A Modest Harmony : Seven summers in a Scottish Glen by Sheila Gordon. 1982, 277 pg.

21/11/25 

The story is of Sheila and Harl Gordon and their 3 children David, Phillipa and Neil. Sheila was my late father's sister so these children are my first cousins. I read the book at the time it came out but now many years later I can appreciate it better. I knew the children as small kids in Johannesburg but later the left South Africa and Harl had done his medical internship in Edinburgh. They later  settled in New York. This book documents this area in the 1970s

She mentioned that they had received and inheritance from an old aunt who died, we knew the aunt Minka Rivkin who left her estate to 3 nieces just to show she was a feminist even in those days. Helen and Bob Hunter were good friends and they mentioned they might be keen to buy a home in a Glen  for their summer vacations. This house was where the Waterman lived who looked after the Lochs of the area but it was no longer used and the Waterboard put it up for sale on auction and Bob managed to get it for £5,000 for them.  The address was Glenauchen Cottage in Glencorrie by Glenogle in the county of Perthshire. The other attachment that Sheila had to Scotland was that they as babies had Scots nannies  as kids. Girls who came out to S. Africa  after WW1, there was a shortage of men and would usually marry Gold miners in Johannesburg.

Nearby the cottage is Loch Leven and it has a castle on an island where Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned after she had Darnley strangled and had the cheek to marry Bothwell.  Glen is the Scots for valley and burn is a stream. A hour drive away was the coastal town of Largo from where Alexander Selkirk the original Robinson Crusoe came from.

Because they had colonial British accents and thee children American accents, the locals were not able to class categorize them , they were classless and they had no problem cutting over class barriers. It was also rumored in the glen that they intended to retire there. They had neighbors who sold them fresh eggs. Many of the pets were Jack Russell terriers raised for hunting hare and rabbit. In summer caravanning was a working class holiday  in these parts. The local library had plenty of books and they decided they wanted a break from TV and radio, while they read all the classis English writers. Neighbors wanted an explanation on the US president who in 1982 was Ronald Reagan.

A glebe is a piece of land attached to the clergyman house for him to graze  a cow or sheep. In Tudor time wood was cut down to build ships and houses and fuel. When fuel became short coal started being used as in Roman times. The lochs of Scotland are glacial. All  over the Highland are abandoned but and ben cottages from the days of the Clearances of the Crofter's by landlords  late 18C to mid 19C. These landless people went to Canada and Australia. Crofts or smallholding kept sheep inside in winter. Black Faced |Linton breeds were introduced who with the thick coated sheep could flourish outside in winter, as well as the Cheviot breed. The introduction of turnips as fodder and potatoes improved the lot of the poor. Sheep were so profitable that it was found to have sheep instead  of men on the land. Mid 11C Scotland was ruled by Malcolm 3rd who slew Macbeth. In 1314 at Bannockburn near Sterling. Robert the Bruce with a small force that defeated the larger cavalry of Edward 3rd. In the 18C Scotland developed a secularism against the religious furies Capitalism existed before Calvinism but people had to be frugal and economic to survive the  harsh environmental conditions. 

At  the end of summer they did not want to leave the house empty so rented it out to farm girls who works as accountants for the farms in the area. They were able to access the value of the farms and if the farmer had an eligible son would marry them and become good housekeeper. After that a young single couple moved in and they were worried that the glen would object to people there living in sin so it was left for the neighbors to assume the were married. Mr. Monroe an engineer in England  and English wife  visited and told them he    his grandfather  was the first Waterman in 1870 and his father took over the job and he was born in the house. He went to school in a one room school house with kids of all ages. Today kids are bussed  to schools in the nearest town, and a family lives in the old schoolhouse. The Scots have a greater respect for education and the working class is better educated than the Sassenach (English ) The famous Geddes Academy is in the town of Douleur. Patrick Geddes and son in law were a known architects and town planner and designed the Hebrew University, Jerusalem in 1919  and also worked with Meir Dizingoff in Tel Aviv.

