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.

Beds and Blue Jeans by Nadine Sutton

This novella is available on Amazon... It is set in the 2010s, in Nashville Tennessee. Sam is a young handsome bar singer, who plays for tips around the city. He loves singing and hopes to become more successful. He attracts a lot of the ladies, who flirt and sleep with him. But he has become embroiled with a young woman who moved in with him and became pregnant. Patti has no ambitions, and seems to drift through life. Sam begins to find her boring but he wants to do right by his baby daughter Calista. So he keeps on living with Patti, and putting up with her ways. She looks after Calista but shows no sign of trying to get a job. Sam is often irritated by her being jealous of his other women, and at times, he is tempted to get involved in a more serious affair with a more active minded girl. Will he and Patti make things work? Or will they split up?

Rough Music by Nadine Sutton

this story is available on Amazon, set in America in the 70s, about a country rock band. Its more about work and life in general than a love story. Its about 2 friends who are the headliners of a country rock band, and their struggle to do good music and make a living. They also suffer conflicts about their marriages which are strained by them being on the road all the time.

Hannah Shaw the Kitten Lady

Hannah is busy with Kitten Season, encouraging other people to foster baby kittens who are in danger of being euthanised. Her husband produces books of cat photographs, and looks after the many animals in their home. She has pigs, goats, kittens, puppies and even took in a rabbit. She is training people who want to foster kittens, and teaches classes on kitten care. She rescued her first kitten, Coco when she was a young girl, finding her up a tree, and scrambling up to bring her down. She found out that so many kittens are euthanised, and began to dedicate herself to rescuing them. Many of them have serious medical conditions or injuries and need a lot of care and veterinary treatment. One of their grown up cats is Chouchou, who was born with a severe cleft palate, but he was operated on and his mouth was repaired so he could eat normally. For months he had to be tube fed. She and Andrew kept him because of his medical needs and Andrew adopted him...Another grown up cat is Ferguson who has kidney disease, but who has been looked after for 4 years and is still doing well.

Kitten season

Its Kitten season in the USA, when lots of feral and outdoor cats have kittens and often end up wiht them dying or themselves not being able to look after them. Foster parents are needed for these little kittens who can feed and look after them until they are big enough to be adopted. They are very vulnerable and are often found dead or seriously ill or injured. Many good people go out and trap the adult cats and neuter them so they dont produce another litter of kittens... and others take in the homeless ones and feed and care for them and find them new homes.