Brian Gilberthorpe

Books (87)

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- A Deep And Subtle Joy (1)
- Life at Quarr Abbey
- By Tony Hendra, Luke Bell
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A Deep And Subtle Joy

What do monks do? What is the meaning of and purpose of what they do? If you are looking for the answers to these questions, you will find them in this book, and more besides. You will be welcomed by the author to the beautiful Quarr Abbey on the Isle of Wight in England, and shown around the monast ... (continue)

What do monks do? What is the meaning of and purpose of what they do? If you are looking for the answers to these questions, you will find them in this book, and more besides. You will be welcomed by the author to the beautiful Quarr Abbey on the Isle of Wight in England, and shown around the monastery with an explanation of the meaning of every place and every time for the spiritual life of the monks. The meanings of the signs of nature are complemented with corresponding quotations from the signs of revelation. The book is written in a very appealing, simple and direct way, and contains some touching anecdotes from the personal life of the author. At a time when there are so many misleading and deviant books masquerading as spiritual treatises, it is a joy to find a completely orthodox contemporary spiritual work. It has a general message that goes beyond the cloistered life. It is not at all difficult to read, as the spiritual content is woven into your stay at the monastery, as you are guided through the places of interest there. Quarr was also a special place of prayer for three hundred years in the middle ages, and the author often speaks of the blessing from the prayers of the monks of the original monastery there. At the end of the book we are standing together on the shore of the sea pondering on the beauty to be found on the island, and the uncreated beauty of God.

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— Jul 18, 2011 | Add your feedback
- Life! Death! Prizes! (1)
- By Stephen May
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Life! Death! Prizes!

Billy's Mum is dead. He knows - because he reads about it in magazines - that people die every day in ways that are more random and tragic and stupid than hers, but for nineteen-year-old Billy and his little brother, Oscar, their mother's death in a bungled street robbery is the most random and trag ... (continue)

Billy's Mum is dead. He knows - because he reads about it in magazines - that people die every day in ways that are more random and tragic and stupid than hers, but for nineteen-year-old Billy and his little brother, Oscar, their mother's death in a bungled street robbery is the most random and tragic and stupid thing that could possibly have happened to them. Now Billy must be both mother and father to Oscar, and despite what his well-meaning aunt, the PTA mothers, the social services and Oscar's own prodigal father all think, he knows he is more than up to the job, thank you very much. The boys' new world, where bedtimes are arbitrary, tidiness is optional and healthy home-cooked meals pile up uneaten in the freezer, is built out of chaos and fierce love, but it's also a world that teeters perilously on its axis. And as Billy's obsession with his mother's missing killer grows, he risks losing sight of the one thing that really matters.

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— May 18, 2012 | Add your feedback
- You Are Here (1)
- By Jennifer E. Smith
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You Are Here

Emma Healy has never fit in with the rest of her family. She's grown used to being the only ordinary one among her rather extraordinary parents and siblings. But when she finds a birth certificate for a twin brother she never knew she had, along with a death certificate dated just two days later, sh ... (continue)

Emma Healy has never fit in with the rest of her family. She's grown used to being the only ordinary one among her rather extraordinary parents and siblings. But when she finds a birth certificate for a twin brother she never knew she had, along with a death certificate dated just two days later, she feels like a part of her has been justified in never feeling quite whole. Suddenly it seems important to visit his grave, to set off in search of her missing half. When her next-door neighbour Peter Finnegan -- who has a quiet affinity for maps and a desperate wish to escape their small town -- ends up coming along for the ride, Emma thinks they can't possibly have anything in common. But as they head from upstate New York toward North Carolina, driving a beat-up and technically stolen car and picking up a stray dog along the way, they find themselves learning more and more about each other. Neither is exactly sure what they're looking for, but with each passing mile, each new day of this journey, they seem to be getting much closer to finding it.

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— May 14, 2012 | Add your feedback
- The Revelations (2)
- By Alex Preston
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The Revelations

A group of young people are searching for meaning in a dark and directionless world. The Course, a religious movement led by a charismatic priest, seems at first to offer everything the friends have been looking for: a community of bright, thoughtful, beautiful people. But as they are drawn deeper i ... (continue)

A group of young people are searching for meaning in a dark and directionless world. The Course, a religious movement led by a charismatic priest, seems at first to offer everything the friends have been looking for: a community of bright, thoughtful, beautiful people. But as they are drawn deeper into the Course, money, sex and God collide, threatening to rip them apart. This gripping novel of ideas lays bare a world where the advancement of a movement becomes more important than the lives of its followers.