Drove road are where cattle were driven along to England and toll gates took 2 pence per head of cattle, the Scots evaded tax by crossing away from border post.1603 James I, United the Kingdoms  brought about free trade  with Scotland. Under the land tenure system at the start of winter surplus cattle stock had to be sold off. Walter Scot wrote about this in the Two Drovers and Rob Roy  A drove could be up to 300 beasts better off drovers may have had ponies. Sunday Droving was prohibited when the church had great political power. When the steam engine came it replaced the droves. They heard that there was a Roman camp in the area and they found an Englishman at the Ardoch encampment who said he was following the route of Julius Agricola who had been on a campaign to subdue the Scots during the Antonine period.( Antonius Pius, Nerva, Trajan , Hadrian and Commodus 139-193 a period of 5 Emperors) There is evidence of lifted stone granaries and the invaders forced grain levies on the population. Julius Agricola was executed by Caligula for declining to do some work for him. Caesar first invaded Britain in 55BCE and Claudius in CE 43 and this was followed by 400 years of Roman dominion. There was a lot of intermarriage between Romans and the local women and Roman dress and Latin language and Roman Law developed here. 83CE the Romans  could not subdue the Scots tribes under Calgacus and so Hadrian's wall was build. Hadrian came personally in 122 CE and it took 6 years to build the wall. Scotland was made up of  4 people Picts , Scots, Britons and Angles formed Scotland and Christianity was introduced in 400 CE, After the Romans left the Scotti arrived from Ulster and the Angels from Northumbria, England.

Harl had grown up on a farm as a boy and knew hunting and after the Glorious Twelfth (August) hunting starts in Scotland and many come to do hunting. They were given a gift of a brace of grouse, cooked it had a flowery bouquet from the heather. "Long may your lum reek" There was the smell of woodsmoke and this is a Scots blessing as it means you have fuel to keep a fire going and your hearth warm.

Sheila found a strange smell in the barn one morning and again the next, a neighbour with a shotgun was looking for a fox that had got into his chickens killed a few and taken one. Now the chickens were in a sleister and stopped laying and the had no eggs to sell that week. Apparently only women can smell a fox and the men could not. They were busy clipping the sheep with electric clipper, once this had been a communal occasion with the whole glen coming together as you need lots of help and then lots of food was cooked to feed the crowd. Along the coast there is a heavy haar (fog) and the farmers had to wait till it lifted till they could harvest. One neighbor describes that he had so many siblings and hungry mouths to feed that aged 14 he started working on a farm for a few shilling a week and ended up head shepherd to the estate.

At the entrance of the Cottage were rowan trees planted to keep away the witches. A rod of a Rowan tree was used by a dairy maid to drive the cattle out to pasture. In the dairy if butter did not come it was presumed bewitched and stirring with a rowan stick solved the problem. 1443 someone was executed for witchcraft. In 1563 under Mary Queen of Scots is a statute against witches. In 1559 the Authority of the Pope was abolished following the Reformation and Catholic mass was outlawed.

At this stage they were aware of surveyors to measure for the Water Board to construct a bigger dam, to provide more water  to the  cities. Britain's economy was in the doldrums and the relationship to rich yanks was not so comfortable. David was  working on Bobs farm harvesting over summer and was taking a gap year to stay and was the only one of the family  who would see the other 3 seasons of and rowan blossoms and berries. The children had different interest where they wanted to spend their summer vacation. They put Glenauchen Cottage up for sale but asked Mr. Munroe if he wanted to buy his childhood home, but his life kept him in England. A Scottish couple with a child and expecting a baby bought the house. The furniture left behind was cleared out by Helen, Bob and David and bough back by Mr. Menzies again.

The Hopkins Touch by David L. Roll : Harry Hopkins and forging the alliance to defeat Hitler 2013, 409pg

Touch of Harry refers to Shakespeare's Henry V on the night before the 1415  Battle of Agincourt, the disguised king walked amongst the soldier to enlist their trust.

This has information, including documents from the former Soviet archives.   FDR's selection of Harry Hopkins as his closest adviser. shared the knack of attracting talent to their administrations.

Hopkins was involved in the New Deal and already worked with Roosevelt for many years.

He was born in Sioux City Iowa and graduated in1912.  In 1913 married Ethel Gross of Hungarian Jewish origin. He worked for AICP in social work. Here he discover that most people would prefer a decent job to living on the dole. Later based in New Orleans he worked for the Red Cross where he was able to attain a National Reputation . In the mid 1920s he helped found the Nation Association of Social Workers.

1931 with 3 children he divorced Ethel and married Barbra Duncan but she died in 1937 leaving him with their daughter Diane.

1931 Roosevelt created TERA The Temporary Emergency Relief Organization, the New Deal was born with and Harry became the head of this. He now worked with Francis Perkins the new Secretary of Labor. 1934 He was sent to Europe to study social system there.

 The Social Security Act was passed in 1935.  Also the Works Progress Administration WPA where Roosevelt named him director.. This constructed roads , schools etc and initiated programs for hot school lunches, day care for children of working women and literacy classes for immigrants. Southerners were enraged that WPA sponsored mixed race programs.

1937 he was diagnosed with Stomach cancer.

