Jenny’s Books

Two new books featuring stories by Jenny Robertson

Disasters and Miracles, Bridge House Publications

This brave new independent publishes writing with an edge to it or writing which is just that bit different. I was delighted when Bridge House produced an Advent anthology for adults last year. Making Changes included one of my stories.

Disasters and Miracles is an even bolder step .Children sadly have almost no awareness of the Bible Bridge House deserve a huge accolade for publishing this collection of Bible Stories aimed at maximum input for the 9 -12 range. Five of mine are included. Here’s a sample…

(from) Millions of stars
Jared nodded.
      “I’ve never lived in a city,” he said. “But I would hate to live in a house with walls and a roof. I love to lie beside the fire at night and look up at the stars.”
     Seth smiled at that. ”I do too!” he agreed. ”Lot will settle around the wells outside the town of Sodom. Sodom is a fine place with markets full of food, but the people there are mean and unkind and the gods they believe in are cruel.”
      “How do you know?” Jared asked… (and we hear Seth’s story)

(from) The Dungeon and the Dance
Suddenly Queen Herodias rose to her feet and clapped her hands.
      “And now, lords and gentlemen,” she said. “We have a special treat for our good King Herod. It’s his birthday present from his queen and our darling daughter. Princess Salome is going to dance for us. Musicians, play!”
     The musicians started to play. People clapped – those who were not to drunk to know what was going on. Salome danced into the banqueting hall. Golden bracelets glittered on her outstretched wrists. Her feet moved so fast her anklets spun and shone. Rich red rubies gleamed blood red in her hair. Ah, how beautifully she danced among the drunken, vomiting guests at Herod’s birthday party…
     When she finished, loud applause burst out on every side.
      “Salome, my dear,” drunk King Herod took his step-daughter on his knee. “Ask for whatever you want, anything at all and I shall give it to you as a reward for that wonderful dance, yes, even if you ask for half my kingdom!”
      “Oh, thank you,” lisped Salome…(and asked for a cruel gift)

An Advent Calendar of Stories

Another exciting collection of wide-ranging stories from Bridge House soon to hit the bookshops. Three of my stories are included. Here’s a sample from Specs for the dragon

Once there was a dreadful dragon. His body was covered with spiky green scales. Whenever he opened his mouth flames shot out and burnt up whole villages. Everyone was scared of him, except for Princess Pearl, who kept a lot of pets.
     “Think what a good pet that dragon would make,” she said to her father, the king.
     “A dragon for a pet?” the king exploded. “What will you think up next? He’ll eat up all your hamsters, not to mention everyone in the palace - including me”

Books for children and young people

The Encyclopaedia of Bible Stories, (Scripture Union) a widely translated compendium of Bible Stories. Widely translated into major languages, including Afrikaans and Russian, it now appears as My Own Bible Story Book, or Children’s Bible Story Book

Fior
Tam with his peacock feathers and songs steps out of Scottish ballads to take an unhappy boy, Roddy into an underworld of darkness and light

Circle of Shadows, Circle of Fire
Historical. Exciting two book series for 10-12s set around a stone circle in Argyll. Dark powers lead Dercc to seek the light, but keep a stranglehold on his gifted twin brother, Liath.

Check out What People say about Jenny’s books for more about these books.

Linda (Scripture Union) A ground-breaking book. Linda, told of her adoption in her early teens, feels an outsider. Her pregnancy makes her lonelier than ever, but her little boy of colour wins the love of her family and helps Linda find her place in life…

The Ladybird Bible Books “Simply told, simply beautiful” 24 separate titles, plus a complete book of Bible Stories, told in a style to delight older readers and suit younger ones as well available on Amazon

King in a Stable A retelling of the Christmas Story, translated into German and Icelandic and now anthologised in a German story book

The Beggar Girl and the Prince, stories from all over the world, written originally for Scottish Television for 7-9 year olds “to awaken a sense of wonder”, published by Scripture Union with linking Bible verses

Seal Songs, Scripture Union. More stories to please the 7-9s. Children from a Primary School in downtown Edinburgh add their own poems and prayers.

