Longman’s Charity is a Story
Damaged by an attempted abortion,
preyed-on by the violence of his parents' marriage,
abused from the age of 7, shut away in a mental hospital at 13,
Paul Broadley never ceases to love the landscape he grows up in,
which acts as a precursor to his salvation.
But there is a serpent in that garden, that wilfully corrupts people, yet redemption is strewn widely for those able to respond. Longman's Charity is a novel, a theological parable, about landscape and childhood, sanity and abuse, truth and redemption. Stigmatized and avoided by his peers, there is deep psychological trauma in Paul as he represses the memories of the abuse, yet there is a passionate joy in his love of the countryside, the natural world: the hills, the vale, the glorious fecundity of God's creation. When he climbs out of the vale onto Bredon Hill for the first time his realization is of the beauty and the joy of God's creation, but also the evil that infects it. Longman's Charity is an illustration of The Book of the Psalms, the existence portrayed by the psalm writers: as he grows up, redemption comes
through realizing the Truth, . . . in Christ.
Longman’s Charity is novel about a boy:
Paul Broadley.
It is a novel about landscape and childhood,
sanity and abuse, truth and redemption.
Paul is subject to abuse—by his mother (not his father)—between the ages of seven and thirteen years, starting after the death of his maternal grandfather whom the boy valued above his parents.
This abuse generates deep psychological trauma in him
as he represses the memories of this abuse.
His school teachers and social workers
are concerned at his state of mind.
This leads Paul to be admitted to an adult male ward in Powick mental hospital when he is thirteen, where he observes fallen humanity in all its depravity. The rows, the violence at home, and the suffocating abuse, is mirrored in the men he has to live with in Powick,
but the hospital’s art room becomes a sanctuary.
After his release, he is defined by the local authority as educationally sub-normal and sent away to a residential special school,
which merely repeats the experiences.
Paul is even more stigmatized and avoided by children and adults
around him after his return.
Throughout his childhood Paul escapes into the landscape: the market gardening small holdings, the hills, the vale, the glorious fecundity of God’s creation, clothed by a pre-chemicalization, small-scale—almost biblical—agrarian economy. When he climbs out of the vale onto Bredon Hill for the first time his realisation is of God’s creation
but also the evil that infects it.
Longman’s Charity can be seen as an illustration of The Book of the Psalms, humanity’s crisis of existence as portrayed by the psalm writers: redemption comes through realizing the truth, in Christ, as he moves away, leaves.
Longman’s Charity is an autobiographical parable.
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What is the story about?–
STORY
Why are there quotations from the Psalms that open each chapter?–
THE BOOK OF THE PSALMS
Where did the story take place?–
LOCATIONS
What did these places look like?–
GALLERIES
Who is the author?–
AUTHOR
Links to relevant organizations and web sites?–
LINKS
Send a message to the author?–
CONTACT
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Longman’s Charity was published on August 14, 2014 by
Wipf and Stock, the American publisher in Eugene, Oregon.
Longman’s Charity is available from Amazon
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For U.K. readers
follow these links–
Amazon UK
Paperback Edition :
– LONGMAN’S CHARITY
PAPERBACK –
Amazon UK
Kindle Edition :
– LONGMAN’S CHARITY
KINDLE EDITION –
Wipf & Stock
ePub Format (not readable
on Kindle but on most other
eBook readers) :
– LONGMAN’S CHARITY
EBOOK EDITION –
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For U.S. readers
follow these links–
Amazon USA
Paperback Edition :
– LONGMAN’S CHARITY
PAPERBACK –
Amazon USA
Kindle Edition :
– LONGMAN’S CHARITY
KINDLE EDITION –
Wipf & Stock
ePub Format (not readable
on Kindle but on most other
eBook readers) :
– LONGMAN’S CHARITY
EBOOK EDITION –
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Longman’s Charity is also available from
Wipf & Stock’s web site for American
and international orders :
– WIPF & STOCK LONGMAN’S CHARITY DIRECT LINK –
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Publisher’s Flyer–
– LONGMAN’S CHARITY WIPF & STOCK FLYER –
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Excerpt–
– LONGMAN’S CHARITY PROLOGUE & CHAPTER 1 –
“Used with Permission of Wipf and Stock Publishers”
Details:
– LONGMAN’S CHARITY – WIPF & STOCK –
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Endorsements–
“Paul Brazier describes a Dantean personal journey
from the living hell of his childhood and adolescence through
the purgatory of finding forgiveness for those who wronged him to the paradise of his faith and loving devotion to his wife. Guided by his Virgil, the natural beauty of the world, he comes to see that the world is, indeed, fused with ‘the beauty and grandeur of God.’
A moving and, ultimately, uplifting story of the triumph
of love over evil.”
Suzanne M. Wolfe,
Writer in Residence, Seattle Pacific University
“Paul articulates his powerful story in a beautiful profound way.
It is a powerful story that compels readers to consider the presence of God in the midst of terrible lifelong circumstances. It was helpful for me as a fellow victim of child abuse and other life circumstances that He suffered (along with the after effects of relatives that committed suicide.) Thank you, Paul, for bringing me hope
through the presence of Christ as your hope.”
Julie Woodley,
Restoring the Heart Ministries, Inc., Setauket, NY
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Bredon Hill from Shenberrow
Photographed from the hamlet of Shenberrow
on the escarpment edge, North Cotswolds.
Middle distance, from the left, Dumbleton Hill, Bredon Hill, and then Evesham; with the Malvern Hills centre horizon. Key (PDF, 2mb)
Photographs and montage, February 1995, © Paul Brazier
(Nikon FM2, 45mm lens, f.16, 30th sec, tripod,
8 frame rotate right to left, 125ASA Fujicolour)
Click on the above – PDF photo file, 6mb; 2268 x 746 pixels
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