'Diamonds are forever', 'Diamonds are a girl's Best Friend'. Who hasn't heard of those songs?

Just two of the most popular tunes and songs with diamonds in the title.

The sparkling gemstones are, of course, much prized and the most popular of jewels. The diamond, being a hard element, also represents steadfast love ... hence all those love songs, I guess! 

And diamonds come in all sizes. But did you know that it was on this day - January 26th in 1905 - that the world's largest diamond was discovered, in South Africa?

The Cullinan Diamond, which was 10.1 centimetres(4inches) long, 6.35cm (2.5in) wide, and 5.9cm (2.3in) deep, was discovered at a mine in Pretoria. It weighed 3,106-carats. With one carat equal to 200 milligrams, I worked out that the Cullinan weighed around 621 grams, which is 1.3lbs. That's big!

The guy who found it was a 'surface manager' at the Premier No.2 mine in Cullinan in the Transvaal Colony, which is now known as South Africa.  Lots of big diamonds had been dug out of the earth before, but this was and remains, the largest.

In those days, before social media and the like, although the news of the find went around the world, the diamond did not immediately get snapped up by a rich person. Instead, it went on display - at the Standard Bank in Johannesburg - until it was sent to London. It was a bit of a security palaver. To avoid attempted robberies, detectives apparently were set sail on a steamboat, believe to be carrying the Cullinan. They were locked in the captain's cabin to keep the diamond safe.

But this was a decoy. The diamond they were protecting was a fake, and the real Cullinan was sent to England via regular standard post, in a box. That's clever!

Yet, on arrival in England, it remained unsold. It was two years before the Transvaal Colony bought the diamond on behalf of the British King, Edward VII, for a price of £150,000 - the Bank of England inflation calculator reckons that's nearly £18,500,000 at the end of 2020. It was presented to the King on his birthday, on the 9th of November 1907.

The Cullinan was then was sent to Amsterdam for cutting. The diamond trade and industry in that city in the Netherlands goes back to the 16th century and so it was there that the experts meticulously cut the Cullinan into nine separate diamonds. Two are part of the British Crown Jewels, and the remainder are still privately owned, by the British monarch.

Yes, diamonds are very special. I don't own any, although I do have a little ring set with a diamond chip or two - it cost substantially less than 18 and a half million pounds. More like £18 I think!

But it's pretty, and I like it!

Yet the interesting thing about diamonds, I'm sure you know, is that they don't start out as precious jewels. Even the Cullinan Diamond had to be cut, and polished, to create the exquisite and very expensive gemstones fit for the Crown Jewels.

And diamond is actually carbon ... the same element as coal. Black, hard, dirty coal which can burn to give us warmth. Not a glittering gem, but made of the same stuff.  The beauty of the diamond is made under the pressure of being created deep within the earth over billions of year. And as the solid form of carbon, diamond is the hardest of any natural material so it is used in industry as well, for cutting and polishing. It seems there's a lot more to a diamond, or even a diamond chip,  than just a sparkling ring on my finger!

The 19th century British historian, writer and polymath Thomas Carlyle is credited with saying 'No pressure, no diamonds.' 

I like that! 

We might like to have life handed to us on a plate, with little work on our behalf, but real life isn't like that. Sometimes we have to go through challenges to fulfil our dreams and reach our goals. Sometimes the pressures of life can bring us down, but often they can make us stronger.

So, today, if you're going through hard times, please believe this - beauty can come out of adversity.

Don't give up. Keep on going!

And have a great day!

World's Largest Diamond Discovered - On This Day

Today is Holocaust Memorial Day.

It's a day when we remember those who suffered in the Holocaust - members of the Jewish race and culture, and others who were persecuted and murdered by the Nazi regime in the Second World War.

It's reckoned that between 1941 and 1945, across German-occupied Europe, the Nazis and their collaborators killed an estimated six million Jews. That was about two-thirds of the Jewish population who were living in Europe at the time. They were persecuted, held in ghettos, and then eventually, rounded up and taken to work/slave and concentration camps, as well as extermination camps where they were murdered, including being gassed to death in gas chambers in places like Auschwitz, Bełżec, Majdanek, Sobibór, Chełmno, and Treblinka in Poland,  which was under German occupation.

