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The Quality of Mercy
Ferelith, born out of wedlock and brought up in an orphanage, decides on a career in law - a bold choice for a woman in 1930s Edinburgh. Her marriage to a fellow student ends in disaster with a revelation about her origins and she buries herself in her studies. But love hasn't finished with her.
406 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1963
About the author
Eileen Ramsay
37 books35 followersEileen Ainsworth was born on 16 December 1940 in the South-West of Scotland, where she brought up. She wrote since she was seven, but she decided become a teacher. After graduating she went to teach in the USA for a year - and stayed 18 years. She married Ian Ramsay, a Scottish mathematics scientist working on the first moon shots. They had two chidren. They returned to their native Scotland.
Her writing for children and adults has won several awards, including the Constable and Pitlochry trophies from the Scottish Association of Writers and the Romantic Novelists' Association's Elizabeth Goudge Award. In 2004 she was short listed for the Romantic Novel of the Year award.
Eileen is an honorary member of the Angus Writers Circle, was vice-president of the Scottish Association of Writers, a member of the Society of Authors and was on the committee of the Scottish branch for about six years and for four was the Secretary, and she was elected the twenty-seventh Chairman (2015-2017) of the Romantic Novelists' Association.
Her writing for children and adults has won several awards, including the Constable and Pitlochry trophies from the Scottish Association of Writers and the Romantic Novelists' Association's Elizabeth Goudge Award. In 2004 she was short listed for the Romantic Novel of the Year award.
Eileen is an honorary member of the Angus Writers Circle, was vice-president of the Scottish Association of Writers, a member of the Society of Authors and was on the committee of the Scottish branch for about six years and for four was the Secretary, and she was elected the twenty-seventh Chairman (2015-2017) of the Romantic Novelists' Association.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 11, 2016
I found this book hidden among some others when my grandmother was moving into a small apartment. The other books had been her uncle's, and included works by O'Henry, Eliot, Keats, Shelley,and the like, so I wondered if this would be a gem of a find.
I tore through the first part, and plodded through the rest. It wasn't the gem I'd hoped for. It tells the story of a family through several parts. Beginning in 1910 we see a man who builds a hospital which will bear his name, but it cannot care for unwed mothers. The man's daughter is in love with a doctor who's patient dies in childbirth because they can't get into the hospital.
In the late 1930s we meet their daughter Pamela and the child of the dead mother, Stephan, both flying to England in wartime. Neither knows the other. The rest of the story follows these two characters, though with more of a focus on Pamela, who marries a young Lord in England and proves to be very charitable in her works. We also see Stephan and what he manages to accomplish in post-war England during. Of course, in the end in the 1960s, the old doctor crosses the Atlantic to see his daughter. He happens to meet Stephan and remembering the name, bestows upon the orphaned man the knowledge of who his mother was and what happened.
I kept hoping this book would go somewhere, but in the end, it was a flop. I was disappointed and felt that while the build up was good, it just didn't sustain and the end was too contrived, too neat and perfect, and nothing but a moral to the tale seemed to be the reason for the whole book.
I tore through the first part, and plodded through the rest. It wasn't the gem I'd hoped for. It tells the story of a family through several parts. Beginning in 1910 we see a man who builds a hospital which will bear his name, but it cannot care for unwed mothers. The man's daughter is in love with a doctor who's patient dies in childbirth because they can't get into the hospital.
In the late 1930s we meet their daughter Pamela and the child of the dead mother, Stephan, both flying to England in wartime. Neither knows the other. The rest of the story follows these two characters, though with more of a focus on Pamela, who marries a young Lord in England and proves to be very charitable in her works. We also see Stephan and what he manages to accomplish in post-war England during. Of course, in the end in the 1960s, the old doctor crosses the Atlantic to see his daughter. He happens to meet Stephan and remembering the name, bestows upon the orphaned man the knowledge of who his mother was and what happened.
I kept hoping this book would go somewhere, but in the end, it was a flop. I was disappointed and felt that while the build up was good, it just didn't sustain and the end was too contrived, too neat and perfect, and nothing but a moral to the tale seemed to be the reason for the whole book.
Displaying 1 of 1 review