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— Apr 23, 2012 | Add your feedback
- Shadowstory (1)
- By Jennifer Johnston
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Shadowstory

It is the Second World War, and tragedy strikes many families in Ireland. But it is also a thrilling time in which to be a child and Polly, spending months at her grandparents' house by the sea, barely notices the adults' grief and their efforts to escape the tyranny of religion and family expectat ... (continue)

It is the Second World War, and tragedy strikes many families in Ireland. But it is also a thrilling time in which to be a child and Polly, spending months at her grandparents' house by the sea, barely notices the adults' grief and their efforts to escape the tyranny of religion and family expectation. However, in time Polly too will have a secret. No one else knows the location of her beloved uncle, Sam, barely older than Polly herself, who is meant to be in Cambridge but is dreaming of Communist Cuba, while his decimated family fears losing another son. And, as Polly shyly approaches womanhood, her love for Sam turns into something more explosive.

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— Apr 10, 2012 | Add your feedback

- Hinterland (1)
- By Caroline Brothers
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Hinterland

It is night, and two boys are crossing a river that is also a border. They have nothing but the clothes on their backs, their inheritance stitched into the lining of a belt, and the courage of an enormous gamble: that Europe will offer them a future they can no longer wait for in Afghanistan. Travel ... (continue)

It is night, and two boys are crossing a river that is also a border. They have nothing but the clothes on their backs, their inheritance stitched into the lining of a belt, and the courage of an enormous gamble: that Europe will offer them a future they can no longer wait for in Afghanistan. Travelling by truck, by boat, by train, by bus and on foot, Aryan and his younger brother Kabir have embarked on an epic journey, clinging to an itinerary they repeat like a mantra so as not to lose their way: KabulTehranIstanbulAthensRomeParisLondon. There are moments of wonder and adventure but also battles against cold, heat, hunger, violence and exhaustion. Whether they are harvesting half-frozen oranges in Greece, or hiding behind a false wall on a truck to Italy, or sleeping under the rafters of a sawmill in France, the brothers are exploited for their labour, hustled for their money and ignored by almost everyone, except the police. Hinterland is a novel about two children in the aftermath of trauma; underage, homeless and invisible in a foreign land. It shows what happens.

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— Feb 28, 2012 | Add your feedback
- The Sense of an Ending (166)
- By Julian Barnes
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The Sense of an Ending

Tony Webster and his clique first met Adrian Finn at school. Sex-hungry and book-hungry, they would navigate the girl-less sixth form together, trading in affectations, in-jokes, rumour and wit. Maybe Adrian was a little more serious than the others, certainly more intelligent, but they all swore to ... (continue)

Tony Webster and his clique first met Adrian Finn at school. Sex-hungry and book-hungry, they would navigate the girl-less sixth form together, trading in affectations, in-jokes, rumour and wit. Maybe Adrian was a little more serious than the others, certainly more intelligent, but they all swore to stay friends for life. Now Tony is in middle age. He's had a career and a single marriage, a calm divorce. He's certainly never tried to hurt anybody. Memory, though, is imperfect. It can always throw up surprises, as a lawyer's letter is about to prove. The Sense of an Ending is the story of one man coming to terms with the mutable past.

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— Feb 23, 2012 | Add your feedback
The Golden Grey
- The Golden Grey (1)
- West Coasters 1860-2010
- By Tony Kokshoorn
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The Golden Grey

Since gold was discovered during the 1860s, the West Coast of the Southern Alps has had many battles with Mother Nature. Our coal fired the furnaces that industrialised New Zealand and Westland's timber helped build the nation. This book celebrates 150 years of the last frontier, the discoveries, th ... (continue)

Since gold was discovered during the 1860s, the West Coast of the Southern Alps has had many battles with Mother Nature. Our coal fired the furnaces that industrialised New Zealand and Westland's timber helped build the nation. This book celebrates 150 years of the last frontier, the discoveries, the wealth, storms, hardships, protests, murders, shipwrecks, disasters, good times and laughter; all moulding the landscape and its people into character of its own. Welcome to this place we call home. Put the billy on, sit back and let West Coasters tell you of a journey which carved a special chapter in New Zealand's history.

