Download or read book Prison Hulk to Redemption written by Gerard Charles Wilson and published by Gerard Charles Wilson Publisher. This book was released on 2021-06-12 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A history of colonial Australia, not of the famous and heroic, but of the small people, the anonymous people who were the heartbeat of a growing nation In this first book of his social history series, the author sets out on a journey through Australia’s colonial history with his ancestors from British Isles. All arrived by the 1830s, two on the First Fleet in 1788. Most are from central and southern England. Four are from two little villages close by each other in Wiltshire: Semley and Donhead St Mary. In addition, two convicts and one free settler came from Dublin, Monaghan, and Donegal in Ireland, and a farming family of four came from Aberdeen in Scotland. It is surprising how much he finds out about them all—joys, successes, and tragedies. Their lives are anything but dull. James Joseph Wilson, who narrowly escaped the gallows and was surprisingly literate for a man thrice convicted of burglary, arrived in Port Jackson on board the Prince Regent in 1827. The colonial authorities assigned him to Robert Lowe, one of the Colony’s early landholders. Lowe sent him to Mudgee in north-western New South Wales to shepherd his flocks. Young 18-year-old hutkeeper James Joseph was one of the first inhabitants in the Mudgee area. He teamed up with fellow convict Michael Jones to look for land. They married sisters Jane and Elizabeth Harris, daughters of free settlers, and travelled northwest to the Coonamble area, 330 miles from Sydney, to set up their farms. The two freed convicts and the Harris sisters became his great-great-grandparents. Nine convicts are in the direct line of his ancestors. He traces their lives against the social and historical background of colonial Australia, presenting a very different picture from the view usually found in school history books. They all thrive, taking advantage of their second chance. This book is the story of their redemption. Besides offering the reader an interesting, sometimes gripping family story, he reveals the cultural continuities in which his ancestors acted and how they responded to those continuities in a totally different physical environment. He seeks to discover to what extent the outlook, culture and character of his ancestors worked to make his extended family and him what they are. Naming his family Catholic is not gratuitous. Religion, as a social and political force, always plays an important role in a nation. It is emphatically the case in Australia where the national establishment threw together a sizable underclass of (Irish) Catholics with the Protestant Ascendancy. How was that to work out in a democratic order where there was no legal disqualification based on religion? He deals with that. Second, of my original ancestors only three were Catholic. The rest were a mixture of Protestants, from the Church of England to Scottish Wesleyans, to dissenters. How the Wilsons ended up Catholic makes an interesting story. And, finally, perhaps most importantly, he sketches a picture of the way Australia developed as a new people and a new nation. In 1950, most Australians had an ancestry like his.

Download or read book Prison Hulk to Redemption written by Gerard Charles Wilson and published by Gerard Charles Wilson Publisher. This book was released on 2015-10-01 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Journey through Colonial History with the Ancestors The author's ancestors in Australia all came from the British Isles. Two came on the First Fleet in 1788 and none came later than the 1830s. In the direct lines, the author has found nine convicts. He traces the life of each direct-line ancestor against the social and historical background of colonial Australia, giving a very different picture from that usually found in school history books. The story is not just for family members. The author embarks on a journey through Australian colonial history while his ancestors gradually emerge in flesh and blood from the bone-dry documents and newspaper reports. It is surprising how much he has found out about them - joys, successes and tragedies. Their lives were anything but dull. For example in the Wilson line, convict James Joseph Wilson arrived in Port Jackson on board Prince Regent in 1827. The author traces his redemption from the time he was sent out to Mudgee to shepherd the flocks of Robert Lowe, one of the Colony's early landholders. He tells how James Joseph, who narrowly escaped the gallows and was surprisingly literate for a man thrice convicted of burglary, teamed up with fellow convict Michael Jones, how they married sisters Jane and Elizabeth Harris, daughters of free settlers from Wiltshire, and travelled out to the Coonamble area to set up their own farms. He explains how the two convicts and the Harris sisters all became his great-great-grandparents. In addition to telling an interesting, sometimes gripping family story, the author's aim is twofold: first, to discover the cultural continuities in which his ancestors acted and how they responded to those continuities in a totally different physical environment; second, to discover to what extent the outlook, culture and character of the author's ancestors worked to make him and his extended family what they are. This is a story about Australian identity Prison Hulk to Redemption is the first in a series of four family history books. The others are: Book 2: 1901-1945 - War Depression War due late 2016 Book 3: 1946-1953 - Me 'n' Pete due early 2016 Book 4: 1954-1958 - Billycarts & Two-Wheelers due 2017