Aubrey Williams the future head of the National Youth Administration had been inspired by John Maynard Keynes to increase government spending.

1938 |He joined the cabinet as commerce secretary.. Roosevelt who understood German listened to Hitler's Nuremburg Speech. This resulted Harry being sent by Roosevelt to the West Coast to assess US capacity to build military aircraft. So his education in National Security began, and with Marshall and Roosevelt decided to enlarge this capacity so that the US could supply the UK and France to deal with the German menace. Roosevelt now appointed Marshall Chief of Staff and credited Hopkins for that.

When George VIs and Queen Elizabeth visited the White house Eleonor Roosevelt. introduced them to 6 year old Diane Hopkins who lived there and was looked after especially while her father was in hospital. At this stage both Roosevelt and Hopkins  were living on borrowed time.

1939 Sept 1st Start of WW2. Roosevelt knew that the security of the US was directly linked to Britain's survival.  50 WW1 Destroyers were provided for British bases in the Americas like Bermuda , Newfoundland. Hopkins set up a 7 member advisory commission to organize war production also the Manhattan Project. Congress had banned the sales of military equipment to foreign powers.

Hopkins and Sam Rosenman became  Roosevelts speech writers.

1940 The Blitz 7 Sept till May 1941 began over Britain and more than 500 merchant ship were sent to the bottom. Because of the Neutrality pact  weapons had to be paid for with cash. By the end of the Blitz the British knew the danger of German  invasion was over.

1940 July a military regime  in Japan brought down the civilian government. America restricted sales of high octane aviation fuel and iron scrap  to Japan.

1940 Tripartite pact between Germany , Italy  and Japan.

The Lend Lease program was worked out so countries never had to pay till the war was over. This was supported by 66% of  Americans.  Joe Kennedy the US Ambassador to the Court of St James predicted defeat of Britain. The worlds "arsenal of democracy" were Hopkins words.  So the President sent Hopkins to London to find out about the situation. Churchill was warned to treat Harry as if he were talking to Roosevelt himself. He flew on a Clipper flying boat the largest aircraft of the day and landed at Poole Bay nest to Bournemouth. He reported Britain commitment to fight the war and met Foreign Secretary Antony Eden. He told Churchill that Roosevelt was committed to fighting the Nazis by all means. Both Churchill and Hopkins were impressed with each other. Both Edward Murrow and his wife remained in England . Hopkins reported back that Churchill is trusted by labour .the army, navy , and airforce.  Halifax had been sent to be British Ambassador to Washington so as to get rid of him as he advocated a negotiated peace. By John " Gil" Winant becoming the US Ambassador to London also improved relations between the 2 countries.  Averill Harriman was sent to London to co-ordinate Lend Lease and he later married Pamela Digbe Churchill she had been married to Churchills son Randolf.

 Americas  First Committee founded at Yale was included former President Hoover and Charles  Lindberg led the Isolationists.

1940 Sept Hitler's Operation Sea Lion to invade Britain was indefinitely postponed.  

Hopkins formed a strong bond with Clementina Churchill. Hopkins was invited to have lunch with the king and Queen at Buckingham Palace. 

1941 March House of Representatives passed  the lend lease vote by 260 to 165. This was called an Act to Defend the US and it gave Roosevelt a blank cheque to his discretion. hopkins became the chairman of this committee.Hopkins became a strong friend of General  George Marshal.  Roosevelt had no plans of repealing the neutrality Act.

1941 May The Robin Moor US flagged merchant ship was sunk by a Uboat. This led to the US freezing German funds and closing German embassies.

1941 June Operation Barbarossa attack on USSR by Germany. Thus the US policy of supporting the UK  had paid off  and had turned Hitler to attack Russia. However it meant that Japan could not be attacked by Russia and was stronger against the US.

  Even Senator Harry Truman had said " If we see Germany is winning we must sent help to Russia" Joe Davies who had been US Ambassador in Moscow correctly predicted that British/ French appeasement of Hitler would drive Russia to make a pack with Hitler.

1941 April FDR drew a line in the Atlantic which included Iceland that America Navy would patrol saving the British this obligation.

Within 3 weeks Hopkins began his mission to Moscow to clarify the USSRs most urgent requirements. He discovered that Stalin hypocrisy was breathtaking Stalin saying that Hitler never kept his treaty obligation after Stalin's purges and destruction of Poland. It was only Stalin who had control not any of his subordinates could make a commitments thus he saw the limitations of a totalitarian regime.. They needed anti aircraft weapons immediately.

