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Acceptable Substitutes
In 1920, the three Crenshaw children are orphaned.Brenda despairs over her separation from her brothers. Eventually, she finds solace with her neighbor, Nicholas.Reginald quickly accepts his new life on a farm. After a failed marriage, during World War II, he finds the woman who fills his life with meaning.Mathew grieves most severely. He settles into the life of a poet in France. He finds the love he longed for. Her demise sinks him into deep despair. When he returns to America, he is rescued by a new love.The trials of separation, war, and lost loved ones trigger the human instinct to recover in the Crenshaws. They find acceptable substitutes.
476 pages, Paperback
First published June 14, 2005
About the author
Barbara Allen
78 books6 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
Violet Vivian Finlay was born on 2 January 1914 in Berkshire, England, UK, the daughter of Alice Kathleen (née Norton) and Sir Campbell Kirkman Finlay. Her father was the owner and director of Burmah Oil Company Ltd., whose Scottish family also owned James Finlay and Company Ltd. The majority of her childhood and youth was spent in Rangoon, Burma (now also known as Myanmar), where her father worked. During her life, she frequently journeyed between India, Singapore, Java and Sumatra.
Although Vivian is well-known by the surname of Stuart, she married four times during her lifetime, and had five children: Gillian Rushton (née Porch), Kim Santow, Jennifer Gooch (née Stuart), and twins Vary and Valerie Stuart.
Following the dissolution of her first marriage, she studied for a time Law in London in the mid 1930s, before decided studied Medicine at the University of London. Later she spent time in Hungary in the capacity of private tutor in English, while she obtained a pathologist qualification at the University of Budapest in 1938. In 1939, she emigrated to Australia with her second husband, a Hungarian Doctor Geza Santow with whom she worked. In 1942, she obtained a diploma in industrial chemistry and laboratory technique at Technical Institute of Newcastle. Having earned an ambulance driver's certificate, she joined the Australian Forces at the Women's Auxiliary Service during World War II. She was attached to the IVth Army, and raised to the rank of sergeant, she was posted to British XIV Army in Rangoon, Burma in October 1945, and was then transferred to Sumatra in December. After the WWII, she returned to England. On 24 October 1958, she married her fourth and last husband, Cyril William Mann, a bank manager.
She was a prolific writer from 1953 to 1986 under diferent pseudonyms: Vivian Stuart, Alex Stuart, Barbara Allen, Fiona Finlay, V. A. Stuart, William Stuart Long and Robyn Stuart. Many of her novels were protagonized by doctors or nurses, and set in Asia, Australia or other places she had visited. Her romance novel, Gay Cavalier published in 1955 as Alex Stuart got her into trouble with her Mills & Boon editors when she featured a secondary story line featuring a Catholic male and Protestant female who chose to marry. This so-called "mixed marriage" touched nerves in the United Kingdom.
In 1960, she was a founder of the Romantic Novelists' Association, along with Denise Robins, Barbara Cartland, and others; she was elected the first Chairman (1961-1963). In 1970, she became the first woman to chair Swanwick Writers' Summer School.
Violet Vivian Finlay Porch Santow Stuart Mann passed away on August 1986 in Yorkshire, at age 72. She continued writing until her death.
Violet Vivian Finlay was born on 2 January 1914 in Berkshire, England, UK, the daughter of Alice Kathleen (née Norton) and Sir Campbell Kirkman Finlay. Her father was the owner and director of Burmah Oil Company Ltd., whose Scottish family also owned James Finlay and Company Ltd. The majority of her childhood and youth was spent in Rangoon, Burma (now also known as Myanmar), where her father worked. During her life, she frequently journeyed between India, Singapore, Java and Sumatra.
Although Vivian is well-known by the surname of Stuart, she married four times during her lifetime, and had five children: Gillian Rushton (née Porch), Kim Santow, Jennifer Gooch (née Stuart), and twins Vary and Valerie Stuart.