Download or read book Prison Hulk to Redemption written by Gerard Charles Wilson and published by Social History Series. This book was released on 2023-08-24 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: SECOND EDITION Revised 2022 A history of colonial Australia, not of the famous and heroic, but of the small people, the anonymous people who were the heartbeat of a growing nation In this first book of the series, A HISTORY OF A CATHOLIC FAMILY, the author sets out on a journey through Australia's colonial history with his ancestors, who gradually take on flesh and blood from the bone-dry official documents. All his ancestors are from British Isles, all arriving by the 1830s, two on the First Fleet in 1788. Most are from southern England: Wiltshire, Lancashire, Middlesex, Essex, Norfolk, Lincolnshire, and Huntingdonshire. Astonishingly, four are from two little villages close by each other in Wiltshire: Semley and Donhead St Mary. A small Irish contingent of two convicts and one free settler come from Dublin, Monaghan, and Donegal. A farming family of four from Aberdeen Scotland, the Burgesses, literate people with a keen sense of decorum, make up the full count. It is surprising how much he finds out about them all--joys, successes, and tragedies. Their lives are anything but dull. James Joseph Wilson, who narrowly escaped the gallows and was surprisingly literate for a man thrice convicted of burglary, arrived in Port Jackson on board the Prince Regent in 1827. The colonial authorities assigned him to Robert Lowe, one of the Colony's early landholders. Lowe sent him to Mudgee in north-western New South Wales to shepherd his flocks. Young 18-year-old hutkeeper James Joseph was one of the first inhabitants in the Mudgee area. He teamed up with fellow convict Michael Jones to look for land. They married sisters Jane and Elizabeth Harris, daughters of free settlers, and travelled further north-west to the Coonamble area, 330 miles from Sydney, to set up their farms. The two freed convicts and the Harris sisters became his great-great-grandparents. There are nine convicts in the direct line of his ancestors. He traces their lives against the social and historical background of colonial Australia, presenting a very different picture from the view usually found in school history books. They all thrive, taking advantage of their second chance. This book is the story of their redemption. Besides offering the reader an interesting, sometimes gripping family story, he reveals the cultural continuities in which his ancestors acted and how they responded to those continuities in a totally different physical environment. He seeks to discover to what extent the outlook, culture and character of his ancestors worked to make his extended family and him what they are. And, finally, perhaps most importantly, he sketches a picture of the way Australia developed as a new people and a new nation. In 1950, most Australians had an ancestry like his. This first book is a history of colonial Australia, not of the famous and heroic, but of the small people, the anonymous people who were the heartbeat of a growing nation--people like his ancestors. Since the publication of Prison Hulk to Redemption in 2016, the author has made many adjustments and additions, besides rewriting passages that could have been clearer. In preparing this second edition, besides thoroughly revising the text, the author stresses the social and cultural continuities to bring out his ideas on what it means to be a people and a nation.

Download or read book Crime Punishment and Redemption written by June Slee and published by National Library of Australia. This book was released on 2014-10-01 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'the love of my life'... John Ward, writing whilst incarcerated on Norfolk Island, tells a story of thwarted love that–he claims–led him to a life of crime: including theft, sexual assault and more. In telling the candid story of his downfall he exposes his own ruthlessness and lack of empathy. This book, using the diary as its base, is fascinating on so many levels. It is an insight into the criminal mind, ably examined by author June Slee. It is a glimpse into 19th–century aristocratic life–dress, food, pastimes and prejudices–from a servant's perspective (Ward was a groom to an officer gentleman). And it is a unique record, perhaps the only extant diary ever written during the Australian penal era whilst its convict writer was imprisoned. Plus, Ward records a particular moment in our history: not only life aboard prison hulks which he describes in detail but also the timing of his arrival in Sydney when convicts were no longer being accepted; he was sent straight to Norfolk Island where we get a fascinating insight into the rule of Captain Alexander Maconochie. Moconochie believed in a system of improvement for convicts based on a marks system for good behaviour rather than humiliating punishment. In this way, Ward gained access to writing materials for his diary. It's all in this book: love, history, convicts, crime and criminology, Norfolk Island ... The author weaves the diary – Ward’s own words – into her text seamlessly to tell a gripping story. Illustrated with over 150 images including paintings, photographs, documents, newspapers and drawings, the book includes text box features that elucidate aspects of life at the time: oyster bars and eating out, disease, smuggling, county justice, convict marriage, convict class and society, the end of transportation, and more. June Slee is an experienced writer and researcher, lecturer and practitioner in the field of criminology, particularly relating to the Australian convict era. Slee was immediately drawn to Ward’s story, not just for its insight into 19th-century crime and punishment, but also for its outstanding literary style and rarity as a diary that was written while its author was still incarcerated. Currently she is completing another book on convictism and has plans for two further books. June currently lives in New Zealand