Where Red Deer Run (Scripture Union) expanded and re-issued as Fear in the Glen (Lion Publishing). Historical, set in Mid-Argyll in the days of St Columba. Bel is a girl who asks questions. But fear comes to the glen and Bel finds her questions lead her into mortal danger… A story for 8-11 year olds. Surf What People say about Jenny’s books for more about this unusual book.

Hidden House, (Scripture Union) a modern story for the same age range, also set in Mid-Argyll

More novels for older Primary Children:

The Only Way to Win (Scripture Union)
Sharp-witted Joel is one of life’s losers. A dangerous mission costs him everything but makes him a winner after all. Historical, set in Jerusalem around the time of the death of Stephen, a book with boy appeal

A Part to Play (Scripture Union)
14 year old Kerry is intrigued by new boy Mark with his dyed hair and ear-stud. Mark is picked to play Jesus in the youth group play but when things get dangerous Mark turns Judas and runs away.

Dark Journey, Light Sentence, Bright Dawn (Scripture Union)
Koravia, the setting for this trilogy for 11-13s is a fictitious country somewhere in Central Europe. 14 year old Stefan pulls down a Party Flag. Classed as a juvenile delinquent, sent prematurely to the punishing schedules of a totalitarian army, Stefan joins the underground resistance and sees freedom dawn for his country.

Branded! Also for 11-13s, historical, set in 2nd century Rome with an affluent society hiding a dark underworld of crime, catacombs, arenas and wild beasts. Alain, captured from his homeland, Caledonia, is given a slave name Caledon. The young Fosterling, a prince in his tribe, finds friendship in unexpected places and a love which will see him set sail with new hope for home.

Books for adults

Novel: Coroskirr (Lion Publishing) women’s fiction. A love triangle set on the rugged shore of Ardnamurchan, the most westerly point of the Scottish mainland.

Two ‘help’ books:
Coping with Abuse within the Family (Creative Publishing, Dr Townsend HELP Books)
Drawing on real life stories, this book encourages victims of addiction and abuse to confront their problem and walk forward with love and support. Sources of help are listed on the back cover.

Uninvited Guest, a family’s journey through schizophrenia (Triangle/SPCK)
Jenny’s beautiful, bright teenage daughter finds her life cracking up as she plunges into severe schizophrenia. Jenny uses poems, letters, diaries, hoping her painful journey may help other sufferers and their families.
£6.99 Available SPCK (ISBN:9780281050963)

More adult non-fiction

Be our Voice (Darton, Longman and Todd)
The account of Keston College and its work amongst religious beliers, Christians, Jews, and others in the repressed countries of the Soviet Bloc. Michael Bourdeaux, founder of Keston College, awarded the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion, was presented the Duke of Edinburgh, with a copy of this book. It also featured on the Soviet black list of dangerous books!

Praying with the English Mystics (Triangle/SPCK) re-works into prayer forms the writings of fourteenth century writers: Yorkshire born Richard Rolle, spiritual director Walter Hilton, the anonymous classic, Cloud of Unknowing and the much loved Julian of Norwich.

Mary of Nazareth (Triangle/SPCK)
“Well, you know, it happened like this. I was betrothed to Joseph the carpenter in Nazareth and then, one day, the angel came…”
This beautifully written book captures the essence of Mary’s Song. Jenny’s unusual sources include the Coptic Church and a 6th century Syrian writer, as well as Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Protestant traditions. She doesn’t neglect Joseph, suggesting that the faithful spouse offers a contemporary role model as foster-father of a gifted Child.

