A. J. Cronin

A soul-stirring novel of pride and greed, and its terrible retribution . . . When her father forced her to leave school, and cut off all her contact with the past and future, Mary Brodie’s whole life became the narrow compass of her family’s cold, comfortless house in a small Scottish town. Her mean and ambitious father tyrannized over his timid, obliging wife, his cowed, overworked younger daughter and his spineless son. Four people were held in Brodie’s merciless grip until, like a breath of the outside world Brodie so much despised, came the young Irishman in whom Mary found a forbidden freedom, and who brought to her mother and sister much needed release . . . In the magnificent narrative tradition of The Citadel, The Stars Look Down and A. J. Cronin’s other classic novels, Hatter’s Castle is an impressive debut novel by a much-loved author and was adapted for the screen in 1942, starring Deborah Kerr (Black Narcissus).

The Keys of the Kingdom is the unforgettable story of the Reverend Francis Chisholm and his fight against the snares of the world he has given up. One of A. J. Cronin’s most famous characters, we follow Chisholm from Scotland to China over the course of six decades as he tries to find the true path for himself and the church. Guided by humility and strength, courage and kindness, Chisholm must overcome the famine, plague and war his journey presents to him. From the author of The Citadel, Hatter's Castle, The Stars Look Down, Shannon’s Way and The Spanish Gardener comes this compelling tale of an ordinary man of the people which was adapted for the screen in 1944, starring Gregory Peck and Vincent Price.

The Stars Look Down was A. J. Cronin’s fourth novel, a favourite amongst generations of his readers following a North country mining family, remembered as a classic of its age. 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 in the 1930s – but Cronin, a doctor turned author, had a gift for storytelling, and in his time wrote several very popular and successful novels. Originally published in 1935, The Stars Look Down is a bold, righteous story of injustice from the author of The Citadel. A classic of political storytelling, it has been adapted for the screen by Carol Reed, the Academy Award-winning director of The Third Man and Oliver!

Destiny brings two lonely people together in Grand Canary, a moving love story by A J Cronin, one of the master storytellers of the twentieth century. 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. Originally published in 1933, Grand Canary is a classic romance from the much-loved author of The Citadel and The Green Years, A J Cronin. It was adapted for the screen in 1934 by director Irving Cummings, starring Academy Award-winning actor Warner Baxter.

One of A. J. Cronin’s best-loved novels, The Green Years is a compassionate story of a boy’s growth to manhood, set against the harsh reality of life at the turn of the century. Robert Shannon is a young Irish Catholic boy who, orphaned at the age of seven, is brought to live with his mother’s estranged family in Scotland. As he grows up in a dour Presbyterian town, only Robert's great-grandfather – an incorrigible, swaggering, charming, larger-than-life character – seems able to rescue him from the narrow interests of the people who try to shape his life in their own image. Disappointed in love and in his burning ambition to study medicine, the eighteen-year-old Robert sees his future as a blank wall. But, once again, he is saved from despair by his fiery relative, much to the chagrin of the rest of the family . . . Originally published in 1944, The Green Years is a heartfelt classic from A. J. Cronin – a vivid gallery of characters imbued with his customary blend of imagination, insight and tenderness. It was adapted for the screen by director Victor Saville, receiving two nominations at the 1946 Academy Awards.