Download or read book Recollections of the Jersey Prison ship written by Thomas Dring and published by . This book was released on 1865 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Jefferson and Hamilton The struggle for democracy in America written by Winifred Hawkridge Dixon and published by Prabhat Prakashan. This book was released on 2024-04-13 with total page 615 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Delve into American Political History with "Jefferson and Hamilton: The Struggle for Democracy" Step back in time to witness one of the most pivotal moments in American political history with Claude G. Bowers' masterful work, "Jefferson and Hamilton: The Struggle for Democracy in America." Through meticulous research and engaging narrative, Bowers brings to life the epic clash between two of the nation's founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton, as they vied for the soul of the young republic. Unravel the Complexities of Early American Politics In "Jefferson and Hamilton," Bowers skillfully navigates the turbulent waters of late 18th-century America, offering readers a front-row seat to the ideological battle that shaped the nation's future. From Jefferson's vision of agrarian democracy to Hamilton's advocacy for a strong central government and industrial economy, Bowers illuminates the contrasting visions and strategies of these influential figures. As you follow Jefferson and Hamilton's intertwined journeys through politics, policy, and personal ambition, you'll gain a deeper understanding of the forces that shaped the early American experiment in democracy. Bowers' vivid prose and keen insights shed light on the complexities of power, ideology, and human nature, painting a rich portrait of a nation in flux. Why "Jefferson and Hamilton" Is Essential Reading: In-Depth Analysis: Gain valuable insights into the personalities, principles, and policies of Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton, two towering figures in American history. Relevant to Today's Issues: Explore themes of federalism, populism, and partisan politics that resonate with contemporary debates, offering valuable context for understanding the challenges facing modern democracy. Engaging Narrative: Bowers' compelling storytelling and attention to detail make "Jefferson and Hamilton" a captivating read for history enthusiasts and casual readers alike.Embark on a journey through the corridors of power and the battlefields of ideas with "Jefferson and Hamilton: The Struggle for Democracy in America." Discover how the competing visions of these founding fathers continue to shape the American political landscape to this day.

Download or read book War Depression War written by Gerard Charles Wilson and published by Gerard Charles Wilson Publisher. This book was released on 2021-06-12 with total page 149 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The history of a nation through the lives of ordinary Australians whose beginnings were in a penal colony. In 1901, the author’s great-grandparents, James Patrick and Mary Jane Wilson, moved from rural Tallawang near Gulgong to the fledgling suburb of Chatswood on Sydney’s North Shore. Accompanying them were Bert (the author’s grandfather), Bert’s sister Elizabeth and his younger brother Leo. Older brother Percy followed later. Bert, Percy and older brother Tom began a business, building houses from Chatswood through to Hornsby on Sydney’s northern border. The breakout of the First World War saw dramatic changes. Rowland Wilson, Bert’s nephew, enlisted only to be engaged shortly after his arrival in France in one of the bloodiest battles of the War – the battle over Pozieres. His remains are mingled with the mud and dirt of Pozieres’ farmlands. Leo, Rowland’s uncle, followed a year later. The author gives an account of their terrible experiences. On the author’s mother’s side, it was his grandfather Steele’s brother, Percy Steele, who endured the same frightening ordeal, carrying a lifelong war wound. Australians were hardly over the War when the Depression struck, causing many builders to lose their businesses. The Wilsons hung on by the skin of their teeth, improvising as best they could, while the Steeles, always with work with the New South Wales Railways in clerical positions, did much better. The author provides an engaging account of his parents’ upbringing before they met at Chatswood in 1938. They were from very different backgrounds. The class difference would cause them heartache. The Second World War intervened. His father was a leading sick berth attendant on HMAS SYDNEY during the great cruiser battles in the Mediterranean. It was a deadly period, but the SYDNEY survived and returned to Australia where his parents were married in 1941. Tension was never far away between his father and his mother’s parents. Among all these happenings were much drama and excitement. The book ends with the author’s father building their first house at Lane Cove, a suburb adjacent to Chatswood. Book 3, ME AND PETE, covering the author’s early childhood, was released in 2020.