Books with Russian settings

Pilgrimage to Dzhvari; a woman’s journey of spiritual awakening by Valeria Alfeyeva, translated by Stuart and Jenny Robertson
An ancient monastery in the mountains of Georgia becomes the focus for a spiritual re-birth for a journalist nurtured in the Soviet regime.
Available on Amazon

A Season in St Petersburg (Lion Publishing)
Described as a riveting read, and “the best book I’ve ever read”, translated into German as Alltag in St Petersburg, this book begins one frosty February when Jenny and her husband Stuart move into a condemned building. Amusing and perceptive, the book ranges out into historic towns of Old Russia and down to the Caucasus. Jenny describes a country on the cusp of major change. Survival is maintained by a regular beating with birch twigs in the steam baths. The book plunges the reader into in a fabulous city, housing the art treasures of the world,.
Available on Amazon

Windows to Eternity (Bible Reading Fellowship)
Jenny offers an outsider’s view into the riches of the Russian Orthodox tradition. Some spiritual insights presented here have never before been translated for Western readers

Books on the Holocaust:

It began with the monument to the Freedom fighters of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, 1943. Unveiled in 1948, this heroic sculpture stood in empty space among raw new housing blocks. The monument and those silent spaces opened up the vanished world of terror and resistance that inspired Jenny to write a collection of poems and, later, a prose account.

Ghetto (Lion Publishing), artwork by Mark Cheverton
Chosen as Scotsman Book of the Week, the poems were highlighted in the Edinburgh Book Festival and short-listed for a literary prize.

Don’t go to Uncle’s Wedding, voices from the Warsaw Ghetto (Azure /SPCK)
Valued by students of Holocaust Studies, this prose account reveals remarkable archival material. Jenny translates personal memoirs, allowing vanished voices to speak of their experience. One chapter, The Hard Silence of God deals with religious experience in the extreme sufferings of the Warsaw Ghetto.

So, too, does Children of Exile, Adrian Snell with Jenny Robertson, foreword by Rabbi Hugo Gryn. (Word Books, Milton Keynes)
Christian musician, singer and songwriter, Adrian Snell presents his personal account of the way in which the Holocaust influenced two major albums and stage presentations: Alpha and Omega and Song of an Exile. Adrian sets to his own music Jewish poetry from the Bible, from the Book of Hebrew Verse and from the Children’s Poems of Terezin. Jenny writes the story Adrian tells.

Strength of the Hills (Bible Reading Fellowship)
Jenny takes the reader through a millennium and a half of Scottish Christian history, from its beginnings with St Ninian to the present day. We meet some remarkable people on the way, including Jane Haining, who hid Jewish children and died in Auschwitz. Jenny raises deeply-felt issues of language and culture as well as faith.

Jenny has also been a valued contributor to the Bible Reading Fellowship’s daily notes, New Daylight, as well as to their Quiet Spaces.
She has contributed to journals and newspapers and to BBC Radio Scotland. She has written two plays, The Seed Must Die and Aida of Leningrad, performed in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Her stories and poems have appeared in many anthologies for children and adults, including Warsaw Tales (New Europe Writers Ink) and Making Changes (Bridge House Publishing)

Jenny’s Poetry

The themes of crossing borders, of breaking down barriers, of language and loss are present in most of Jenny’s books, and underscore two collections of poetry: Beyond the Border (artwork by Mark and Lottie Cheverton) and Loss and Language (both published by Chapman).
Surf About Jenny to see what reviewers say about these books

In addition to Ghetto, she has also edited an anthology of Christian poetry. A Touch of Flame (Lion Publishing) brings together many poetic forms and voices from poets both well established and just breaking into publication who represent all the major Christian traditions. The poems celebrate the touch of God which makes commonplace things holy.

Jenny’s latest collection of poems is an e-book, Clarissa, or Arrested Innocence (chipmunkapublishing). This collection is woven around themes touched upon in Uninvited Guest, the suffering and extreme isolation of severe mental illness, though there are light-hearted moments as Jenny struggles to find comfort and gladness in the everyday.

Jenny is working on books for children with Polish themes.

Many books are available on Amazon. You can also contact Jenny.