Japan now realized that with the US supporting Russia at war with Germany it left a Japan had a free hand in the Far East. Molotov was scared Japan might make aggressive moves in Siberia.  Maxim acted as interpreter , he had been foreign minister but Stalin purged all Jews the Ministry of Jews and replaced him with Molotov. Although Hopkins determined that the Russians would fight to the end and not make a seperate peace with the Nazi's

Russia was losing 10 times as many soldiers as the Germans. But Stalin would not negotiate a separate peace with Hitler. Hopkins was convinced that if the Soviets were kept supplied they would beat the Germans. Stalin could see that Hopkins requested nothing in return. The Russians were moving factories beyond the Urals far from German access.

On his return Hopkins had to be given blood transfusions and this was done often as he had had a lot of his gut removed because of cancer.

 1941 August The meeting between U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill on the HMS Prince of Wales in was the Atlantic Charter Conference the foundation of the UN. Thus the US was waging war but dot declaring war. This also presaged the dissolution of the British Empire. This ship was later 1941 Dec. dive bombed by Japanese torpedo and half the British sailors and officers here would die.

1941  August Draft Extension Bill up to a total of 30 months was passed in the House. US navy and planes wee authorised to destroy German submarines. Charles Lindberg the Isolationist was spreading Nazi antisemitism.

1941 August State Dept Dean Acheson refused to grant licences to Japan to buy US oil because they were expanding into French Indochina. Japan now had to look to the Dutch Indies for oil as 95 % of their oil came from the US.

1941 October Reuben James  a US destroyer sunk by a U-boat  with115 crew off Iceland.  A law allowing US merchant ships to be armed was passed in the US

.1941 Oct General Tojo became Japanese PM, ending the civilian government.

1941 December 7 Japanese attack of Pearl Harbour but coordinated with this were attacks on Philippines, Malaya , Hong Kong, Guam, Wake Island and Midway Island. Roosevelt now waited and it was Hitler who declared war on the US and Italy immediately followed suit. Germany never knew of the Japanese attack plans. Hopkins was relieved that Hitler had made the first move. Luckily all 3 Aircraft Carriers of the Pacific Fleet  had been out of port. 56 fighter planes had been destroyed on the Philippines. 

The US agreed to beat Germany first strategy as it was agreed that Germany was the Prime enemy and key to victory.

 That you had to have one man in charge in the entire theatre of air ground and ships.  The CCs was formed the combined Chiefs of Staff which would sit in Washington.  Roosevelt  to try push the Soviets for religious freedom in the Atlantic  Charter as US anti communists wanted this and Maxim Litvinov got Stalin to agree to this.

Seeing that Britain was losing control over the war effort, Churchill set up the Municians Control Board with 2 branches headed by Beaverbrook in London and Hopkins in the US reporting to Roosevelt, so both could control allocations of material. Holding the coalition of the US, UK , and Soviets  together was critical for victory and Hopkins worked on this. This was one of the most successful collaboration in military history and ensured not separate peace by the Soviets. Also the 3 and China became the first dignitaries of the UN Declaration. The big 3 as well as the Admirals and Generals were indebted to him for the flow of  "Arsenal of Democracy."

1941  Christmas Day  garrison in Hong Kong surrender to Japan. 

1942 Feb. 15 Singapore  fell very swiftly. They were worried the Japanese Navy and the German one would link up somewhere in the middle East. 338pg

 Historian have concluded that attacking North Africa in 1942 was the most strategically sensible as the American troops were not yet trained. Had Roosevelt headed Marshall advice to do Overlord then Russia might not have had the chance to control Poland.

While Hopkins was in hospital treasury secretary Henry Morgenthau advised Roosevelt. He was successful in the Bretton Woods conference and the Bank of Reconstruction and Development was set up and later became the world Bank. Morgenthau wanted to see the total dismemberment and de industrialization of Germany. This way he  Britain could replace Germanies industry reducing Germany to an agricultural economy.  Churchill pointed out that a weak Germany would lead to the  USSR dominance of Europe. In the election Harry  Truman won to be vice President. As the President distanced himself to the  Morgenthau Plan he relied on Hopkins more.

Hopkins advise that the Lend Lease should carry on for Britain as they would be bankrupt after the war.

1944 June 4th Rome the first Axis to fall into American hands.

         June 6th D- landings.

1944 August 15 Operation Anvil in Southern France , Hopkins advised to go ahead with this as it divided the German troops.  It was meant to be done during Overlord but they never had landing craft so it was delayed.

The UN would not be effective unless the US could commit its armed forces to where it was immediately needed.  Isiah Berlin was working at the British Embassy in Washington at the time.

1944 October General Mc Arthur had landed in the  Philippines and what was left of the Japanese fleet was destroyed there in the battle of Lingayen Gulf 1945 Jan.