Download or read book The Life and Experiences of an Ex Convict in Port Macquarie written by William Delaforce and published by Namaskar Book. This book was released on 2023-08-21 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explore the journey of redemption and resilience in William Delaforce's poignant memoir, "The Life and Experiences of an Ex-Convict: Redemption and Resilience in Port Macquarie." Join Delaforce as he shares his remarkable story of overcoming adversity and finding hope in the face of hardship. As Delaforce recounts his experiences, he invites readers into the harsh reality of life as an ex-convict in Port Macquarie. Through tales of struggle and triumph, he sheds light on the resilience of the human spirit and the power of redemption to transform lives. But amidst the challenges of rebuilding a life after incarceration lies a question that resonates with readers of all backgrounds: What does it truly mean to find redemption? Through Delaforce's honest and introspective narrative, readers are offered a glimpse into the complexities of forgiveness, self-discovery, and second chances. Follow Delaforce on a journey of self-reflection and personal growth as he navigates the trials and tribulations of life outside prison walls. Through perseverance and determination, he learns to confront his past, embrace his future, and forge a path toward a brighter tomorrow. Are you ready to be inspired by the resilience of the human spirit? Immerse yourself in the pages of "The Life and Experiences of an Ex-Convict: Redemption and Resilience in Port Macquarie," where hope shines brightest in the darkest of times. Join Delaforce on a journey of redemption, resilience, and the triumph of the human spirit. Experience the power of redemption. Order your copy of "The Life and Experiences of an Ex-Convict" today and discover the transformative journey of one man's quest for redemption and resilience. Don't miss your chance to be moved by William Delaforce's inspiring memoir. Purchase "The Life and Experiences of an Ex-Convict" now and embark on a journey of hope, healing, and second chances.

Download or read book The Ludotronics Game Design Methodology written by J. Martin and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2023-08-24 with total page 423 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book supports readers to transition to more advanced independent game projects by deepening their understanding of the concept development process. It covers how to make concepts sufficiently viable, ambitious, and innovative to warrant the creation of a polished prototype in preparation of a publisher pitch. The book is divided into six sections. After a brief tutorial (Preliminary Phase), readers embark on a journey along the book’s methodology. They travel through successive conceptual phases (Preparations, Procedures, Processes, and Propositions); advance through levels and action beats in each of these phases; master challenges (conceptual tasks) and overcome level bosses (design decisions) that become successively harder; collect items (fulfilled documentation tasks); and “win” the game by having progressed from a raw, initial idea to a full-fledged, polished game treatment. Additional resources for the book are available at ludotronics.net. This book is designed to support junior and senior year BA or MA students in game design programs, as well as novice indie developers and those in the early stages of their game design career.

Download or read book The English Convict Hulks 1600s 1868 written by Mick Davis and published by Pen and Sword History. This book was released on 2024-07-30 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Britain had eased its problem of crowded jails and surplus criminals by packing them into ships and sending them off to the American colonies to be sold as what nearly amounted to slave labor. All this came to an end with the revolution of 1776 and the legal system was stuck with an ever-increasing army of desperate felons. As there was no national prison system, these felons were crammed on to derelict sailing ships, the hulks, and put to hard labor in appalling conditions, mainly along the rivers Thames and Medway. Their story has been largely ignored by generations of historians and here, for the first time, detailed accounts of their plight, along with the lives and careers of the quite extraordinary men who ruled over them, is examined. Duncan Campbell, for instance, was the ship's captain and plantation owner who first organized the hulk system, and Aaron Graham the magistrate who spied upon, and then defended, the leader of the Nore mutiny and employed William Bligh of the Bounty mutiny to captain his ships. There are biographies of some of the colorful rogues, children and gentleman thieves who were crammed together and condemned to spend years in despair, starvation and degradation, often with their arms and legs manacled and subject to vicious punishments for minor infringements of the regulations. In theory, the hulks were simply holding pens until convicts could be shipped off to the new colonies in Australia, but many sentenced to be transported for terms of between seven years to life were destined to serve most of, if not all, their term onboard. Those that did make it to the other side of the world after a harrowing journey were seldom better off and their story is told in the final chapter.

