Barset Revisited

In this spirited but faithful sequel to Anthony Trollope's "The Last Chronicle of Barset" we carry on from where the great Victorian novelist so frustratingly left off. We meet all our old favourites again - Archdeacon Grantly, Bishop Proudie, Glendora and Planty Pall, and the Reverend Josiah Crawley among others. But most of all, this is the continuing love story of Johnny Eames, the poor clerk, and Lily Dale, the squire's daughter. Johnny has already proved his love twice, in "The Small House at Allington" and "The Last Chronicle of Barset". Will this be a case of third time lucky?

Ronald McGowan was born longer ago than he cares to remember in what is now the city of Sunderland, in northeast England, but then was the largest shipbuilding town in the world. He attended the local grammar school, turned down a scholarship to Cambridge University because of the conditions imposed, and did a Classics degree at Durham University instead. He had to abandon a Ph.D. course at Yale University because of abject poverty and the sheer necessity of earning a living . After failing to do so for two years as a teacher, he took refuge in the Civil Service, where he adorned the Administrative Grade for nearly thirty years before retiring early to get a life. He was part of his school team when they won the BBC ＂Top of the Form＂ quiz in 1961, and since then has been on the Durham University ＂University Challenge＂ team and the prestigious ＂Mastermind＂ quiz programme in the days when both those shows lived up their reputations. (University Challenge these days is a science quiz with a few other questions thrown in to maintain the pretense of being general knowledge, while Mastermind has degenerated to trivia.) He has also published ＂Pride Unprejudiced＂, a retelling of Jane Austen’s famous story from the point of view of her despised clergyman, Mr. Collins, and ＂What I did in my Holidays＂, a story of growing-up in his native Northeast. He lives near Liverpool with his wife of over forty years, and would be quite pleased and absolutely amazed to hear that anyone actually liked any of his books.