Charles Bohlen had spent years at the US embassy in Moscow and spoke Russian and was an expert on the Soviets. George Kennan was another US Ambassador there. 

The British landed troops in Greece to support the Monarchy against the Greek Communists . Admiral King would not transport supplies to support the embattled British troops but Hopkins convinced King to countermand his order.

1945 to 1949 Greek Civil war       

1945 Feb. The Yalta Conference was Hopkins idea of the big 3 leaders meeting in Crimea. Charles de Gaulle was not invited as "he makes no effort to please." It took place in the 50 room Livadia Palace a home build by Czar Nicholas II in the 1860s The German army had occupied it during their occupation and stripped it of all valuables. Stalin was in the Yusupov Palace the home of a wealthy prince who assassinated Rasputin in 1916. In the Cold War it was claimed that Yalta like Munich of 1938 was a bad instance of appeasing tyrants. Because the Allies got into the war in Europe so late the Soviets had maximum leverage over the fate of Poland and Eastern Europe. Hopkin's room here was a centre of activity as all three delegations stopping to seek his advice. China also lost land to the Soviets.

Later Hopkins met De Gaulle in Paris to improve relations with the French. He sided with Churchill in and de Gaulle on the importance of restoring France, and giving it a seat on the Allied Control Commission that would run occupied Germany. The dismemberment of Germany was consigned to a commission of foreign minister so Stalin never got what he wanted there.

In 1939 Britain had gone to war on the invasion of Poland but the Soviets had already set up a puppet government there as the Lublin Government. The language of the final agreement on Poland was vague, they wanted election in Poland. The Soviets were not offered any form of financial aid at Yalta. Had both Roosevelt and Hopkins been healthy at Yalta would Poland's fate have been different? Averell Harriman knew that Stalin was bound to break any agreement.

Stalin had offered Robert Hopkins the opportunity to be a photographer in the capture of Berlin. He asked his father and Hopkins told him that the Soviets would not let him near the front and would never let him leave the country. This shows Hopkins cynicism and distrust to the Soviets.  Churchill would soon pay a heavy price for  the Polish settlement. Roosevelt conviction that he could personally handle Stalin would be buried with him,

Roosevelt  at Suez met Ibn Saud , King Farouk and Haile Selassie, this upset Churchill as he considered it part of undermining the British Empire. Ibn Saud said they would never allow a Jewish State in Palestine.

A telegram from de Gaulle that he wanted to meet Roosevelt in Algiers on the Presidents way home but was turned down.

1945  April Roosevelt died of cerebral hemorrhage. Everyone could see he was very ill at Yalta.

The 2 Harrys were well acquainted  as Truman had been the Missouri director of federal re-employment in 1933  and wanted Hopkins  to carry on in his role. Hopkins tutored him but felt that the cabinet must resign and Truman must choose his own people. Hopkins felt that only Stimson and Forrestal should carry on as they were dealing with the war.

Truman and Molotov very soon were in conflict. It took Hopkins to explain that the Soviets had lost too much in blood and treasure, to risk another invasion via neutral Poland.  16 Polish underground leaders designated to go to Moscow were arrested. Hopkins was now sent with Harriman  to Moscow to reassure Stalin that Roosevelts policy would continue. The Soviets were recognized as powerful nation, and they wanted a free hand in  Poland. The US got their agreement to launch  the UN. Also to take part in war against Japan. On the way back from Moscow Hopkins plane would be the first civilian plane to touch down in Tempelhof Berlin after VE day. This airport would become the ground  zero of US planes to the cut off US sector in 1948 later in the cold war. The Soviets knew about the Manhattan Project already in 1942. Hopkins was accused of giving the USSR information of this.

1945 April 30 Hitler was dead and Victory in Europe took place on 8th May.

1945 July the Potsdam Conference where Clement Attlee was British PM instead of Churchill with Harry Truman and Stalin.

Hopkins retired and was offered a huge advance to write his memoir.

1945  August 15th Victory in Japan Day.

1946 Hopkins died aged 55 of cirrhosis of the liver.. He was one of the most courageous, self sacrificing people of the war. He knew how to read people and never looked for political advancement. He left an estate in debt especially to his wife Ethel who he owed money to.

Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte Mc Conaghy 320 pg 2025

 

  A literary novel  of  Australia , climate change  and how people cope. 28/10/25

Widower Dominic Salt has lived off the coast of Antarctica on the remote island of Shearwater with his three children — Raff 18, Fen 17 daughter, and Orly 9 — for eight years, serving as caretaker for a small climate/wildlife research station and an old lighthouse. Shearwater also houses the U. N Global Seed Vault.