Download or read book In This Vale of Tears written by Gerard Charles Wilson and published by Gerard Charles Wilson Publisher. This book was released on with total page 383 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Revised 2023 MYSTERY ROMANCE AND THE OCCULT Virginia Pearson and the beautiful Aine O’Riordan are among a group of young women entering the convent of the Sisters of the Suffering Saviour. Strange happenings torment the sensitive and withdrawn Aine O’Riordan. Virginia tries to comfort her, but dark mysterious events force Aine out of the convent. With deep sorrow she leaves behind her dear friend to deal with the unexplained happenings and an atmosphere of foreboding that seems to infect the life of the convent. Virginia (later Sister Agnes), suspicious of fellow postulant Margaret McGuigan’s (later Sister Catherine) role in this, enters into a barely suppressed conflict with her through their religious training to their university course in 1962. The intrusion of Virginia Pearson’s former fiancé – and senior lecturer Dr Philip Stevenson – into her life as Sister Agnes adds an unexpected problem. Meanwhile, Aine has been lured into the world of fashion modelling and appears unaware of where personable photographer Harry is leading her. She unwittingly plays a connecting role in the deepening conflict and the continuing mysteries that see Virginia and Aine each rushing towards a crisis. The CONCILIAR SERIES will consist of at least six connected but stand-alone stories. The themes of the ‘Goddess’, neo-paganism, and Gnosticism are threads to greater or lesser degrees through the stories. The historical, political, and ideological background is the cultural revolution the 1960s and 1970s (1965-1975) and the Second Vatican Council. The author who lived through those times recreates its atmosphere. Book 1 TIMES OF DISTRESS Book 2 IN THIS VALE OF TEARS Revised 2023 Book 3 COUNTERCULTURE DREAMS, due 2024 Book 4 THE CASTLE OF HEAVENLY BLISS, revised and republished 2022

Download or read book Criminal Visions written by Paul Mason and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Media representations of law and order are matters of keen public interest and have been the subject of intense debate amongst those with an interest in the media, crime and criminal justice. Despite being an increasingly high profile subject few publications address this subject head on. This book aims to meet this need by bringing together an important range of papers from leading researchers in the field, addressing issues of fictional, factual and hybrid representations in the media -the so called 'docu-dramas' and 'faction'.

Download or read book The Prison Hulk Success written by and published by . This book was released on 1893 with total page 16 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Voices from Captivity written by Robert C. Doyle and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Doyle shows that, though setting and circumstances may change, POW stories share a common structure and are driven by similar themes. Capture, incarceration, isolation, propaganda, torture, capitulation or resistance, death, spiritual quest, escape, liberation and repatriation are recurrent key motifs in these narratives.

Download or read book Seeking the Divine Spark written by Gerard Charles Wilson and published by Gerard Charles Wilson Publisher. This book was released on 2011-12 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Paul Martin is not sure what he is, where he is going, and who he is going with – until he meets Persephone Stickx with whom he falls in love. Super confident modern Persephone is determined to lead Paul to inner enlightenment through the divine feminine. Paul meets Persephone when friend property dealer Brad brings Persephone and her partner Hayden to Paul’s house in the pristine hinterland, a haven for environmentalists and counterculture enthusiasts. Persephone and Hayden show a keen interest in an old religious picture Paul bought at the local market. They say the picture represents bondage for Paul. They want to help Paul break that bondage. Their enthusiasm to help intensifies when they learn Paul knows Fr Robbie Pleasance, who is before the courts for the sexual abuse of a minor. Paul was in a relationship with the priest, and he needs to act. They enlist brilliant lawyer Aleta Broadbent. To lead a reluctant Paul to inner enlightenment, Persephone and Hayden expose him to a ritual that aims to expose the divine feminine. But it does not go as Persephone plans. The ritual fails. Instead of Persephone leading Paul to the divine feminine, she finds her growing affection for Paul leading her away from her salvific task. Hayden sees the relationship sabotaging their enterprise and breaks it up. Paul is despairing. By this time, a band of media people and lawyers pursuing clerical sexual abuse is circling Paul. What can he do to escape Aleta’s manipulation and the media’s attention and have Persephone with him again? The barriers seem invincible as he drawn farther into a vortex of a national media frenzy over the alleged abuse of a minor by the city’s Catholic archbishop.