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— Feb 8, 2012 | Add your feedback
Pionee-
rs of Matins Bay
- Pioneers of Matins Bay (1)
- The Story of New Zealand's Most Remote Settlement
- By Alice McKenzie
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Pioneers of Matins Bay

Personal record by Alice McKenzie (later Mrs Peter Mackenzie) of her pioneering days in a remote south-west corner of New Zealand. She was two years old when her family moved from Hokitika to Jackson Bay in 1875, and three in 1876 when they arrived at Jamestown, the stllement on the shore of Lake Mc ... (continue)

Personal record by Alice McKenzie (later Mrs Peter Mackenzie) of her pioneering days in a remote south-west corner of New Zealand. She was two years old when her family moved from Hokitika to Jackson Bay in 1875, and three in 1876 when they arrived at Jamestown, the stllement on the shore of Lake McKerrow. Two years later, they moved their home nearer to the beach at Martins Bay. Alice left Martins Bay in the early 1900s and married Peter Mackenzie in 1902, settling in Glenorchy.

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— Feb 7, 2012 | Add your feedback
- The German Boy (1)
- By Tricia Wastvedt
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The German Boy

In 1947, Elisabeth Mander's German nephew comes to stay: Stefan Landau, her dead sister's teenage son, whom she hates and loves before she's even set eyes on him. Orphaned by the war and traumatised by the last, vicious battles of the Hitler Youth, Stefan brings with him to England only a few meagre ... (continue)

In 1947, Elisabeth Mander's German nephew comes to stay: Stefan Landau, her dead sister's teenage son, whom she hates and loves before she's even set eyes on him. Orphaned by the war and traumatised by the last, vicious battles of the Hitler Youth, Stefan brings with him to England only a few meagre possessions. Among them a portrait of a girl with long copper hair by a young painter called Michael Ross - and with it the memory, both painful and precious, of her life and that time between the wars. Spanning decades and generations, The German Boy tells the moving story of two families entangled by love and friendship, divided by prejudice and war, and of a brief encounter between a woman and a man that touched each of their lives forever.

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— Feb 1, 2012 | Add your feedback

- Death comes to Pemberley (40)
- By P. D. James
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Death comes to Pemberley

The year is 1803, and Darcy and Elizabeth have been married for six years. There are now two handsome and healthy sons in the nursery, Elizabeth's beloved sister Jane and her husband Bingley live nearby and the orderly world of Pemberley seems unassailable. But all this is threatened when, on the ev ... (continue)

The year is 1803, and Darcy and Elizabeth have been married for six years. There are now two handsome and healthy sons in the nursery, Elizabeth's beloved sister Jane and her husband Bingley live nearby and the orderly world of Pemberley seems unassailable. But all this is threatened when, on the eve of the annual autumn ball, the guests are preparing to retire for the night when a chaise appears, rocking down the path from Pemberley's wild woodland. As it pulls up, Lydia Wickham - Elizabeth's younger, unreliable sister - stumbles out screaming that her husband has been murdered.

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— Feb 1, 2012 | Add your feedback
- Adios, Nirvana (1)
- By Conrad Wesselhoeft
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Adios, Nirvana

As Seattle sixteen-year-old Jonathan helps a dying man come to terms with a tragic event he experienced during World War II, Jonathan begins facing his own demons, especially the death of his twin brother, helped by an assortment of friends, old and new.

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— Dec 14, 2011 | Add your feedback
- Notes From The Midnight Driver (6)
- By Jordan Sonnenblick
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Notes From The Midnight Driver

After being assigned to perform community service at a nursing home, sixteen-year-old Alex befriends a cantankerous old man who has some lessons to impart about jazz guitar playing, love, and forgiveness.

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— Nov 7, 2011 | Add your feedback
- The Silent One (1)
- The Moving Story of a Special Friendship
- By Joy Cowley
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The Silent One

On a Pacific island, a deaf-mute boy's devotion to a great turtle provokes prejudice and the anger of a superstitious shaman.

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— Feb 1, 2012 | Add your feedback
- Mystery in the Minster (1)
- (Chronicles of Matthew Bartholomew)
- By Susanna Gregory
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Mystery in the Minster

In 1358 the fledging college of Michaelhouse in Cambridge is in need of extra funds. A legacy from the Archbishop of York of a parish close to that city promises a welcome source of income. However, there has been another claim to its ownership and it seems the only way to settle the dispute is for ... (continue)

In 1358 the fledging college of Michaelhouse in Cambridge is in need of extra funds. A legacy from the Archbishop of York of a parish close to that city promises a welcome source of income. However, there has been another claim to its ownership and it seems the only way to settle the dispute is for a deputation from Michaelhouse to travel north. Matthew Bartholomew is among the small party which arrives in the bustling city, where the increasing wealth of the merchants is unsettling the established order, and where a French invasion is an ever-present threat to its port. But soon he and his colleagues learn that several of the Archbishop's executors have died in unexplained circumstances and that the codicil naming Michaelhouse as a beneficiary cannot be found.

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— Oct 6, 2011 | Add your feedback