Bøker av Jim Gilson

The positives far out way the negatives. As one door closes another opens, sometimes more than one. I find it hard to believe that seventy five years of life could have afforded me so many opportunities. I could say that my early life in Australia was difficult, being a migrant, but the years have afforded me a much broader outlook. It was an education. It taught me to cope. It instilled in me the attitude of "having a go."I learned that the many negatives could build me a shield. You have to have first hand experiences of life simply to understand what it is all about and the more you experience the more you are able to cope or not.The title Unplayed Games just simply refers to the open doors that I am left to dream about because I was too busy trying to be responsible.I thank my long suffering wife Joan for her resilience and my two wonderful boys for being just who they are.

The "potato famine" of 1840s Ireland was itself a sad and devastating slice of history. Continuum deals with two desperate families who left Ireland hoping to find a better life in Manchester England where they have some family support in the Salford slum. These good people find their lives under constant attack due to faith differences and utter squaller. The industrial revolution of that time impacts every aspect of their daily existence. They experience great kindness, but on many occasions it is extreme cruelty that mostly impacts their lives. This fiction is embedded in historical fact, hopefully giving you, the reader, an opportunity to mentally experience the triumphs and cruel tribulations that played out for so many people at the time.

It is 1845 and the situation in Ireland is dire. Hunger and typhus are killing people by the thousands. Through no fault of their own, Joseph and Grace Connelly find themselves and what is left of their seven children living a life they never could have imagined three years earlier. Fin and Helen Denny and their two surviving children are neighbors of the Connelly's. Fin, who has always looked up to Joseph, has also suffered the devastating effects of the potato famine. He is desperate to relieve his hunger and save his family. Soon, both families decide to relocate to Little Ireland, a slum in Manchester, England, with the hope of finding a better life. Although a family member's great fortune should end the suffering of the Connelleys and Dennys, the lure of money is too much to resist in a time of greed and suffering for many. Unfortunately, those with more power will stop at nothing to get what they believe they deserve. In this historical story of love, trust, honor, and betrayal, two families who must escape the potato famine to survive must face a host of new challenges in the Irish slums of Manchester, England.