feels however that he cannot propose to Anne unless he has some kind of job and an income. He manages to get a position as clergyman of the Starbridge Parish where Anne lives as the previous clergyman had joined the army. However being used to worshipping in a monastery he finds parish life difficult. People disagree with him, especially with his Anglo Catholic views.. and he finds that many of the parish ladies seem to take a fancy to him and pester him with their innocent but tiresome attentions. Francis not being mystic minded, finds Jon's claims to have visions somewhat off putting.. and he thinks that Jon should have looked for a job teaching, rather than becoming a parish priest. However Jon dislikes the idea of teaching, since his own father, with whom he had a difficult relationship was a teacher. There is a theological college in Starbridge but Jon shies away from it. He believes that he has a gift for healing, but he knows that Cuthbert Darcy and Francis Ingram feel that healing is a very difficult calling and that the healer needs to be very humble and Jon is a proud and arrogant man by nature.

Glamorous Powers by Susan Howatch

Glamorous Powers is the 2nd novel in the Starbridge series...It is set during World War II, and the narrator is Jon Darrow, an Anglo Catholic priest who has counselled Charles Ashworth during his breakdown. Jon has a mystical streak and he sometimes has visions, and concentrates on the supernatural side of religion. At the start of the novel, he is the Abbot of the Fordite monks, but he had been married in his young days, and produced 2 children, Ruth and Martin. He is now 60 and has just lost his mentor, the arrogant Fr Cuthbert Darcy... and then he has a vision which makes him believe that God wants him to give up his monk's life and become a priest in the world again. He has to go to London to see the head of the order, Fr Francis Ingram, who has been a rival of his for many years, with both of them vying for senior posts. Francis is upper class and Jon who comes from a humble background, has a bit of a chip on his shoulder about his fellow monk's superiority in class.. Francis talks to him about his past and his religious life and he learns that Jon's marriage was not a happy one. He married largely to have a permitted sex life, and married a girl whose father kept a small shop. Betty was a rather silly woman and she and Jon did not get on well, and she died when her children were young. Jon waited till they were grown up and then went into the Fordites, and he doesnt get on too well with his children... Martin his son is homosexual and has a drink problem. He became an actor, and he and Jon rarely meet. After some in depth conversations Francis tells Jon that he thinks the vision is indeed a sign that he's meant to leave the order. Jon visits his daughter for a few weeks and does not get on too well with her either. He then goes to a hotel which caters to clerical people and students and tries to adjust to the world outside and the war. In the hotel he meets a young woman, 20 years his junior, who is plain but interesting. She owns a small estate and manages it herself, and she and Jon fall in love.

Constance Georgina Markievicz Part I

Constance was born in 1868, to a Victorian Anglo Irish upper class family Sir Henry and Lady Gore Booth. Her home was at Lissadell County Sligo where her parents had an estate. She was one of the first women to become involved in Irish politics. Her family knew the young Yeats and were interested in art and culture but they were part of the landlord system, and accepted the social divisions of Victorian life. Her family tried to be good landlords, and the children grew up knowing the local poor and trying to help them. Eva, Constance's sister, was a gentle soul but she became a radically minded socialist and pacifist and moved to England to work as a reformer. She lived with a woman friend, who shared her radical views, called Esther Roper. She also wrote poetry. Con was a more energetic active girl who loved country life and horses and was happy enough to take part in the social rituals and to enjoy sports such as hunting. Constance took part in the Social season and was something of a tomboy... She was also interested in art, and after a few years she married a Polish Count, Casimir de Markievicz who was also artistically minded. He had been married and had a son, Stanislas. Her family were very dubious about her marrying a foreign aristocrat, but the marriage went ahead and they had one child, Maeve. Constance had an aristic salon, and tried to unite upper class Anglo Irish society with more liberal minded Nationalists. She and Casimir did not have much money. Gradually she became more radical in her politics, more of a republican socialist.