Elizabeth got polio at the height of her career, and she did whatever she needed to succeed. Since she could no longer dance, she formed a ballet company and taught. Since she could no longer use her hands, she learned to paint beautiful ballerinas and angels with a paint brush in her mouth. The book is wonderful to read and has many of her beautiful pictures and drawings in it. Elizabeth, who was totally paralysed by the poliovirus, says: "I am often asked what it feels like to be paralysed. Apart from being unable to move...and the non-stop battle to breathe, my body feels normal. If I could be granted three wishes I would choose the return of my diaphram, my hands and my arms." She enjoyed her work, and was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1977. Elizabeth was dealt a difficult hand, but she managed to deal with it. When asked what her ultimate goal was she answered, "I should think a nice little dance in heaven." And so, the dance does go on...

If you want to read an excellent, detailed and well written his tory of the Bradshaw family do not read this book. Instead read Jonathan Coleman's "At Mother's Request". This book needs alot of editing. The story is better told in chronological order, not by jumping around in time. The story of the murder of Franklin Bradshaw by his daughter, with his grandson acting as the "hit man" is a fascinating one. I just don't think that Ms. Alexander is a particularly capable writer. This book is both disorganized and overly speculative. Still, the story has no equal in its ability to hold your attention.

It is unsurprising, perhaps, that so gripping a story as the killing of Franklin Bradshaw attracted the attention of more than one author.

What is surprising (to me) is that Shana Alexander's book has received so much more attention over the years than Jonathan Coleman's simultaneously-published account of the same facts. Coleman wrote AT MOTHER'S REQUEST (1985). I found it by far the more informative and gripping of the two accounts.

The authors relied on different sources. Alexander seems to have been very diligent in exhaustively interviewing members of this extremely dysfunctional family. But Coleman had better access to law enforcement sources, and so tells the story as a police, and prosecutorial, man (and woman) hunt.

The different sources and perspectives have many consequences.. For example, Alexander mentions at one point that Marc Schroeder's defense attorneys introduced into court a tape of his mother berating his sister (who was 6 years old and a budding ballerina, the inspiration for Alexander's title). Frances shrieks at the young girl in the most horrible way for her inability to spit out the complete definition of a sentence. "A sentence begins with a capital letter, expresses a complete thought, and ends with a period, exclamation point, or question mark," -- quite a mouthful to memorise at six!

As I say, Alexander mentions this tape, but we have to take her word for it that it shows Frances doing that. Coleman actually reproduces a substantial portion of the transcript of the tape for us, so we draw our own conclusion about Mom's abusiveness.

Both authors seem to have invented false names to protect the budding ballerina. Alexander calls her "Aradne" as I think I remember. Coleman calls her "Lavinia." If ever there was a good case for changing the name to protect the innocent, this is it! Still, we can draw the conclusion that she must have some multi-syllabic and classical//mythical name. She must be an adult by now of,course (2000). I wonder whether she grew up all right after all this and whether she had an adult ballet careeer and even what she is doing now.

Alexander wrote a decent book. But if you're only going to read one, read Coleman's.

Oh boy. Just how much intense, stupid madness can one family harbor? The story reads like a parody of human behavior. Alexander's narrative, chuck full of detail and precise diction and some wonderful turns of phrase, often spirals into something like a long-running slapstick comedy too bizarre for television. The horror of neglect and greed, hatred, prejudice and violence are all here, but the form they take in this tale is so absurd sometimes that you have to laugh aloud at the sick antics.

The three most important characters are: Franklin Bradshaw, the miserly patriarch, apparently murdered by his grandsons at the insistence of his youngest daughter, Frances, an incredibly depraved creature nobody could have invented, and Berenice, mother of Frances and husband of Franklin, a slavish practitioner of "smotherly love." They hail from Utah where Franklin is a non-practicing Mormon. He has spent a lifetime of working sixteen hours a day and has, through his auto parts business and oil and land leases, amassed a fortune estimated in the hundreds of millions of (1981) dollars. Frances and everybody else in the family would like to get their hands on the money, and each of them is deathly afraid that the others are scheming to cheat them out of their fair share, and they are. But Frances, the youngest of the four Bradshaw children, is particularly evil. She is the pretty baby of the family that no one could ever say no to, who always got away with everything as a child and expects that to continue. When the world says, "Whoa, child, no!" she fights back with every scheme and wile she can muster, committing nearly any and all crimes imaginable. She usually gets away with them because she has a quality about her that prevents anyone from saying no to her, at least anyone in her family. She is perhaps as neglectful a mother as one can imagine, physically beating and mentally torturing her children, using them as pawns in her wars with her two ex-husbands and her parents and sisters. She is an alcoholic, a drug addict, a paranoid schizophrenic, a bigot, a class-conscious low life, who hates blacks, Jews and poor white trash; a woman who is as trashy as one can get, yet a woman who manages to manipulate her mother and father and others so that she always has time to drink and whore around and send her children to private schools (even as she pushes them out the door in the morning in their underwear without breakfast or bath).

