Yay! I found one of my favorite childhood books, online!

I had been searching for an out-of-print book that was one of my favorites when I was a missionary's kid in Beirut, Lebanon, circa 1966.

"The Red Knights from Hy Brasil," by Christine Savery, was about a missionary family who has to spend a summer with relatives in Ireland. They meet an intriguing boy named Shane O'Coghlin, who some of the folks in this little Irish village believe is the second coming of the legendary Irish hero, Cuchulain.

The kids learn lessons about faith along the way, and Shane ends up realizing he's just a normal boy who needs Jesus.

This book captured my imagination as a child, and sparked my love of all things Irish which endures to this day.

Anyway... I did a Google search and found a British publishing company (Lutterworth Press) that has a few Savery titles available...apparently, Christine's sister Constance was also a prolific writer.

I e-mailed Lutterworth and got a very nice reply from an Adrian Brink there. He told me that Lutterworth did not publish the book,
but he gave me the name of the publishing company that did...Children's Special Service Mission. Armed with that info, I
was able to do another Google Search that led me to the following British used book site:

http://www.abebooks.co.uk

They have three available copies! Yay!!!

I can't describe the little surge of happiness I felt when I clicked
on that page and saw: "Matches found--3".

A used but nice copy its way to me now, and ended up costing about 14 American dollars, including shipping.

Obviously, old and obscure books ARE out there, and the Internet has made it easier than ever to find them.

 

Yeah, I'm really looking forward to reading it again! I'm the type of person who reads favorite books over and over again. I can't even begin to estimate how many times I've read "Jane Eyre."

When I was a missionary's kid in Lebanon...long, long years ago!...we didn't have TV, and that proved to be very beneficial for us. We read and played constantly. Every birthday and Christmas I got books.

Beirut at that time had several wonderful bookstores...there was a lot of British and French influence on the city at that time. Most of the bookstores were filled with books published in England, and I went to a British school for the last part of the third grade and all of the fourth grade. (I can still dredge up a pretty good British accent, especially after watching a British movie ).

I can remember going to bookstores and just reveling in the sights and smells of books. To this day, I love the scent of a bookstore!

An interesting note about British fiction books at that time...I don't know if this is still the case, and maybe there's someone on the board here from England who could tell me. Dialogue was punctuated by just one instead of two quotation marks, like so:

'I'm so happy to get my new book!' said Cindy.

I wonder if it's still like that. Also, reading the posts of Canadians, like Ransom, really brings back memories of reading British books because of the spelling of things like flavour, labour, humour, etc.

Since being an MK in Lebanon and going to a British school, I've been something of an Anglophile. One of my fondest dreams is to visit England, Ireland and Scotland. Well, all of the UK...I'll throw in Wales too!

Cindy

http://www.crossspot.net/cindyswanson

 

Thanks, Gina. Your post was so encouraging. I am kicking around the possibility of trying to get some things published...it's just a matter of DOING it. Easier said than done.

Funny you should mention "Fiddler on the Roof"...I just watched that with my 16-year-old daughter a couple of weeks ago. She had never seen it, and she loves musicals. Topol, the guy who played Tevye, was amazing! I loved it when he would talk to God. Loved "If I Were a Rich Man." I could definitely identify with the lines:

"Lord who made the lion and the lamb,
You decreed I should be what I am--
Would it spoil some vast, eternal plan,
If I were a wealthy man?"

Also...about movies being like or not like the book...wow, I couldn't believe how much the "Lord of the Rings" books were exactly how I pictured them! Amazing.

Not so with other books. All of the screen versions of "Jane Eyre" have pretty much failed to live up to the version in my mind. I did like the PBS version of "Pride and Prejudice," though.

I heard a funny comment by a comedian the other day, who was talking about how he doesn't like to read (something I totally can't relate to, but it was funny anyway). He was talking about how when a movie comes out that's based on a book, people who read the book will snobbishly say, "Oh, the book was SOOOO much better!" The comedian says he'll say, "Well, you know what I liked about the movie? NO READING!"

BTW, my daughter recently read "To Kill a Mockingbird," then rented the movie. She was absolutely blown away by Gregory Peck's portrayal of Atticus Finch, and she was very pleased with Robert Duvall as Boo Radley (Duvall's first screen role, for trivia buffs.)

I also read To Kill a Mockingbird for the first time this past summer, and loved it. Haven't seen the movie yet, but I did picture Atticus as Gregory Peck all along.