Its colours they are fine

Literature & Fiction

Spence, Alan

Short Stories & Anthologies

Collins

'Sailmaker Plus' offers the full text of the widely popular drama text, Sailmaker, by award-winning writer Alan Spence - plus an introduction by the author outlining his motives in writing it, and a wide range of background material by Jane Cooper.

Sailmaker Plus

COOPER, JANE

Dramas & Plays

Hodder Gibson

A collection of 13 interlinked short stories which recreate Glaswegian life. It describes a violent upbringing which translates in early adulthood to brawls at dance halls, the bustle and pomp of an Orange march and a Catholic wedding. Other work by the author includes "The Magic Flute".

It's Colours They Are Fine

Contemporary

Transworld Publishers, Ltd

The story of four boys growing up in Glasgow before the days of flower power had penetrated the harsh realities of inner-city life. It portrays the idealism and bigotry of the era between the assassinations of Kennedy and Lennon. The author also wrote "Its Colours They Are Fine".

The Magic Flute

The Pure Land

Isis Audio

Isis Audio Books

The year is 1858. Thomas Glover is a restless young man with dreams of escaping Aberdeen. Abandoning his childhood sweetheart, he takes a posting as a trader in Japan. Within ten years he amasses a great fortune, learns the ways of the samurai and helps overthrow the Shogun - a rapid rise from lowly shipping clerk to millionaire industrialist. Yet behind Glover's astonishing success lies a man cut to the heart. His love affair with a courtesan - a woman who, unknown to him, would bear him the son for which he had always longed - would form a tragedy so dramatic as to be immortalized in the story of Madame Butterfly. The Pure Land relives in fiction the arc of Glover's true-life rise and fall, and forges a 100-year saga that culminates in the annihilation of Nagasaki in 1945.

Isis Large Print Books

The year is 1858. Thomas Glover is a restless young man with dreams of escaping Aberdeen. Abandoning his childhood sweetheart, he takes a posting as a trader in Japan. Within ten years he amasses a great fortune, learns the ways of the samurai and helps overthrow the Shogun - a rapid rise from lowly shipping clerk to millionaire industrialist. Yet behind Glover's astonishing success lies a man cut to the heart. His love affair with a courtesan - a woman who, unknown to him, would bear him the son for which he had always longed -- would form a tragedy so dramatic as to be immortalized in the story of Madame Butterfly.

Ulverscroft Large Print Books

Lovers of Haiku, Zen and Japan will find this novel truly inspiring! An extraordinary man at a crucial time and place. "In Mister Timeless Blyth, writer Alan Spence has created a fascinating (auto) biography, convincingly in R.H. Blyth's own voice. In it, he has conveyed the haiku scholar's love of music, eastern and western literature, Zen Buddhism, and sly contradictions. Blyth's profound understanding of haiku and his self-deprecating humor permeate every page. Throughout this work, Mr. Spence has included an interesting constellation of characters who influenced Blyth on what he considered his own karmic path, giving us an entirely new perspective of his life and personal development. I could not put the book down." -- William Scott Wilson, author of The Life and Zen Haiku Poetry of Santoka Taneda Imprisoned during World War I as a conscientious objector and interned during World War II as an enemy alien, Reginald Horace Blyth was a poet, a scholar, a musician, a linguist and a student of Zen who ultimately became teacher to an emporer. His pivitol works were published in Japan even during his internment. Blyth ultimately became the key link and mediator between the Imperial Household and the occupying American forces, whom many credit with saving Japan from chaos after the war. His fingerprints are everywhere today in the study of Zen, Haiku and Japanese culture, and his work has influenced some of the most important writers of the 20th century-- including Huxley, Oshi, Aiken, Watts, Salinger, Kerouac, Ginsberg and others. He was, in many ways, a man who changed the world! Mister Timeless Blyth is his story. Written in the form of an autobiographical novel filled with Zen and poetry, this book recounts a life of hard work, books and music, of spiritual questing, and of learning to be at peace with one's self and one's choices. It celebrates a man who built bridge between East and West for the greater part of his lifetime. Through it, we understand someone who moved with a sense of purpose, warmth and humor and left a mark that was very distinct indeed.

Mister Timeless Blyth: A Biographical Novel: R.H. Blyth's Life of Zen and Haiku, Bridging East and West

Genre Fiction

Tuttle+publishing

Night Boat

Set under the skies of 18th-century Japan, a tale of fear, devotion, and the power of the spirit against all odds My childhood name was Iwajiro, and I was eight years old when I first entered at the gates of hell . . .  One night in 18th-century Japan, at the hour of the Ox, a young boy named Iwajiro sits in a state of pure concentration. At the foot of Mount Fuji, behind screen walls and amidst curls of incense smoke, Iwajiro chants the Tenjin Sutra, an act of devotion learned from his beloved mother. On the side of the same mountain, 20 years on, he will sit in perfect stillness as the summit erupts, spitting fire and molten rock onto the land around him. This is not the first time he has seen hell. This man will become Hakuin, one of the greatest teachers in the history of Zen. His quest for truth will call on him to defy his father, to face death, to find love and to lose it. He will ask, what is the sound of one hand clapping? And he will master his greatest fear. This fictionalized account of a legendary Zen master is the story of a tremendous life.

Literary

Canongate UK

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Spence, Alan. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Spence, Alan

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Spence, Alan. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Its colours they are fine

Sailmaker Plus

It's Colours They Are Fine

The Magic Flute

The Pure Land

The Pure Land

The Pure Land

The Pure Land

Mister Timeless Blyth: A Biographical Novel: R.H. Blyth's Life of Zen and Haiku, Bridging East and West

Night Boat