But enough. It's a good read, and I have to admire Alexander's writing ability. She makes it all very vivid and she does it with style and grace and without taking up some phony political position or presenting some shallow psychology. She sparkles the narrative with insight and bon mots and never slows down or bores.

"Haunted Churches & Abbeys of Britain" is a nifty guide for those of us who would actually like to catch sight of a headless monk or two. The author gives directions to the various churches, ruined abbeys, priories, graveyards, and pubs (yes, pubs) in Great Britain that are reputed to be haunted by religious bodies. There are also a few white ladies, haunted clocks, a cockatrice, and several ghostly bears (not just the famous one in the Tower of London) thrown in for good measure. Here are two of the sites that the author describes:

--The haunted clock of Veryan Church in Cornwell is reputed to, "foretell death in the village should it strike on a Sunday morning during the pre-sermon hymn or before the collect against devils at evensong." The unlucky villager thus forewarned will die before the next Sunday. (You may want to visit Veryan on a day other than Sunday).

--King Harold Godwinson (who was buried in Waltham Abbey, Essex) reputedly haunts Battle Abbey (in Sussex). If you are one of those who believe that he was the last true King of England, "go to Battle in Sussex, which stands on the A2100 north of Hastings" and see if you can spot a bloodied figure gazing over the battlefield of Senlac ("Sonlac! Sanguelac, The lake of Blood."). If you visit this 1066 battleground after a rainstorm, you may also see the earth "sweating blood".

The author himself tried to visit as many of the haunted sites as possible, and he writes very readable vignettes on the ghostly throngs that glide over Britain's hallowed ground. If you enjoy reading this book, Marc Anderson has also published "Haunted Inns", "Haunted Castles", and "Phantom Britain".

If you are seriously contemplating a ghostly tour of Great Britain, "Haunted Inns" can be used as a companion guide to Marc Alexander's "Haunted Churches & Abbeys of Britain," "Haunted Castles," and "Phantom Britain."

If you book reservations as suggested by "Haunted Inns," you won't have to ghost-watch through the midnight hours in some damp, ruined abbey. You can try for a sighting in the comfort of your own hotel room---

Although, I don't know how comfortable I'd be if 'Mad Maude' came floating horizontally between the four posters of my bed, and I woke up eyeball-to-eye-socket with the ghostly nun (see chapter on "Mad Maude and the Weston Manor Hotel," Weston-on-the-Green).

The author himself suffered a painful encounter in the haunted skittle alley at the 'Holman Clavel' Inn in Blagdon, Somerset.

Sandra Biggs, whose marvelous line drawings depict each of the haunted inns in this book, had her own ghostly encounter at 'The Lord Crewe Arms,' Blanchland. This is one of the inns whose history the author narrates in loving detail. It has a heroine, Dorothy Forster, whose deeds outstripped those found in the wildest of fictional romances.

Her spirit is supposed to haunt the hotel that was once her home.

Many of the inns in this book started life as a manor house or abbey. An exception is the 'Ferry Boat Inn' of Holywell, whose ghost supposedly lived her brief, mortal life during the reign of the Saxon King, Edward the Confessor! In the "Guinness Book of Records," the 'Ferry Boat' lays serious claim to being the oldest hostelry in England.

"The White Lady who haunts the Ferry Boat Inn in the very heart of the legend-ridden Huntingdonshire fenland, is probably the longest established ghost to glide mysteriously in any English hostelry. Yet the fascination of her tragic story has not diminished during the last ten centuries. Recently over 400 people congregated on the anniversary of her death in the hope of seeing her wraith rise from an old tombstone set in the floor of the inn's bar."