It was on January 27th 1945 that the Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated by forces from the Soviet Union, and so this is the day that was chosen for the commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day and some other national Holocaust Memorial Days.

Since January 2001, this day has been an opportunity to remember all those who perished in this genocide and the millions who survived against the odds, but whose lives would always be lived in the shadow of those who were lost. It's estimated that the total number of people murdered during the Holocaust was 17million ... 6 million Jews and 11 million others who Nazi Germany discriminated against because of their religion, ethnicity, disability, political beliefs and sexual orientation.

Unfortunately, despite the appalling facts of the Holocaust, man's inhumanity to their fellow human beings has not halted, and so today is also a time  for us to remember those many millions of people who have perished in genocides since the mid 20th century, including in Cambodia, Rwanda, and Bosnia.

Here in Jersey there is always a Holocaust Memorial Day ceremony, which includes the laying of wreaths at a memorial, and commemorations of those who died at the hands of the Nazis. The Channel Islands, of which Jersey is a part, were the only places in the British Isles that were occupied by the Germans during the Second World War, and some of our residents were deported and died in those work and concentration camps, and some members of our community today, including my friends in the Jewish community, had family members who died in the Holocaust.

Today, Holocaust Memorial Day is supported in the UK by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, a charity set up and funded by the UK Government.

Every year they choose a theme for the day and in 2021 that theme is 'Be the Light in the Darkness'

At 7pm today there will be an event organised by the Holocaust Memorial Trust, which will focus on that theme  - 'Be the Light in the Darkness'.

The theme, we are told on their page, encourages us all to reflect on not only the terrible depths to which humanity can sink, but also the incredible ways that communities and individuals resisted the darkness, and became 'lights' during and after the Holocaust.

Please click on the link above to read more about that theme and how we are being called to be 'lights' in the 'darkness', and how we can stand in solidarity with those who were and still are affected by persecution.

We are encouraged, among other things, to help shine a light on situations where people are persecuted, to fight prejudice, intolerance and discrimination when we see it,  and to stand firm to confront misinformation, distortion of history and the denial of the Holocaust which is still unfortunately prevalent.

So I'm encouraged today to be a Light in the Darkness and am inspired by those who have gone before.

I leave you today with a quote from the theme page of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust which I find truly inspiring

We will continue to do our bit for as long as we can, secure in the knowledge that others will continue to light a candle long after us

Gena Turgel MBE, survivor of the Holocaust (1923-2018)

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” 

That's the iconic opening line of a very famous novel.

Any idea?

Of course, it's 'Pride and Prejudice' penned by the incredible Jane Austen and it's one of my favourite novels.

It was published on January 29th 1813.

Why do I love it? Well, if I had time I'd write you a dissertation, but I haven't so I'll make just a few points.

I'm aware that many people HAVE written dissertations and tomes about this subject and I won't try to come close to all that knowledge but just give you my impressions, as a reader.

If this makes no sense to you at all then you might have to read the book!

'Pride and Prejudice' is a great read for a history lover, and a would be 'time traveller' like myself. The book is described as a 'novel of manners' - Austen is recreating the social world of her time, and she was obviously someone who really took in everything that was going on around her. People and their quirks, the manners and conventions of her time, the values of her community and class. And she is able to convey this in such detail, I just feel I'm there. At the parties, in the drawing rooms, listening in to the conversations with the author.

As a writer and a journalist, I know how important it is keep my ears and eyes open and to observe the world around me. Yes, I am one of those who keeps a notebook, noticing quirky things about the people I meet and see, and one day you all might end up in a novel of my own, in some disguised form. I am a would-be Jane Austen in this respect.

Second, Elizabeth Bennet, Austen's main character. What a woman! I think she's feisty and funny, quite brave and given half a chance, independent.

It's easy for those of us today, in the 21st century, to try to project our own sensibilities and cultural norms on people who lived in the past, but if we do that we maybe miss what novels like 'Pride and Prejudice' may have to say to us and what we might learn about the past through them.

Today, the idea that a woman can't be a real woman unless she has a husband is frankly ridiculous, so it's really interesting to immerse myself in that strange time. However, I am aware that although they might not say it out loud, there  may still be those in OUR culture who, if they were pushed on this point, might secretly not think much of single women and might actually believe that they'd be better off with a man. So maybe our time has more in common with Austen's day?

