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Described as 'mainly autobiographical' by Gallico, this is a collection of some of his short stories that appeared in American and British magazines, spanning the years from his very first which appeared in the Saturday Evening Post to later stories which reflected his life in Europe. Of course, there is always more to the tale than first appears. From where did the idea come? How much of the writer's personal life, personality and personal problems have got into the telling? For each story in this volume, Gallico has written a separate background. The tales herein: McKabe; Flood; Did You See The Coronation? The Roman Kid; The Witch Of Woonsapucket; Penntifer's Plan; Oh, Them Golden Mittens; Thief Is An Ugly Word; The Dowry; Verna; The Enchanted Doll; The Glass Door; The Awful Secret of M. Bonneval; The Hat; The Silver Swans; The Silent Hostages; Shut Up Little Dog; Love Is A Gimmick; The Lost Hour; Orchestrations for Twelfth Night. -
The small English travelling circus of Mr Marvel is stranded by disaster in a remote part of the seemingly limitless plain of La Mancha, in Spain. Mr Marvel returns to England to deal with the insurance problems; and the story is that of the members of the circus ""family" who are left to handle the animals of the menagerie, of the acts and the horses. Among this group of misfits is Rose, who chooses to stay with Toby of the equestrian troupe and Mr. Albert, who has taught her to love the wild animals as he does. Rose - despite her dubious morals - has managed to keep a strange kind of goodness and innocence, even when she sells the only commodity she owns to secure food for the animals. Then Mr. Albert and the dwarf Janos find that they too have something to sell - to the Marquesa, whose desperate plight can never find recompense in her fortune. This is a story of dark romance, disaster and eventual deliverance, cowardice and greed, compassion and cruelty, kindness and love - and told with brilliantly observed humour and pathos. -
Jennie: Paul Gallico
$8.00Gallico's fantasy story is of a young boy called Peter, who is knocked down by a car. To his considerable astonishment, when he recovers, he is not a young boy - he's a cat! Feeling very lonely, confused and lost, he meets Jennie, a cat who had been abandoned by her family when they moved away, who educates him in the wiles of the feline world. Will he stay a cat with Jennie, or return to being a human boy? But then he is challenged by Dempsey, a battle-scarred veteran and Peter must win... This is not necessarily a children's or teens' book - any reader will gain something from this story. -
This classic tale of simple faith by Paul Gallico begins: "Once there was a boy named Pepino who lived in the mountain town of Assisi. He had no mother. He had no father. He lived in a stable with his donkey, Violetta. Violetta was everything to Pepino." Then one day Violetta gets sick, and nothing seems to help. Pepino is sure that if he can just bring her into the crypt of Saint Francis, who loves all animals, she will get well. But can he convince the priests to let him try? If he can, it will be a miracle...Illustrated by Edgar Norfield. -
Professor Constable's only daughter was dead of leukaemia at the age of ten. Constable, a world famous scientist, was convinced that she was in communication with him beyond the grave. Were the 'spirit manifestations' of Mary Constable a depraved and cunning confidence game? Or were they as they appeared to be - genuine? AS Constable was a key Government scientist working on a project of world-shaking importance, Washington sent Alexander Hero, chief investigator for the British Society for Psychical Research. Working against time, Hero sees the evidence that had convinced the Professor - a translucent, hollow, seamless wax hand, complete with identifiable finger prints - the hand of Mary Constable. With each passing hour, the spirit of Mary seemed to be literally sapping her father's will, driving him to abandon work on Operation Foxglove, vital to the defence of the West. Alone in New York, surrounded by officials who regarded him with suspicion, Hero had to expose the spirit-daughter as a diabolical hoax. Suddenly he found an ally - a beautiful girl as well-versed in professional magic as Hero was in psychic phenomena. Hero had only seconds to decide - and the wrong decision would cost him his life. -
Magonius Sucatus Patricius was a wild, carefree undisciplined Romano-British boy living in south-west Britain toward the end of the fourth century. The legions had been recalled to Rome; Christianity, the official religion of the Empire was in the ascendancy and the Empire itself was breaking apart. When he was sixteen, Patricius visited his family's seaside estate and was carried off by Irish sea raiders to endure six years as a slave, shepherd and swineherd in the pagan wilderness of Northern Ireland . He escaped and after many adventures in France made his way home to Britain. Thirty years later - now a Bishop - Patricius again braved the hostile shores of Ireland to begin the most courageous conversion in the history of Christianity: that of a nation devoted to Celtic Gods and Druidism. Gallico presents the reader with St. Patrick with reason backed with evidence, without recourse to the more dramatic myths that surround him and weaving in excerpts from two extant sources: Confession and Letter to Coroticus to separate fact from legend. A balanced portrait of the extraordinary Saint. -
The Lonely: Paul Gallico
$15.00A tale of two lonely souls trying to reach out to one of their kind in order to feel completeness. Jerry, a much-loved only child, grows up in Long Island and is happy to marry his childhood sweetheart. But the Second World War intervenes and he is stationed in England, far from home. About to go on furlough to Scotland, he invites Patches, a WAAF - no strings attached, they have a wonderful time, and part with a handshake as agreed. He finds that what he feels for Patches is real - but will they ever see each other again? On his journey from boy to man, he realizes that there's more to it than growing a dashing moustache or going with girls. Once he returns home, he struggles, realising that he loves Patches, that his parents and his fiancee have invested so much in the plans they had made for a future - and they have no way of understanding that his experiences in both love and war have changed him for life. The emotional turmoil which each character undergoes has been written brilliantly and makes the book worth reading. In spite of its slow pace, there is never a dull moment. For each action that is taken, a justification is given, which makes it even more difficult for the reader to decide what can be the end of the story. A most vivid description of the characters and their thoughts makes the reader literally go under the skin of each and relive their moments time and again. -
The small English travelling circus of Mr Marvel is stranded by disaster in a remote part of the seemingly limitless plain of La Mancha, in Spain. Mr Marvel returns to England to deal with the insurance problems; and the story is that of the members of the circus ""family" who are left to handle the animals of the menagerie, of the acts and the horses. Among this group of misfits is Rose, who chooses to stay with Toby of the equestrian troupe and Mr. Albert, who has taught her to love the wild animals as he does. Rose - despite her dubious morals - has managed to keep a strange kind of goodness and innocence, even when she sells the only commodity she owns to secure food for the animals. Then Mr. Albert and the dwarf Janos find that they too have something to sell - to the Marquesa, whose desperate plight can never find recompense in her fortune. This is a story of dark romance, disaster and eventual deliverance, cowardice and greed, compassion and cruelty, kindness and love - and told with brilliantly observed humour and pathos. -
Gallico makes a return to his earlier style - the small boy armoured in innocence and faith, as made famous by The Small Miracle. The odyssey of nine-year-old Julian West leads him across the country from San Diego, California to Washington on a lonely and courageous venture to patent his invention. He meets a man who offers him help and companionship - at a price. But like Christian in Bunyan's A Pilgrim's Progress, Julian knows not friend or enemy, but marches steadily through a series of fantastic situations and all-too-real dangers. If these perils are conquered by innocence when Julian's private world is shattered at the end of the Journey, Julian is ready - for he is no longer a child.
