On Stony Ground

"Stonyground is the book for all true lovers of gardens. Douglas Chambers chronicles the trials and triumphs of his ten-year (and on-going) labour of love to turn his family's 150-year-old farm into a celebration of garden history and design - a labour that created remarkable vegetable and herb gardens, the multi-hued Great garden, a profusion of roses, the linden hedge-on-sticks, trees and shrubs to offset the driving northern winds, and much more. This unique gardening book is a treasury for all types of gardeners, and will enthral readers to the last page.

A unique glimpse of the deadliest profession of the Second World War. In June 1941, Flight Sergeant Leslie Mann, a tail gunner in a British bomber, was shot down over Düsseldorf and taken into captivity. After the war, wanting to record the experiences of the RAF's 'Bomber Boys', he gave voice to his private thoughts and feelings in a short novella, uncovered only after his death. Visceral, shocking and unglamorous, this compelling story transmits as rarely before the horrors of aerial warfare, the corrosive effects of fear, and the psychological torment of the young men involved. The sights, sounds, smells, and above all the emotional strain are intensely evoked with a novelist's skill. And Some Fell on Stony Ground is introduced by historian Richard Overy, author of the acclaimed book, The Bombing War (2013).

On Stony Ground presents a historical ethnographic account of a generation of Mennonites from the Soviet Union who, following Russia’s revolution and civil war, immigrated to Manitoba during the 1920s. James Urry examines how they came to terms with a new land and with their new neighbours, including other Mennonites, Ukrainians, French Canadians, and Indigenous Peoples. The book discusses the impact of the Great Depression and how the immigrants struggled with their identity in Canada as Hitler and Stalin rose to power in Germany and the USSR. It reveals the immigrants’ desire to maintain their faith, language, and culture while encouraging their children to take advantage of an education conducted mainly in English. On Stony Ground explores how prosperity following the Second World War helped the immigrants to build a community in conjunction with others, including Mennonites and non-Mennonites, and to accept their new home in Canada.

A series of murders with religious overtones casts a pall of darkness, in this chilling mystery by the author of A Hollow Sky. Nulla est Redemptio: No rest for the wicked. The note was left next to the priest’s body. Dr Alex Ripley—known as the Miracle Detective—is going through a dark time herself as she cares for her badly traumatized husband, just returned home after a long period of brutal captivity in Afghanistan. But when murders keep occurring, and the victims all have some kind of religious connection, Ripley must reunite with her friend, forensic investigator Emma Drysdale, to face a killer with a sinister message. What Ripley discovers is that the killer's motive is far more personal than any of them thought. But what do these lost gospels, doom paintings, gods, and demons have to do with the deaths of three innocent people? And why is Ripley so important to the killer?

Records a teacher's efforts to reach trouble-prone students with a program emphasizing self-respect, life skills, and relevant literature

The Stony Ground is the story of Cornish farmworker James Ruse, reprieved from the hangman’s noose and transported to Botany Bay on the First Fleet in 1788. Ruse, commemorated as a pioneer in his adopted country, was reputedly the first prisoner ashore, carrying an officer on his back. Eventually pardoned, at Experiment Farm he became Australia’s first settled farmer, the first ex-convict to be granted land and the first settler to become self-sufficient, bringing him into conflict with indigenous people. In this gripping historical novel the life of Australia’s most symbolic convict is described in Ruse’s own voice.