An injured woman named Rowan arrives, and is pulled out of the sea by Fen. In the 1800s, oilers slaughtered entire seal population and most of its penguins. An island between New Zealand and Antarctica.  Climate fiction  Fen choosing to stay alone in a boathouse as she doesn't get along with his father. Rowen becomes a mother figure to the children.

Rowen came to the island to look for Hank her ex husband, a botanist who was one of the researchers on the island. He had to decide on what species to save of 30 million, how to let biodiversity die in favor of what humans can eat.   All of us humans, decided what to save, and that is ourselves.”

Rowan arrives on the island on a small boat that crashes on the rocks and she survives because Fen is there and saves her, this was the worst stormed they have endured since living on the island . They can't figure out why she came here. Dominic is the father of the family and considers that Rowan is a strong woman to have survived this wild ocean. He doesn't know why she came but doesn't trust her. She is cold and wounded they warm her up with their bodies heat under blankets, and the treat her wounds and stitch her up.

Dominic brought his kids to the island 8 yeas ago and the lighthouse is their home. Dominic as well as the children are still grieving for Clare. The refuse  of the sealers and whalers still remains rusted. The huddle around the heater reading books to each other. They have downloaded movies and school work and music training via distant school in Australia.. This is not a tourist island but ships bring supplies for the scientist. The storm has broken the wind turbines and solar cells are scratched, A few batteries are still working and they still have some diesel. There are 17 little building build over the decades for the scientists. It is a 1km hike to the Seed Vault , which is owned by the United Nations. The management is under the Tasmanian Wild Life Service and Shearwater Island belongs to Australia  Dom came and he needed a job far from where he lived after his wife died. They will finally leave the island in 2 month time. The island is starting  to disappear. Keeping the seeds safe is more important than keeping ourselves safe.

Fen the daughter is very strong swimmer, and swims in a full wet suit  with the seals and penguins she knows the habit of every clan of these animals, the last colony of surviving royal penguins in the world is here.  Later we discover why she prefers being in the boathouse than in the Lighthouse home. We learn a lot about nature dandelions have spread to almost every part of the planet. The island has no shade or trees. There is no modern tech like TV or computers or sound system or phones. 8 years on the island is a very different form of childhood.

Orly spent a lot of time with Hank who taught him all sorts of things about Botany, Dominic felt he should not have let him be with this adult so much.

Rowen tells us that her mother discovered she was dying and travelled all  over the world and then Rowan watched every TV show with her till she died, then Rowan gave away the TV as she had seen enough for a lifetime. Rowan had been terrified of the sea long before she  came on the boat that crashed. They visit the science lab and already their feet are covered with water.

Dominic only discovered that the communication to the outside world  was cut when the last ship left. He can't fix it. Hank was taxonomic botanist the Team leader of the research crew and Rowans husband. Hank had always been a talker and Rowen now can't get used to Dominic who is quiet. Rowen did not want children as she said thing of the carbon footprint. Hank did and this led to a conflict till he went off to the island. Bringing children into an apocalypse is unethical. He felt he was not needed at home if there were not children. Once she lost everything he left her.

Rowan owned a piece of land and build a house on it. Hank Jones was researching the threated species of snow gums, in the Snowy Mountains. He had been a professor of biology at NHY studying how plant adapt to climate change or drought stress and fire. It is not a good idea to fall in love not with people not with places." One day everything is going to burn down or starve" Hanks life was rich but my life was the opposite. She was a skilled carpenter and describes how she put everything into the house including fire sprinklers, fire retardant materials huge tank of water storage but the trees for shade were too close.

 They have 3 inflatable motor boats. Fen and Rowen attempt to get the radio from the crashed ship but can't get it.

Alex had come to study the seal population and how the population had recovered from almost extinction. His older brother Tom was a meteorologist. Alex hung himself and Dom and Raff took him down after that Raff never felt safe.

We had Raff and Fen when we were quite young as we didn't want to waist time

Raff gets rid of his frustration by hitting a punching bag Dom had been a professional boxer till he met Clare he has no temper at all. They have an extensive set of every tool and equipment as they have to be self reliant in isolation. Stilbocarpe polaris a megaherb used by sailors against scurvy.  They put on fridge suits to go into the seed room , their is a pump pumping the water that seeps in but hardly helps. 

The room that Hank worked in stinks of bleach. The Shearwater Carver?

Fresnet lenses these are pieces of glass used to magnify light to give a lighthouse its beam. The old lighthouse keepers had to keep feeding the flame continuously, no matter the weather, with different work shifts and ship's safety was in their hands. The old chimney is opened up to burn sea weed because of lack of electricity.

