Books by A. J. Cronin

Adventures in Two Worlds - an autobiographical novel by A J Cronin, creator of television's Dr Finlay and author of The Citadel and many other bestsellers. A master storyteller, A J Cronin presents possibly his most fascinating tale. Taking material directly from his own life, he tells of the early struggles of a poor medical student in Scotland, the cruel crushing of all hopes of becoming a surgeon, the years as a ship's doctor and, later, life in the country practice that was the real Tannochbrae. There are many strange twists and turns - not the least of them the dramatic move from the world of medicine into that of literature when a novel 'written despairingly on twopenny exercise books, thrown out and rescued from the rubbish heap' was accepted by a publisher. And with Hatter's Castle a new career was born.

Dr Finlay's Casebook brings together Adventures of a Black Bag and Dr Finlay of Tannochbrae, A. J. Cronin's two hugely popular collections featuring his most famous creation, Dr Finlay.Set in and around the fictional Scottish town of Levenford and village of Tannochbrae during the inter-war years, the stories found here are heart-warming, funny and touching, full of fascinating characters and unforgettable encounters. Made famous by the much-loved adaptations for radio and television, the classic tales of Dr Finlay, his senior colleague Dr Cameron, and their unruffled housekeeper Janet, remain as fresh and entertaining now as they were upon first publication.

The poignant sequel to A Song of Sixpence The clinic stood high on an Alpine slope. Lush meadows, studded with autumn crocus, sloped steeply down. Across the valley, above the pinewoods, the high peaks were already dusted with snow. Like a toy railway, the line to Davos twisted and turned up along the mountain side. Laurence Carroll breathed in the pure, clear air. A wonderful place, a not-too-demanding job as resident doctor to the convalescent children flown out from England; it was a million miles from his Scottish childhood, the struggles to qualify and the grinding, poverty-stricken years as a young GP in the Welsh mining valleys. He was relaxed. Happy. But, soon to arrive at Zurich, a woman he had once known well, now a widowed mother, was to bring with her all the turmoil and anguish of his early years, flooding back into his casually ordered life.

The famous Dr Finlay stories Adventures of a Black Bag represents a selection of A J Cronin's best stories - stories which are tragic, funny and wry, each revolving around two doctors whose tremendously popular TV and radio series have made them household names: Dr Cameron and Dr Finlay. These stories have that universal appeal which has become A J Cronin's trademark, established by bestsellers such as Hatter's Castle, The Stars Look Down and The Citadel.

Destiny brings two lonely people together in this moving love story by A J Cronin, one of the master story-tellers of our time. Dr Harvey Leith, brilliant research scientist, awakes from a drunken stupor to find himself aboard a liner bound for the romantic Canary Islands. His past life is in ruins, and his hopes for the future are shattered. But he meets the lovely Mary Fielding on the ship, also looking for a new purpose in her life. It seems to her that they have met somewhere before, in some other place, and that they are meant for each other. There is only one problem - she is already married. Dr Leith's life becomes inextricably involved with those of the other passengers and he gradually begins to forget the bitterness of the past. In the sultry atmosphere of Grand Canary he finds he has to conquer himself to achieve happiness.

The Stars Look Down was A.J. Cronin's fourth novel, published in 1935, and this tale of a North country mining family was a great favourite with his readers. Robert Fenwick is a miner, and so are his three sons. His wife is proud that all her four men go down the mines. But David, the youngest, is determined that somehow he will educate himself and work to ameliorate the lives of his comrades who ruin their health to dig the nation's coal. It is, perhaps, a typical tale of the era in which it was written - there were many novels about coal mining, but Cronin, a doctor turned author, had a gift for storytelling, and in his time wrote several very popular and successful novels In the magnificent narrative tradition of The Citadel, Hatter's Castle and Cronin's other novels, The Stars Look Down is deservedly remembered as a classic of its age.

A book which inspired the creation of the NHS, The Citadel is a moving story of tragedy, triumph and redemption. With a foreword by Adam Kay, the bestselling author of This is Going to Hurt.When newly qualified doctor Andrew Manson takes up his first post in a Welsh mining community, the young Scot brings with him a bagful of idealism and enthusiasm. Both are soon strained to the limit as Andrew discovers the reality of performing operations on a kitchen table and washing in a scullery, of unspeakable sanitation, of common infantile cholera and systemic corruption. There are no X-rays, no ambulances - nothing to combat the disease and poverty.It isn't long before Andrew's outspoken manner wins him both friends and enemies, but he risks losing his idealism when the fashionable, greedy world of London medicine claims him, with its private clinics, wealthy, spoilt patients and huge rewards.A classic saga by A. J. Cronin, one of the great masters of the genre.