In the person of Elizabeth we see someone who is trying to defy the conventions of her time, someone who is not entirely happy with what society expects of her when it comes to behaviour. But Elizabeth does have to behave largely in a conventional manner and not upset TOO many people otherwise life would be unbearable for her. Of course, we are aware of some of that inner defiance as the reader, but what I really love is the words that Austen put's in Elizabeth's mouth, which helps her to express some of the frustrations.

Just imagine ... a man who you can't abide and hasn't really shown the slightest interest in you, ups and tells you that, against his better judgement because he knows you're socially beneath him, he is in love with you and wants to marry you.

I know what I'd do. I'll tell him to ... well you know.

But if Elizabeth was overtly rude that would be unacceptable to early 19th century sensibilities, so Austen has her being clever with her words.

"From the very beginning—from the first moment, I may almost say—of my acquaintance with you, your manners, impressing me with the fullest belief of your arrogance, your conceit, and your selfish distain of the feelings of others, were such as to form the groundwork of the disapprobation on which succeeding events have built so immovable a dislike; and I had not known you a month before I felt that you were the last man in the world on whom I could ever be prevailed on to marry.”

How excellent is that?

And the third reason I love 'Pride and Prejudice'? 

Well it has to be Mr Darcy.

Now I have to admit, this might have something to do with the TV drama first shown back in 1995 which had Colin Firth in the role of Mr Darcy ... at the time loads of my friends, and myself, were secretly in love with the character. 

But I read the book many years before I saw a TV drama or movie based on Jane Austen's 1813 novel and Mr Darcy was already a favourite literary character of mine.

Yes he was a snob, and rather rude, but of course we pretty much see him through Elizabeth's eyes and narration, so the characterisation is maybe a bit one-sided. But as the novel progresses, we see aspects of kindness and loyalty and yes, romance. For a reader like me in a world where the idea of 'courtly love' is no more, I freely admit Mr Darcy has his attractions. If only as a dream.

When Jane Austen published her novel this day in 1813 I wonder if she imagined that, 200 years down the line, we would be picking her work apart and still enjoying her characters and story.

And one final thought.

The book was originally to have been called 'First Impressions'. Much of the tension of the novel is based on those first impressions that Elizabeth had of Mr Darcy and vice versa, and the story is, among other things, about how the main characters have to overcome their snobbery and pride (Mr Darcy) and their inverted snobbery or prejudice (Elizabeth).

It was only when I learnt more about Jane Austen's life and work that I heard about that alternate title to one of my favourite novels. And it's a lesson to me. Not to jump to conclusions about people, based on the first impression.

How people speak, what they look like, what they are wearing, where they live, what job they have. This should all be less important than their values, their sense of humour and other traits which show us their personality and character.

But of course, we DO often make judgements based on the superficial first impression. And sometimes we, like Elizabeth and Mr Darcy, have to admit that we were wrong, and need to unravel the misconceptions and begin to form relationships with those who we may have thought we would never be able to connect with.

For me, that is a lesson in life, not just in literature.

For many years my working life was dominated by The Pips!

Any idea what I'm talking about?

Well it's that series of 'pips' ... five short and one long tone ... that are broadcast by many BBC Radio stations at the top of each hour. 

Why am I talking about this today? Well, it was on February 5th 1924 that the BBC Pips ... the Greenwich Time Signal .. was first broadcast.

As a radio presenter, for many years I had to ensure I met the 'Pips' cleanly at the top of the hour. No talking over them, no crashing into them. They were sacrosanct.  It could be a quite a pressure but you got used to it.

Only a few BBC radio stations continue to run the Greenwich Time Signal now to give us the precise start to the hour.

Some might think that's a shame, because those pips were a way we could check that our watches and clocks were spot on. These days digital time pieces are so accurate we perhaps don't need the Greenwich Time Signal to keep us on track of time.

Back in 1924, the idea for the Pips came from the Astronomer Royal of the time, Sir Frank Watson Dyson, and the head of the BBC, John Reith.

I'm not going to to go into the technical details of this because I don't know them and it might be rather boring. If you're so inclined, there are plenty of websites which can give you that information.