Download or read book THE TELECARD AFFAIR written by Gerard Charles Wilson and published by Gerard Charles Wilson Publisher. This book was released on 2024-04-11 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In October 2000, The Canberra Times broke a story about the misuse of Liberal MP Peter Reith’s government funded Telecard. The card was for member’s personal use to have access to a public telephone when no other telephone was available. Mobile phones at the time were not in common use. Unauthorized calls to the tune of $50,000 had been rung up on the Workplace Relations Minister’s Telecard after he had given his son, Paul Reith, the card’s PIN in contravention of the Remuneration Tribunal’s guidelines. For more than two weeks the media was in uproar, smelling the blood of a hardnose conservative politician. Editorial writers, political commentators, and radio talkback hosts charged Reith with the Telecard’s misuse. This was another case, they said, of a rorting politician coming to grief over his all too frequent nose in the trough. The author took a different view. In the opening chapter of The Telecard Affair: Diary of a Media Lynching Second Edition, he writes: ‘While the media and the Labor Party had Peter Reith battered and strung up as a public warning, I will argue that the Telecard Affair is not about former Workplace Relations Minister, Peter Reith. It is not about MPs’ rorts. It is not about the usual ‘snouts in the trough.’ It is essentially about the media as the sharpest corrupting influence in our social and political life. It is about those media groups who function as amoral commercial enterprises. It is about journalists who betray their calling and are seduced, or coerced, by people who rule themselves according to their materialist objectives. It is about the slow death of public justice.’ The Telecard Affair was a paradigm case of the media’s irresponsible and ideologically driven misuse of their disproportionate power in the state. The author’s analysis of the media’s reporting of the Telecard Affair is unrelenting and targets some well-known media figures. He has undertaken a thorough revision of the text and added further comment to the political uproar of twenty-three years ago.

Download or read book The Castle of Heavenly Bliss written by Gerard Charles Wilson and published by Gerard Charles Wilson Publisher. This book was released on 2022-08-10 with total page 425 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: MYSTERY AND SUSPENSE Revised 2022 It is 1975. GERDA VROUWENDIJK, under the name of Edith Bicknell, arrives in the isolated rural town of Binawarra to take up a teaching position in the local high school. Ms. Vrouwendijk is confident she can keep her disguise and purpose hidden, as well as her sinister connections. But she has not reckoned on Florence Barker. Independent Miss Barker, of mature age, outwardly severe, and feared by the townspeople (‘you will call me Miss Barker’), is not at all what she seems. Nor has the memory of a brief meeting fifteen years earlier in Middelburg, Holland, with the crippled local priest, Fr van Engelen, come back to Ms. Vrouwendijk. These slips in her otherwise meticulous planning will prove critical. Canny Miss Barker and Fr van Engelen set about discovering what Edith Bicknell is doing in their obscure little country town, and why she has an interest in the beautiful, outwardly aloof Estella Winterbine. Her motivations appear ideological but what the ideology is exactly is a mystery. A tense game of cat and mouse follows as Ms. Vrouwendijk’s manipulation of people and events becomes ever more complex. When a senior teacher is found dead at the bottom of a peak (called Death Rock by the local youth), and the local newspaper begins attacking staid Bill Huckerby, the principal of Binawarra High School, Ms. Vrouwendijk’s plans – whatever their aim – seem to have an unstoppable momentum. Then Estella goes missing. Former SAS captain and Vietnam veteran, Geoffrey Shawcross, sets off in a pursuit that takes him across the world to France and then to the Castle of Heavenly Bliss in the Dutch province of Zeeland. Mystery and thrill go together as Geoff searches for the girl he has fallen in love with. The CONCILIAR SERIES consists of eight connected but stand-alone stories. The themes of the ‘Goddess’, neo-paganism, the occult, and Gnosticism are threads through the stories. The Second Vatican Council and the cultural revolution of the 1960s and 1970s (1965-1975) form the background. The author strives to recreate the atmosphere of the times. The first book in the series was TIMES OF DISTRESS, the Second book, FEELINGS DIE NOT IN SILENCE, and the third DESCENT IN TO HADES: A SPIRITUAL JOURNEY, then comes COUNTERCULTURE DREAMS, book 4, due late 2022, followed by THE END OF HOPE, book 5, due early 2023. Extensively revised THE CASTLE OF HEAVENLY BLISS book 6 is republished August 2022.