If Hank had left why were his belonging and passport there. Dominic is a handyman while Rowen is a crafts women.

Raff records whales and the follow them to observe their feeding.    The whale shot out of the water and fell on Raff and sprained his arm now he can't play the violin.

Rowen was one of 4 children raised in a houseboat and neglected. She looked after her baby brother and in a moment of distraction her brother River drowned and she feels responsible. Why have kids if you can't keep them safe.

Fen takes all her mother things and burns them to get her father to move on and forget their mother Claire. Rowan says I know a thing about burning. 

The UN to cut costs only want to save food seeds it is only Orly who understands which seed are important from Hank. They have to move them to the house freezer before they are flooded. Wollemi pines are an example of trees from the times of dinosaurs and they only have 11 seed of it. The baksia plant the seed only germinate when the thick shell is broken by fire, so from beneath the carpet of ash that caused death bursts life. Wombats survive in the underground burrows  through fire, the block the burrow with their bums and get burned or die but save the colony.

Hank was going crazy and he raped Fen but after a month she found she was not pregnant. Hank also tried to hold her head under water but as a good swimmer she managed to deal with this. Hank is put in the hospital where Naija treats  him. This is when the connection is cut off. "Where men go there is harm".

Crazy Hank was kept locked in the vault. Claire's favorite book was Jane Eyre.

The book ends with the icebreaker coming to collect 8 people but Dominic and his 3 children are alive. They take lots of tools and equipment as well as the seeds that are in packets. Just before that island is completely flooded over.

 -------------------------

Macquarie Island research center. In 1997 was declared a world heritage site. It was established as a radio relay station in 1911. Located halfway between Australia and Antarctica. Between 1810 and 1919 seals and penguins were hunted to almost extinction. The boiling pots to get the oil lie rusting there.

Svalbard Global Seed Vault in the Spitzbergen.(Norway and funded by its government. Started in Longyearbyen in 1984 in an abandoned coal mine, this is in permafrost and many gene banks deposit their seeds here. In 2025 there are 1,378,238 seed types saved of 6,521 species.

 

 

Ataturk The Rebirth of a Nation by Patrick Kinross 1964 499p

Ataturk  The Rebirth of a Nation by Patrick Kinross 1964 499p

• Born  in 1881 in Salonika, the area called Rumeli under the Ottomans he was one of 5 children., This was a port with a cosmopolitan population , Turk, Greek, Slav , Vitch , Albanian, Moslems , Christians and Jews.. His mother was a Turkish Moslem, his father was blue eyed perhaps of Slav or Albanian origin and a clerk in the customs office. It is considered that part of his family came from Donmeh these had been Jews who followed the false messiah Shavatai Tsvi and converted to Islam and had remained a district community for years. .
•  Initially his mother insisted he go to a Moslem Clerical School where they sat cross legged on the floor learning to write Arabic calligraphy on their knees. After a few days he got up and refused to sit on the floor. His father took him to a secular school. For High School he had seen the kids in Military Uniform and with the help of a neighbor a soldier wrote the entrance exam and got into the Military High School here he learned military matters , history , economics philosophy, French and he aspired in mathematics .where his teacher gave him the  name Kamel ( perfection) This school was composed of all social classes and you could rise on merit alone. At the station a group of dervishes arrived singing and dancing in their robes , their spirit was affecting the people around them Kamel saw this a privative religious fanatics' and was ashamed of it.
• When he got to Constantinople to do officer training he saw the southern city Stambul was poor Moslems while the north was Pera with wealthy Christians and foreigners who had a hold on the Ottoman Empire and the Turks were no longer masters of their own affairs as the Ottomans were in deep debt from the time of the1854  Crimean War. With his friend Ali Fuad the worked on their French and studied the French literature that was banned in military cadets. Aged 23  in 1902 he graduated with the rank of Captain.  Because the political views of Kemal and a group of friends they were arrested. After they were released they were sent to the peripheral  Provinces.
• As a cavalry officer based in Damascus, they had to control the Druse who had been forced to pay taxes in return for not being conscripted to the army. Kemal discovered that on the pretext of gathering arrears in taxes the troops, looted these villages. When it came to dividing the spoils Kemal said " do you want to be a man of today or tomorrow" The pacification  of the Druse must be sought by skill and diplomacy not by bribery. When he saw singing and dancing he discovered it was Italians working on the Hejaz  railways. In Damascus he felt imprisoned but Beirut with foreigners there was night life. with the support of friends he formed the Fatherland Society with a branch in Jaffa. Later on this became known as the Young Turks. They wanted  to depose the Sultan and liberal constitution and a Turkish nationalist state. 1908  Within 3 months of declaring a constitution Bulgaria declared independence. Austria annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina and Crete joined Greece.
• The Committee found Kemal a nuisance and sent him off to Libya to investigate the situation there. On the way stopping in Sicily children mocked the fez and Kemal decided that he has to away with that. In visiting Bengasi he found that there was a power struggle by the Ottoman authority and a local chief. He arranged to lead the Ottoman troops there on an exercise and after drilling a while took them to surround the chief, who immediately capitulated and gave Kemal what was demanded.
• When Abdul Hamid introduced professional  German soldiers to train the army Kemal as a patriot disliked this even though he appreciated their worth. He said that greatness is deciding what the country need and getting it and not pandering to an applause. He realized that Islam was against democracy.   
• In Libya the Italians had invaded and held all the coastal towns Kemal was sent to see what could be done. He had to arrive secretly on a Russian ship and made his way inland to the Ottoman army in the desert from where he realized they were in an impossible position, could not be supplied, but at this stage he was needed for the Balkan wars. Where Macadonia and Rumelia  had already fallen and his mother had already fled from Salonica.