But what I've gleaned is that the Pips were originally controlled by two mechanical clocks in the Royal Greenwich Observatory which had electrical contacts attached to their pendula. These sent a signal each second to the BBC, which converted them to generate the distinctive beeps of the pips. By the way, just in case one clock failed, two clocks were always used and years later an electronic clock was deployed.

Until 1972 the pips were of equal length. Confusion reigned. Which was the final pip? How did we know it was actually the top of the hour? That was when the last pip was extended. Five short pips, followed by one long.

In 1990 the BBC started to generate the pips themselves via what I read is an atomic clock. Wow.

The Pips were at one point featured on BBC TV but that was discontinued in the 1960s, yet the Greenwich Time Signal seems to remain synonymous with the nation that is Great Britain. It was the first sound heard in the handover to the London 2012 Olympics during the Beijing 2008 Olympics closing ceremony. To celebrate the 90th birthday of the pips on 5 February 2014, the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 broadcast a sequence that included a re-working of the Happy Birthday melody using the GTS as its base sound.

These days, if you want the reassuring sound of the Greenwich Time Signal, then the best place to go is BBC Radio 4, which uses them at the top of each hour. Sometimes when I can't sleep and I'm listening to the BBC World Service radio I also hear them as well. There are similar time signals used by radio stations in lots of other countries, but I guess the BBC Pips are the most famous.

But what you may not know is that the GTS is available not just on the hour but also on the quarter past, the half past and the quarter to the hour. When you're presenting in a radio studio there's a GTS stream you can fade up on your desk to give you the Pips, and if after the top of the hour you forget to fade that stream down, it'll automatically pop up at those times as well. I have to say, that only happened to me just the once!

The thing about the Greenwich Time Signal, and those Pips, is that they remind us that time is fleeting. Time is passing. Time is short.

Perhaps we don't like being reminded about that. I know I don't. 

But if there's something we need to get done ... maybe we need to be just get on and do it, before we run out of time. And although there may be lots of things that we need to do just because we need to do them, it's also important to use our time wisely.

And on that point ... there are masses of quotes about time on the internet but there's one which I'll leave with you today ...

“Always make time for things that make you feel happy to be alive.”

(Anonymous)

I've done a lot of researching and writing for my blog this week. Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed it, but it's meant you've had to read it ... or not, as the case may be.

So today I just have a happy thought for this Saturday from a great American writer, philosopher,  essayist, lecturer and poet called Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Enjoy every day, but especially today.

Happy Saturday Everyone!

If you're as old as I am,  you might remember the 1979 Boomtown Rats hit 'I Don't Like Mondays'.

If not - maybe look it up?

It was the band's second hit and it was Number One in the UK charts for four weeks during that summer.

For me it was an iconic sound of my youth. But it was a song born of tragedy, because it was written by  Bob Geldof and Johnnie Fingers following a dreadful event on January 29th of  that year - the Cleveland Elementary School shooting in San Diego, USA. 

Geldof is quoted as saying he wrote the ballad after he heard that the shooter who fired at children in a playground, killing two adults and injuring eight children and a police officer, explained herself by saying "I don't like Mondays...."

Appalling!

Now, I have to say, many of us might admit that Monday is not our favourite day of the week ... back to work/school after the weekend and all that. 

But I read something recently that helped me put a new spin on Mondays. It's a quote attributed to David Dweck, entrepreneur, investor and speaker ... and I love it.

Just by thinking of Mondays in a different way, putting a more positive spin on the day ... well this says it all really.

SO - Happy Monday!

Oh, and by the way, if you're wondering ... the photograph is one of mine.  It's St Ouen's Bay in Jersey in the Channel Islands.

It's that time of year when life can be a little overwhelming. At least that's my experience.

January is over but Spring is not yet with us. We are still often being battered by the winter weather, wet and windy, cold and dull. Life can feel a bit dark in the first couple of weeks of February. Winter can seem never-ending.

Of course, we know it WILL  come to an end ... after all, this is not Narnia during the reign of the White Witch when it was, in the words of their creator C.S.Lewis,  “Always winter but never Christmas.”

But sometimes it does feel endless.

Although here in Jersey in the Channel Islands we've had the occasional bright winter's day in recent weeks, January was the wettest on record, with only a couple of days of the month rain-free, and right now we're in another dull and cold snap. 

