A massive shipment of my books has just arrived on my doorstep from Shanghai and were they heavy! So I now want to relieve the weight on my front room floor and am keen to send you one. If you email me at arhicks56@hotmail.com I will happily tell you the cost.
In London you can get a copy at the Friends Centre Bookshop in the Euston Road and in the US at Pendle Hill, Philadelphia and on www.quakerbooks.org.
I'm not a Quaker myself though have recently become their advocate. One thing I admire about them is that though the Friends Ambulance Unit was a Quaker foundation the only qualification to join was to be a pacifist and only a minority were actually Quakers. That tolerant and inclusive approach is unusual and admirable.
Similarly in Jack's writings in A TRUE FRIEND TO CHINA there is hardly a mention by him of the Quakers and they were absolutely not pushing bibles. Jimmy, on John Peter's shoulder is described as not being 'a good Quakerly monkey' and Jack describes getting agreement on a particular question as being, 'as difficult as deciding whether to open a window at a Quaker Meeting'.
The book isn't about a missionary project taking religion to the Chinese. It's just a story of young lads out in China at a hellish time in history just trying to make a difference.
It's all there in the book and it's about time the story was told.
