Books with author John Franklyn-Robbins

Dalgliesh pondered on the curious diversity of the clues which he felt were salient in the case. There was Martha's significant reluctance to dwell on one of Sally's shortcomings. There was the bottle of Sommeil pressed hastily into the earth. There was an empty cocoa tin, a goldenhaired girl laughing up at Stephen Maxie as he retrieve a child's balloon from a Martingale elm, an anonymous telephone call and a gloved hand briefly glimpsed as it closed the trap-door into Bocock's loft. And at the heart of the mystery, the clue which could make all plain, lay the complex personality of Sally Jupp.---from Cover Her Face (from backcase)

THE GLEAM OF A GOLD NUGGET…the fire in a precious gem…the geometry of a seashell…a fossil, a baseball card. Treasures all.John Frank’s poetry about the things we collect – at the beach, in the attic, in the mountains and desert, at flea markets – is a treasure itself. With handsome alluring photographs of collections and collectibles, this is a rare find – a keeper - to read and rediscover again and again.Keepers is a 2009 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

From Publishers Weekly In her 12th book, the British author of the two series featuring Adam Dalgleish and Cordelia Gray (Devices and Desires and An Unsuitable Job for a Woman , respectively) poses a premise that chills and darkens its setting in the year 2021. Near the end of the 20th century, for reasons beyond the grasp of modern science, human sperm count went to zero. The last birth occurred in 1995, and in the space of a generation humanity has lost its future. In England, under the rule of an increasingly despotic Warden, the infirm are encouraged to commit group suicide, criminals are exiled and abandoned and immigrants are subjected to semi-legalized slavery. Divorced, middle-aged Oxford history professor Theo Faron, an emotionally constrained man of means and intelligence who is the Warden's cousin, plods through an ordered, bleak existence. But a chance involvement with a group of dissidents moves him onto unexpected paths, leading him, in the novel's compelling second half, toward risk, commitment and the joys and anguish of love. In this convincingly detailed world--where kittens are (illegally) christened, sex has lost its allure and the arts have been abandoned--James concretely explores an unthinkable prospect. Readers should persevere through the slow start, for the rewards of this story, including its reminder of the transforming power of hope, are many and lasting. Unabridged on nine CDs.

THE GLEAM OF A GOLD NUGGET…the fire in a precious gem…the geometry of a seashell…a fossil, a baseball card. Treasures all.John Frank’s poetry about the things we collect – at the beach, in the attic, in the mountains and desert, at flea markets – is a treasure itself. With handsome alluring photographs of collections and collectibles, this is a rare find – a keeper - to read and rediscover again and again.