When Mr Harrington Brande moves himself and his precious young son Nicholas to a grand house in the deserted Spanish town of San Jorge he is planning on a fresh start for the two of them. And only the two of them. For Mr Harrington Brande is a proud man and a jealous man. His beloved wife has recently fled his stifling love and now Brande has transferred all of his adoration onto Nicholas. He monitors his son's every move and is obsessed with ensuring that the bond between them is stronger than ever. But history begins to repeat itself when Nicholas befriends the gardener Jose. Jose is like no one Nicholas has ever met before and he instantly holds him in high regard. Brande does not take too kindly to having to vie for his son's attention with the Spanish gardener, and becomes increasingly suspicious of his rival. Encouraged by his butler, Garcia, Brande becomes convinced that Jose is not the person he pretends to be. Blinded by love and jealousy, how far will Brande go to secure his son's affections? In the magnificent narrative tradition of The Citadel, The Stars Look Down and Cronin's other classic novels, The Spanish Gardener is a great book by a much-loved author.

Three Loves is yet another Cronin masterpiece. A powerful and moving novel which draws the reader into a passionate and tragic world of intense relationships. Lucy Moore, a happy and loving wife, suddenly finds her family security shattered by the arrival of another woman. Although she weathers this storm, cruel Fate has a further twist of the knife for her. Yet she heroically pursues her search for a great love amid hardships which inspire any reader with real sympathy - a sympathy which deepens as Lucy moves towards her final and most tragic discovery. In the magnificent narrative tradition of The Citadel, The Stars Look Down and Cronin's other classic novels, Three Loves is a great book by a much-loved author.

Henry Page, owner of The Northern Light, the oldest and most respected newspaper in Tynecastle, is offered a vast sum to turn over control to a mass-circulation group based in London. He refuses - despite entreaties by his wife to accept - and so begins his fight with the Chronicle, an almost defunct newspaper in the same area which is given new life by London-thinking and London men. Against Henry Page, a journalist who believes in honest presentation of news without bringing in sensationalism, the Chronicle pulls every dirty trick in the trade. And Henry, brought eventually almost to his knees, stoically holds on to his principles and The Northern Light. It is only when he has won the battle that tragedy robs him of the most important thing in his life. In the magnificent narrative tradition of The Citadel, The Stars Look Down and Cronin's other classic novels, The Northern Light is a great book by a much-loved author.

Desmonde Fitzgerald is handsome, charming and blessed with a marvellous singing voice - he is the Minstrel Boy. He becomes a priest, winning the coveted Golden Chalice for his singing when in seminary school abroad. But the duality of nature threatens to destroy the brilliant future that lies before him. Beloved of his parishioners and canon, he is devastatingly attractive to women, in particular the wealthy patron of his church at Kilbarrack, Ireland. But it is not until her wayward and sensual niece, Claire, arrives that disaster strikes . . . In the magnificent narrative tradition of The Citadel, The Stars Look Down and Cronin's other classic novels, The Minstrel Boy is a great book by a much-loved author

In a story of wide and fascinating detail A. J. Cronin tells of Dr. David Morey who tries to atone for his desertion of the woman he loved. Beguiled by the prospect of riches he goes on to marry Dottie, a spoiled but beautiful neurotic who brings him almost constant misery, until a chance remark makes him seek retribution in memories of the past and a return to his native Scotland. In the magnificent narrative tradition of The Citadel, The Stars Look Down and Cronin's other classic novels, The Judas Tree is a great book by a much-loved author.

In the heat of late afternoon, a young boy waits at the station for his father. A plume of steam, white against the purple-heathered hills, marks the train. Beyond, blooming along the shoreline, the flowers of high summer, as a tall-funnelled paddle steamer beats and froths down the wide Clyde estuary . . . A narrative in the great Cronin tradition, this is the stirring chronicle of Laurence Carroll as he grows from childhood to adult years in Scotland. The tale of his struggles - early illness, a widowed mother, poverty, the uncles who try to help him, and the women who have such an unhappy effect upon him, is told with warm humour and with that intense and sympathetic realism for which A J Cronin is known. In the magnificent narrative tradition of The Citadel, The Stars Look Down and Cronin's other classic novels, A Song of Sixpence is a great book by a much-loved author.