I can vouch for the tombstone, although not the ghost since I was not visiting the 'Ferry Boat Inn' on the anniversary of her suicide (St. Patrick's Day). According to the author, one of the more unusual supernatural manifestations that goes beyond the usual banging of doors, and dogs that growl and bristle at the tombstone, is an unearthly dirge that can only be heard by women who visit the bar.

"Haunted Inns" is well worth reading for the history of these fascinating old British inns, even if you do not believe in ghosts.

The book was informative, however it lacked a certain sophistication which left many questions unanswered. Not enough time dedicated to flowers.

there was very little information on flower seeds, nor much in depth information.

Saving seeds is a time-honored tradition. This book tells you all you need to know about how to raise, harvest, and store seeds for the easiest-to-grow and most popular vegetables and ornamental plants. Answers hundreds of frequently asked gardening questions.

I wish that we'd owned a copy of "Haunted Castles" when we toured Great Britain. It would have been either the high-point or low-point of our trip if we'd actually caught sight of a long-departed Lord or Lady. It bothers me to realize that we visited Glamis Castle (the most haunted of all royal residences) and the Tower of London without a clue as to what we really might have seen.

However, your trip doesn't need to be spoiled by that same oversight, because Marc Alexander has published the ultimate tour guide to the haunted castles of Great Britain. His book was published back in 1974, but I don't imagine that it has gone out-of-date. What do the Grey Ladies, Phantom Pipers, and assorted ghostly prisoners in their dungeons care about the passage of time? According to the author, some of them have been haunting the same spot for several hundred years.

Of course, the phantoms may have been exorcised if they frightened too many tourists, so you are still advised to call in advance of your visit.

The author himself tried to visit many of the haunted castles, and he writes very atmospheric stories about the not-so-departed departed. He also narrates a brief, painless history of each site mentioned in this book. A sampling:

Rochester Castle, Kent - "A girl, her body transfixed by an arrow and an expression of terror beneath her wildly flowing hair, is the spectre of Rochester Castle which is still seen after seven centuries"

Roslin Castle, Midlothian - Sir Walter Scott wrote a poem about the ghostly portent that precedes the death of a lord of Roslin Castle (now a ruin): "...Blazed battlement and pinnet high,/ Blazed every rose-carved buttress fair;/ So still they blaze, when fate is nigh/ The lordly line of Hugh St Clair."

If you enjoyed these stories about burning death portents and ghostly, arrowed brides, Marc Anderson has also published "Haunted Inns", "Haunted Churches & Abbeys of Britain ", and "Phantom Britain".

"Phantom Britain" is the third book in the series that also includes "Haunted Inns," "Haunted Churches & Abbeys of Britain," and "Haunted Castles." It is more of a hodge-podge than its companion volumes and overlaps a bit onto their territories since it attempts to cover all aspects of phantom Britain. A look at the Table of Contents shows the territory that the author attempts to cover: " (1) Houses of Dread; (2) Skullduggery!; (3) England's Martial Spirits; (4) Scotland's Spectral Soldiers; (5) Water Wraiths; (6) Classic Cases; (7) Bells and Drums; (8) Haunted Villages; (9) Phantoms of the Road; (10) Hallowed Stones; (11) Holy Ghosts; (12) In Their Own Experience; (13) Haunted Hospitality; (14) At the Hour of Death; (15) The Most Haunted House?; (16) The Haunted Mountain; (17) Borley Rectory Yet Again; (18) Blood Royal; (19) Spirits of the Outdoors."

Marc Alexander differs from the majority of his fellow occultists in that Borley Rectory is not his most haunted house. That honor goes to a classic Tudor manor house at Sandford Orcas in Dorset. "It is reputed to be haunted by over a dozen ghosts...When I entered its ancient gateway (where one of the current ghosts hanged himself from a pulley still to be seen), I found the appearance of the house to be exactly right for the part. Built of grey stone, it has deep mullioned windows, tall Elizabethan chimneys and high gables, each surmounted by a leering gargoyle the shape of an ape."

As always, the author attempts to visit each of the sites that he includes in his book, and he writes of its actual as well as occult history. "Phantom Britain" entertains on both levels, and if you want to ghost-hunt through "This spectre'd Isle" you would do well to let Mr. Alexander be your guide.

My two personal favorites among his books are "Haunted Inns" and "Haunted Churches & Abbeys of Britain."