The Abbot of the Island is a poignant historical drama of a family at war with themselves and the outside world, of forbidden love, betrayal and death, redeemed only by the unselfish act of one member of the family Ramson.
Summer 1939, England is poised on the brink of a second war with Germany. The wealthy titled Ramson family are not thinking about war when they return to their summer family residence, Ramsons Priory, a medieval monastery on Orca, Scilly Isles, England. They are there on holiday, for fun and laughter, love and romance, especially Abigail and Roslin, cousins and adopted sisters.
Roslin is a distant poor relation, adopted by the late Carlisle, Lord Ramson II, following the death of her parents when she was eight. At nineteen, she is shy, sensitive, artistic and conscious of her status within the family. Abigail, half Italian, her mother Lord Carlisle's third wife, is the complete opposite, beautiful, gregarious and fun-loving. Into their two teenage lives that summer comes an upsetting influence, monks from a monastery in Ireland, calling themselves Domini canes, the Hounds of Heaven.
The monks have been invited to the island by Grayson, Lord Ramson III, to look after his animal sanctuary for rare breeds and threatened species of the world. He is a conscientious objector and at the outbreak of war decides to go to South America in search of more dying animals. Orca is now in the hands of Father Luke, the charismatic and charming Abbot of the Hounds of Heaven, with whom both Abigail and Roslin fall in love, a love that can never be fulfilled. Or can it?
A best-seller published in Germany in 2003 under the title, Der Zauber des Sommers, ISBN 3-404-14913-0, this story, previously unpublished in English, is based on a poem by Francis Thompson (1859 – 1902), “The Hound of Heaven”, a fugitive from God's redemptive love.
Summer 1939, England is poised on the brink of a second war with Germany. The wealthy titled Ramson family are not thinking about war when they return to their summer family residence, Ramsons Priory, a medieval monastery on Orca, Scilly Isles, England. They are there on holiday, for fun and laughter, love and romance, especially Abigail and Roslin, cousins and adopted sisters.
Roslin is a distant poor relation, adopted by the late Carlisle, Lord Ramson II, following the death of her parents when she was eight. At nineteen, she is shy, sensitive, artistic and conscious of her status within the family. Abigail, half Italian, her mother Lord Carlisle's third wife, is the complete opposite, beautiful, gregarious and fun-loving. Into their two teenage lives that summer comes an upsetting influence, monks from a monastery in Ireland, calling themselves Domini canes, the Hounds of Heaven.
The monks have been invited to the island by Grayson, Lord Ramson III, to look after his animal sanctuary for rare breeds and threatened species of the world. He is a conscientious objector and at the outbreak of war decides to go to South America in search of more dying animals. Orca is now in the hands of Father Luke, the charismatic and charming Abbot of the Hounds of Heaven, with whom both Abigail and Roslin fall in love, a love that can never be fulfilled. Or can it?
A best-seller published in Germany in 2003 under the title, Der Zauber des Sommers, ISBN 3-404-14913-0, this story, previously unpublished in English, is based on a poem by Francis Thompson (1859 – 1902), “The Hound of Heaven”, a fugitive from God's redemptive love.
