Alexander Crombie

Beth swayed as she juggled the letters between trembling fingers. If she were to sling the hand-delivered letter in the waste bin unopened, would the nightmare go away? And what if she decided to become a fugitive from justice? She certainly could - October the 8th had seen to that. She had read of cases where the intervention of some disaster had made it possible for someone to go to ground, to simply disappear. Beth had survived, survived for some purpose, survived as a new individual to see things, people and places as if for the very first time. So it is that she thanks the god of coincidence that it was with Leo that she had shared that last compartment of the Liverpool train. Alexander Crombie weaves pathos, romance and high drama into this his fourth novel, which once again is set amidst the fogs and challenges of post-war Britain. While paying tribute to the victims and survivors of an historic event, he explores what it is like to be two of those survivors. Alexander Crombie is the author of 3 earlier novels: -- Become The Wind - 2021 The Eye Of The Clown - 2022 So Long Henry Bear - 2023

The success with which the principles of any art or science are investigated, is generally proportioned to the number of those, whose labours are directed to its cultivation and improvement. Inquiry is necessarily the parent of knowledge; error itself, proceeding from discussion, leads ultimately to the establishment of truth. The author indeed is fully persuaded, that it is impossible to examine the English language with any degree of critical accuracy, and not perceive, that its syntactical principles especially are yet but imperfectly illustrated, and that there are many of its idioms, which have entirely eluded the attention of our grammarians. That these defects are all supplied by the present work, the author is far from having the vanity to believe.

In his first two novels, Become The Wind and The Eye Of The Clown, Alexander Crombie drew heavily on his own life story to blend realism and pathos into tales that turn the page for his readers, inviting a second read. In this his third novel, and the third under the imprint of TSL Publications, the reader will find that he has broadened his canvas both in time and space. So Long Henry Bear tells the story of a coming-of-age through the heat and despair of prisoner of war camps, bridging the old and discredited world that bore our protagonist, and his survival into a new world. Along the way Lance loses a cherished friend and comrade in the most brutal of circumstances, while keeping hold of another faithful companion, and finding the will to survive. In this new world, Lance Donald discovers that dream can translate to reality, while outmoded social convention can be scrapped. Imbedded in the rapid evolving of country and countryside, So Long Henry Bear is at heart a love story, but a love story with many a twist and turn. Alexander Crombie lives in the English Midlands. He is married to Caroline, and they have three children.

Set mainly in England in the 1960s, and reflecting some of the attitudes of the time, this compelling story challenges the choice between "difference" and "assimilation", using the image of a clown as metaphor. In his debut novel, Become The Wind, Alexander Crombie drew heavily on his experience of sight loss. While The Eye of a Clown is not at all a sequel to Become The Wind, it does have in common, the impact of loss, and the unexpected ways by which loss is dealt with, and ultimately understood. The author's protagonists, Ralph and Melanie, each suffer extreme trauma. In Ralph's case, the agent is fire; in Melanie's case, the sudden death of her lover threatens to destroy her young life. As the story unfolds, each character is forced to face the mirror of pity as well as pain; yet the novel is far from downbeat. If Alexander Crombie's second novel is as well received as his first, this should prove he can entertain while at the same time tackle challenging subjects.

Literature is packed with impressions of blindness, whether graphic or symbolic. A handful of enduring characters has enriched our understanding and entertainment, yet most have been ill-informed or poorly imagined. In many cases the character has been used to oil the mechanism of a wider plot, rendering the characterisation incidental. What Alexander Crombie aims at in his debut novel, Become the Wind, is the inside story. With the help of an engaging cast of characters, he succeeds in fusing pathos and insight with episodes of high drama, but without attempting to lecture the Reader. This after all is a novel with the novel's imperative to TURN THE PAGE For entertainment value alone, it is a MUST READ.

The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration and rapidly growing technology and expanding record-keeping made possible by advances in the printing press. In its determination to preserve the century of revolution, Gale initiated a revolution of its own: digitization of epic proportions to preserve these invaluable works in the largest archive of its kind. Now for the first time these high-quality digital copies of original 18th century manuscripts are available in print, making them highly accessible to libraries, undergraduate students, and independent scholars. The Age of Enlightenment profoundly enriched religious and philosophical understanding and continues to influence present-day thinking. Works collected here include masterpieces by David Hume, Immanuel Kant, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, as well as religious sermons and moral debates on the issues of the day, such as the slave trade. The Age of Reason saw conflict between Protestantism and Catholicism transformed into one between faith and logic -- a debate that continues in the twenty-first century.++++The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification: ++++British LibraryT109696With an errata slip pasted on p.viii - With a half-title. London: printed for J. Johnson, 1793. 4], viii,508p.; 8

Title: Letters from Dr. J. G. in defence of his Essay on the difference of the relation between motive and action, and that of cause and effect in physics: with replies by A. Crombie. Publisher: British Library, Historical Print EditionsThe British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. It is one of the world's largest research libraries holding over 150 million items in all known languages and formats: books, journals, newspapers, sound recordings, patents, maps, stamps, prints and much more. Its collections include around 14 million books, along with substantial additional collections of manuscripts and historical items dating back as far as 300 BC. The HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY & ETHICS collection includes books from the British Library digitised by Microsoft. The works in this collection include expositions and scholarly analyses of philosophy and ethics for the earliest recorded Western religious and secular works. Documents concern prehistoric, medieval, and modern times, with background and historical narratives on Western thought. The collection provides insights into how philosophies have changed through history, what has driven these changes, and to what degree philosophical texts from prior eras are understood in the contemporary times of the authors. ++++The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification: ++++ British Library Gregory, James; Crombie, Alexander; 1819. 8 . 528.i.12.

Alexander Crombie (1762-1840) was born in Aberdeen and originally trained for the ministry, before running a private school and writing on such diverse topics as philosophy, education and Latin grammar. In his first published work, An Essay on Philosophical Necessity (1793), he defends the determinism of Priestley and Hume and attacks the libertarian views of Price, Reid and James Gregory. He returns to this theme in Letters from Dr. James Gregory...with Replies (1819), also published by Thoemmes Press.