The Colours of Lennox

"The Colours of Lennox" novel by Ben McGrenatleyson, 1899, Cauldron Publishing, Printing and Issuing, Ayr, Scotland, Hardcover, 412 pages, one drawing. Great read, interesting story, well written will leave you wanting more from where this comes from.The hero of the story is Craig Coulton described as tall, with dark-red hair, of a strong and handsome figure with a permanent brooding look, a man of few words and firm beliefs. He has a small shop on Hunt Street in downtown Swindon,  where he makes, sales, cleans and mends gloves. Craig lives alone in the small apartment above the store, his only friends are the lads he has pints at night at the Thistle and Whistle, around the corner on Victoria Road. One day, a formidable lady of noble bearing and great poise walks into the shop asking for Rowan's Goatskin Gloves, "light burgundy or dark ocher, please!". The novel takes now a fantastic turn, Craig has a psychotic episode seeming to fly high above the North Wessex Downs searching for the meaning of life and stealing pens off other people's desks. When he comes to, he is alone in the shop holding a piece of white chalk, on the floor, in front of him, chalked in neat handwriting the words "Santiago Colors". Within two weeks Craig sells everything he owns and books passage to Chile. Once in Santiago de Chile, he leases a workshop in the Macul neighborhood and starts experimenting with pigments in chalk. In less than a year he opens a shop with the most exquisite colored chalk sticks anybody could have ever dreamed of and calls it "The Colours of Lennox". His commercial success brings fame and fortune and invitations to the noblest houses in town where he meets, courts and marries Maria Fernanda Lucia Esmeralda Conubles Flores Fernandez y Cocq. The novel ends with Craig sitting on the veranda of his hacienda listening to the Gramophone playing "The Bonnie Banks o'Loch Lomond" watching his three sons and two daughters drawing.

I read and reviewed this volume as part me cataloguing and creating an inventory of the books found as part of the "The Evart-Gunn Publishing Company Book Salvage Operation" (see first entry of this blog).