Doune

About the Book

On being told by his doctor that he may have a terminal illness, Luke Garland decides to go back to his mother’s village for, perhaps, the very last time, where he spent very many happy days with his maternal relatives as a child away from the cold and anonymous face of London. Back to the days of innocence, security, freedom, great joy, and family-bonding and to a place where he felt love, acceptance, patriotism, empathy, and a connection with the simplicity of village life. Back to the memories both bad and good, where he goes to find himself yet instead finds great solace—the solace of accepting the life that he has led.

About the Author

Derek Ghirlando was born in Tripoli Libya in August 1955 and is the son of a Scottish mother and Maltese father. He and his family had to leave Libya after the revolution of 1969 when Gaddafi took over the country and thus came to live in England. Derek’s mother was actually born in Doune, near Stirling in 1927 and it is through her patriotic enthusiasm and promotion of her homeland that this book was inspired.