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My Friends the Miss Boyds
The first of Jane Duncan's enchanting autobiographical novels tells of the author's childhood at Reachfar. Janet, the narrator was brought up by her stern old grandmother; George, her uncle; and Tom, the hired hand, who was nevertheless one of the family. Into this peaceful backwater come the Miss Boyds, who have come to settle in the neighbourhood. At first everything they say and do offends decent bahaviour by which the community lives. It is only when tragedy overtakes them that the compassion and great-hearted kindness of the Reachfar family and their neighbours is aroused.
Reappraising Jane Duncan
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 Friend My Father
'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 . . .
My Friends from Cairnton
'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.
My Friend Flora
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 generatio...
Before I Go
A compassionate, practical guide to end-of-life matters, empowering us to clarify and share our wishes and continue to live life to the fullest • Addresses the emotional, spiritual, and practical aspects of end-of-life planning to help you prepare well for your death • Enables the reader to make well-informed decisions about their end-of-life care and facilitate conversations with family and friends about this difficult topic • Includes guiding questions, exercises, and recording tools, as well as worksheets available for download and supportive online courses Many people say “I wish I had known what they wanted” when their loved one has died. Too often, a person’s wishes for end...
My Friends the Misses Kindness
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, ...
My Friend Sashie
'From the rail I looked down at Sashie's upturned face and the brilliant, early tropical sunlight made me think of the lights upon the stage of a theatre long ago . . .' With these thoughts Janet Sandison says goodbye to the West Indian island that has been her home for many years, for her husband Twice has died, the great house where old Madame Dulac held court for so long is to be sold, changes are coming to the island, and Janet herself is setting out on a new and adventurous life. That she is doing so is due in no small measure to her friend Sashie, the ex-RAF pilot who walks on 'tin legs' and whose tender, sensitive friendship has drawn Janet from the dark limbo of desolation into which her husband's death had plunged her. The flamboyant Sashie is a brilliant and subtle character, as readers of Jane Duncan's previous 'Friends' books know; and in this story of Janet's move to a new life he is revealed with all the perception and clear-sightedness that make Jane Duncan so compelling a story-teller.
My Friend Muriel
Janet Sandison made her bow in My Friends the Miss Boyds, Jane Duncan's sparkling first novel. Here she is again, now a determined young woman of twenty with a University degree. Taking a job with a cranky Pen-Friend organization, she meets Muriel. Muriel is uncompromisingly plain, but clings like ivy. As the lively narrative unfolds, Muriel's story and Janet's diverge and interlace again, aided by a blushing curate, an eccentric she-dragon and her severely repressed husband, by a shady confidence trickster and a suit of armour!
My Friend Annie
My Friend Annie takes the reader back into Janet Sandison's childhood. It opens as the death of her mother shatters the bliss of her Highland home. Janet migrates with her father to grimy, lowland Cairnton, where she meets the hateful and stupid Jean, soon, alas, to be her step-mother-and pretty Annie Black. Years of unhappiness are relieved by holidays among the unchanging loveliness of Reachfar. But while at school, Janet finds out about Annie's profession-a discovery that troubles her strong sense of right and wrong.