The Turkish army was regenerated by the Germans with the result that Turkey joined WW1 on Germany's side, making her a German satellite. With WW! the German Colonel von Cress led Turkish troops to cross the Suez Canal and were badly beaten back by the British who were prepared for this was a warning to the British.

Gallipoli Notes here

The Hero of Gallipoli was back and again there Government wanted to send him away and so he was sent to accompany the Crown Prince and his brother on a tour of Germany. This gave him a chance to tell them his views . He was able to have long discussions with van Ludendorff and von Hindenburg. He was taken on a conducted tour of the Western front but figured out the truth. Later back home when he met friends he told them that Germany had lost the war and urged Constantinople to sign a separate peace.

He was sent  to Palestine and arriving there realized the war there was lost in advance the best troops had been sent by the Germans to the Caucasus. All that was left for him to do was organize an orderly retreat and get the troop to Aleppo.

The Ottomans were an Empire no longer the Balkan Wars had deprived them of European territory. Now they  had lost the Arab province. Kemal  was not really against this as it brought closer the development of the Turkish Nation

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• By the time of Ataturk's death Turkey had a new alphabet, new civil code, universal suffrage, a new state religion, and secularism to go along with Islam.
• The last political act he did was getting the French to succeed the Hatay region from French Syria to Turkey He died on 10 November 1938 at Dolmabahçe Palace in Istanbul aged 57. he died of cirrhosis of the liver. This was 15 years after he had declared the Turkish Republic  in 1923 Oct 29th. He was succeeded by his long time PM İsmet İnönü.
• During WW2 Turkey remained neutral thus blocking Germanys access to the Arab oil world and Allied aid reaching the Soviet Union via the Bosporus
• The Turks were the only one of the Central Powers able to overturn immediately the vindictive settlements imposed by the Allies following World War I. Because Turkish resistance ultimately was led to success by Mustafa Kemal, it long has been assumed that he created it as well. He did, indeed, do more than anyone else to create the Turkish Republic on the ruins of the Ottoman Empire, but he accomplished this by bringing together elements of resistance that had already emerged. He coordinated their efforts, expressed their goals, personified their ambitions, and led them to victory.

Turkish war of Independance .The National Resistance Forces

Resistance appeared from the first days of the occupation while Mustafa Kemal still was in Cilicia. It came initially from within the Istanbul government itself, where many of the officials organized the secret Outpost Society (Karakol Cemiyeti) shortly after the armistice and used their positions to thwart the Allied demands as well as to send arms and ammunition to Anatolia. Small boats were loaded in the capital in the cover of darkness and sent out into the Aegean and the Black Sea to deliver their valuable cargoes. There is considerable evidence that Talat Paşa himself stimulated the first resistance movements in Thrace before fleeing the country and that resistance in Istanbul was organized within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. When Mustafa Kemal, Kâzim Karabekir, and other leading officers returned to Istanbul to protest the demobilization orders, they were warmly received by the sultan and others and appointed to important positions in the areas remaining under direct Ottoman authority, where they could lead opposition almost under the noses of the Allies.

• Comparing Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and Lee Kuan Yew of Singepore — two of the most transformative leaders of the 20th century — reveals striking parallels and fundamental differences. Both were nation-builders who shaped their countries through strong leadership, visionary reforms, and a focus on modernization, but they did so in very different historical, cultural, and geopolitical contexts.