Robert Shannon was a devoted scientist on the brink of a medical discovery of great importance. He had no time or inclination for women . . . or for any of the world outside his laboratory. But Jean Law had other plans for him. Strictly brought up by narrow-minded parents, confined by her hospital lectures and her dingy boarding-house, she hardly knew the fires that burned beneath her calm exterior . . . except that they burned for Robert Shannon. She knew she had to have him for herself, and, despite her family's religious beliefs , their shocked disapproval, and all she had been taught was her destiny, she was determined to fight for him. In the magnificent narrative tradition of The Citadel, The Stars Look Down and Cronin's other classic novels, Shannon's Way is a great book by a much-loved author.

Lady with Carnations is not only the traditional name of a famous Holbein miniature which unexpectedly comes into a London salesroom in the mid-thirties: it is also the soubriquet by which some of her close friends think of the antique-dealer who buys it. Katharine Lorimer, by hard work, flair and courage, has worked her way to the top of a trade that traditionally belongs to men. Yet, having acquired the Holbein despite fierce competition, she feels not triumph but a terrible anxiety and desolation. The antique business is going through the doldrums, and she herself is reaching the limit of her resources. Worse still, she feels appallingly alone in the world. Reserved and fastidious, she keeps a certain distance from even her dearest friends, and the person she loves most, her niece Nancy, is bound up in her own ambitions to become a famous actress. Katharine has bought the miniature as a gigantic gamble, hoping to sell it to a wealthy American collector, and she sets off for New York with Nancy and her niece's fiance. What happens to them all there, and how their lives are altered, makes an engrossing tale, a delightful love story, showing at its best Dr Cronin's gifts as a novelist. Every Cronin 'fan', every reader who enjoys a novel with the old-fashioned virtues of a well-worked-out plot, sympathetic characters, and humanity, will find it absorbing. In the magnificent narrative tradition of The Citadel, The Stars Look Down and Cronin's other classic novels, Lady With Carnations is a great book by a much-loved author.

Gracie Lindsay's return to Levenford arouses mixed feelings: to her uncle Daniel she is the daughter he never had; to David Murray she is the woman he still loves though he is now engaged to another; and to the townspeople she is the girl who seven years earlier left Levenford pregnant and in disgrace. Now at 25 Gracie is more lovely than ever and just as careless of propriety as before . . . This is the poignant and moving story of Gracie's struggle to win self-respect and the regard of the town. In the magnificent narrative tradition of The Citadel, The Stars Look Down and Cronin's other classic novels, Gracie Lindsay is a great book by a much-loved author.

Paul Mathry, a student about to graduate and embark upon a teaching career, finds out that his father was convicted for murder, a secret that his mother had hidden from him since his childhood. Driven by an intense desire to see his father, Paul sets out to visit him in prison, only to find out that visitors are never allowed there. From there, he meets the primary witnesses in the case that convicted his father, not all of whom are supportive to Paul's cause. He encounters several dead ends but he persists, with the help of a store girl named Lena and a news reporter. His persistent campaign finally bears fruit. Rees Mathry, Paul's father, goes on appeal and is vindicated. The novel ends with Paul's father, a hardened, cynical man, seeing a fleeting hope for self-renewal and a purposeful life. In the magnificent narrative tradition of The Citadel, The Stars Look Down and Cronin's other classic novels, Beyond This Place is a great book by a much-loved author.

Knowing his father's profoundest wish, that his son should succeed him as Rector of Stillwater, Stephen Desmonde tried to be worthy. But the siren call of art was too overwhelming; he felt driven as though by demons to pursue his vision of the world's beauty. He must put on canvas the truth as he saw it, whatever the cost might be, whether it was the blank misunderstanding of his family or the ridicule of the public. Few artists could have survived the scandal and mockery he had to endure in the sensational trial that stirred all England. Indeed, Stephen Desmonde himself could not have survived without the tender and understanding love of the unforgettable Jenny Dill, the uneducated but strangely wise little Cockney girl whose devotion kept him going when all else failed. It was Jenny who restored his confidence in himself and his vision, and in her love he found the serenity and peace that marked his greatest creations. Crusader's Tomb, also published as A Thing of Beauty, is altogether a memorable novel, whose many characters and diverse moods are woven together with a skill and an appeal mastered by only the greatest storytellers of any age.