Add to that the fact that we've had nearly a year of pandemic restrictions, working from home and not much getting out, well it's very easy to start to feel sorry for oneself.

But on a day like today I need to remind myself that, even though life is getting me down, actually I have so much to be thankful for.

So many people during this coronavirus pandemic have lost their lives, or loved ones. Many have lost their jobs and life is very insecure. Although the past year for me has not been a bed of roses, I have certainly not had a terribly negative experience. I'm sure I'll talk more about this again from time to time.

But I do need to keep on top of the tendency towards negativity.

A few years back, I realised that sometimes we forget to be grateful for the things we have in our lives. We chase dreams and perhaps things out of reach, rather than just being satisfied with and thankful for what we have - right now!

It was then I created a Facebook page called 'Don't Forget to Say Thanks' . It's not the most followed page in the world but every now and then, when I need to remind myself of the need to feel gratitude, I post a little thought. It's a work in progress. Aren't we all?

So, today, when I am feeling a little worse for wear and mournful of the season, I turn to that inspiration ... and share one encouraging thought with you!

Memory is a strange thing. 

It is rather choosy in what it chooses to remember.

I know that, as a person who was born at the very end of the 1950s, SO many things have happened in my lifetime but most of my memories aren't of the BIG events, but lots of little, personal things. Making a snowman with my brothers when I was probably about 5, hanging upside down on the 'monkey bars' at school at about the same age. My first memories of moving to Africa with my family ... more on that another time.

As a person who has worked most of my life in the news business, I strangely find that I don't remember even many of the big life-changing events. Although I DO know where I was on September 11th 2001, when the planes hit the World Trade Centre in New York.

And I remember the events of February 11th 1990 because I clearly recall watching them on the television.

It was the day the world watched Nelson Mandela walk free from prison on Robben Island, in Table Bay off the coast of Cape Town in South Africa, after 27 years in captivity.

The crowds were incredible and then we saw him, holding hands with his then wife Winnie, walking through the crowds. Walking into Freedom.

It was incredible. It really felt like I was watching history in the making.

For my whole life I was aware of South Africa - I had relatives living there and had visited my brother and seen apartheid in action, even the reaction of some black people against members of their own community during these very turbulent times as they worked their way towards independence. I had witnessed terrible scenes on a television screen, an horrific 'necklace killing' which was shown on TV. If you don't know what this is, please click on the link... I can't bear to repeat it here. I still have the images in my mind.

One of the iconic songs of the era, 'Free Nelson Mandela', was a cry for freedom not just for the man, but also for the black population, the nation of South Africa. With the real threat of a racial civil war and pressure at home and internationally, including economic and sporting boycotts, eventually the government of President F. W. de Klerk saw what needed to be done.

And here Mandela was ... walking free. The man who had been imprisoned for sedition and conspiring to overthrow the state of South Africa was a free man. At last!

It was incredible.

But what came next was even more astounding.

It would have been easy for Mr Mandela to insist on power for the black population, immediately, and to rouse them to action.

But instead, he worked with President de Klerk to negotiate an end to apartheid, that system of institutionalised racial segregation that had been formalised in 1948. Eventually there was a multiracial general election in 1994 which resulted in victory for Mandela and his party, the ANC - the African National Congress. Nelson Mandela became the first black president of his nation.

After assuming power, and especially after suffering 27 years in incarceration, one might have assumed that Mandela might then have wanted his revenge on the white politicians and civilians who had made life so unbearable for the black and 'coloured' population for so long. But no.

Instead he emphasised reconciliation between the country's racial groups and created the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate past human rights abuses. 

It was barely a year after that 1994 multi-racial election, which my own family members were pleased to be part of, that I visited South Africa again. Life in the country seemed familiar and it didn't feel like much had changed really, but there was hope in the air.

And although it is still a troubled country, with much poverty and even inequality of all kinds, today I remember the man who guided his country through such a momentous era, which could have turned out so differently.

In his autobiography 'Long Walk to Freedom' (Little Brown & Co 1994) Nelson Mandela shared not just his life's story but also his wisdom.

He wrote ...

“No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”

And he left us with thoughts which can inspire us all ...

“I am fundamentally an optimist. Whether that comes from nature or nurture, I cannot say. Part of being optimistic is keeping one's head pointed toward the sun, one's feet moving forward. There were many dark moments when my faith in humanity was sorely tested, but I would not and could not give myself up to despair. That way lays defeat and death.”