Following the dissolution of her first marriage, she studied for a time Law in London in the mid 1930s, before decided studied Medicine at the University of London. Later she spent time in Hungary in the capacity of private tutor in English, while she obtained a pathologist qualification at the University of Budapest in 1938. In 1939, she emigrated to Australia with her second husband, a Hungarian Doctor Geza Santow with whom she worked. In 1942, she obtained a diploma in industrial chemistry and laboratory technique at Technical Institute of Newcastle. Having earned an ambulance driver's certificate, she joined the Australian Forces at the Women's Auxiliary Service during World War II. She was attached to the IVth Army, and raised to the rank of sergeant, she was posted to British XIV Army in Rangoon, Burma in October 1945, and was then transferred to Sumatra in December. After the WWII, she returned to England. On 24 October 1958, she married her fourth and last husband, Cyril William Mann, a bank manager.
She was a prolific writer from 1953 to 1986 under diferent pseudonyms: Vivian Stuart, Alex Stuart, Barbara Allen, Fiona Finlay, V. A. Stuart, William Stuart Long and Robyn Stuart. Many of her novels were protagonized by doctors or nurses, and set in Asia, Australia or other places she had visited. Her romance novel, Gay Cavalier published in 1955 as Alex Stuart got her into trouble with her Mills & Boon editors when she featured a secondary story line featuring a Catholic male and Protestant female who chose to marry. This so-called "mixed marriage" touched nerves in the United Kingdom.
In 1960, she was a founder of the Romantic Novelists' Association, along with Denise Robins, Barbara Cartland, and others; she was elected the first Chairman (1961-1963). In 1970, she became the first woman to chair Swanwick Writers' Summer School.
Violet Vivian Finlay Porch Santow Stuart Mann passed away on August 1986 in Yorkshire, at age 72. She continued writing until her death.
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August 15, 2014
Author Bobbie Barton was born in Westbury, Long Island, New York, and was raised in Brooklyn. After marriage, her husband was drafted into the army and sent to Germany where she followed. When they returned home, they came back along with their first daughter. She gave birth to two more children. Her separation from her first husband and remarriage brought two more teenagers to the family. Sadly, her second husband died. She then started writing as a way to enjoy retirement.
Acceptable Substitutes by Bobbie Barton was first published by AuthorHouse in 2005. With the story starting in the 1920s and covering the Second World War, Bobbie paints a tragic story involving the Crenshaw family comprising of father, mother and three children – Brenda, Reginald and Matthew. After the death of their mother, their father sunk himself into a pit of depress and later committed suicide. It was their grandmother who decided to send them off to different relatives. It is this arrangement which prompted author Bobbie Barton to name the book Acceptable Substitutes.
Acceptable Substitutes by Bobbie Barton is a tragic and poignant tale that follows the three Crenshaw children as they go their separate ways and are raised under different conditions. The book traces the story of each Crenshaw children as they journey on in life through their heartbreaks and happiness. It is a passionate story of loneliness, loss, longing and love – a story that will not leave you unmoved.
Acceptable Substitutes by Bobbie Barton was first published by AuthorHouse in 2005. With the story starting in the 1920s and covering the Second World War, Bobbie paints a tragic story involving the Crenshaw family comprising of father, mother and three children – Brenda, Reginald and Matthew. After the death of their mother, their father sunk himself into a pit of depress and later committed suicide. It was their grandmother who decided to send them off to different relatives. It is this arrangement which prompted author Bobbie Barton to name the book Acceptable Substitutes.
Acceptable Substitutes by Bobbie Barton is a tragic and poignant tale that follows the three Crenshaw children as they go their separate ways and are raised under different conditions. The book traces the story of each Crenshaw children as they journey on in life through their heartbreaks and happiness. It is a passionate story of loneliness, loss, longing and love – a story that will not leave you unmoved.
Displaying 1 of 1 review