Wisdom comes in all shapes and sizes, but not always from holy scriptures or experts who have studied to PHD level or who have all the experience in the world.

So how about this for a thought for today?

Profound eh?

And that's from a dog!

The dog is Snoopy, and if you're not already aware of it, he's the companion of a certain Charlie Brown,  a little boy who is 'loveable loser'  - he's meek, not that self-confident and is of a nervous disposition. He's pessimistic quite a lot, but also sometimes optimistic. He worries about the day and all the things around him, and other times hopes for the best and tries desperately to make good things happen.

Charlie Brown is puzzled by Snoopy and some of the slightly weird things he gets up to, but he looks after him, and does his best to provide his dog with a happy life. And in response, Snoopy is always there for Charlie when he gets let down or needs support.

I've always felt a bit of an affinity with Charlie Brown, even though he isn't a real person, but a cartoon.

He's the central character of the Peanuts comic strip created by Charles M Schulz, who died on this day - February 12th - in the year 2000.

'Peanuts' had first appeared in print in USA newspapers on October 2, 1950. It shows the world of a group of young children. Adults are barely heard, but woven into the comic strips are some very adult themes like philosophy, psychology and sociology. There's some deep stuff in Peanuts and it's characters, even things that could be interpreted as 'spiritual' if not 'religious'.

Take this Snoopy quote for example - 'Keep Looking Up... that's the Secret of Life'.

Now, as a person of faith, what I get from those words is that I need to keep looking up to the Creator, for inspiration and motivation.

In the Old Testament in the Bible, in Psalm 121, we are encouraged to look up to God for all our needs. I particularly love the translation of this psalm from The Message translation:

Don't you love that? We're not on our own. We just need to look up, not to physical mountains, but even higher, to put our trust in God.

But the Snoopy quote an also be interpreted in a different way. If we are constantly looking DOWN, physically, we will never see the potential of what isn't yet here, what might be open to us. We will always be just concentrating on where we are, now, and not looking forward.

See what I mean? There are so many different ways of looking at life through the eyes of Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the rest of the gang. Maybe you may interpret this Snoopy Saying in a way that rings true with you and your life?

The final Peanuts comic strip was published on the day after Charles M Schulz died. On February 13th 2000 the 17,897th-and-last instalment appeared in newspapers around the world.

But that wasn't the end of Charlie Brown and his world. The comic strips live on, there are TV cartoons and movies, and images of him and his quotes and those of Snoopy and the other Peanuts kids all over the internet. They are icons of our time!

We all need friends and we all need hope if we are to live life well. 

Charlie Brown had Snoopy ... who do you have?

And are you, like Charlie, always seeking the hopeful path? 

Are you looking UP or always looking down?

Maybe worth thinking about?

On this Valentine's Day I share with you something very special.

A few years back I wrote a book based on the lives and letters of the couple who founded The Salvation Army, the global church and charity movement.

William Booth met Catherine Mumford in 1851 and they married four years later, in July 1855. Their relationship was developed through letter writing, and that correspondence continued throughout their marriage.

Those letters are held in the British Library in London, and it was sheer pleasure to spend hours pouring over those epistles, deciphering the handwriting. Through the correspondence I got to know these individuals on quite a personal level and I discovered that, although they were obviously very religious and spiritual, they were also complex characters, flawed individuals, and ... I found to my surprise ... very much in love.

That personal even romantic love kept Catherine and William close, and that and their love for God and humanity and their mutual passion for sharing the Christian gospel,  helped them to stay strong often during very difficult times.

I love that in 1872, 17 years into their marriage, William - who was also quite an accomplished poet - was inspired to write this to his wife, the mother of his eight children, and his partner in life, faith and Christian mission.

By the way, if you fancy reading my book based on the Booth Letters, I will be honoured.

It's called 'William and Catherine - the love story of the founders of The Salvation Army told through their letters' (Lion Hudson 2013)

You can also find it and some of my other books on Amazon and other sites.

You can also check out my Author Central page on Amazon 

If you go to the top of this page and click on 'Cathy Home Page' you will also find my main website and occasional blog. And there's more info on 'Cathy's books'.

Thanks and Happy Valentine's Day!