"Blessed Harlaxton, My Home": Harlaxton Essays (Paperback)
"Blessed Harlaxton, My Home" is a nostalgic, whimsical, sometimes quirky, often humorous journey through life and learning in a magical place--Harlaxton College in England. In 53 short sketches, the author takes us on an entertaining and clear-eyed trek through Harlaxton Manor herself, the legendary British Studies Programme and Harlaxton's serious academic demands, Travel in Britain and Europe--and getting back home, Sport, The Naked Mile, Bistro Doings, Bob the Swan, Ziggy and Doug, Grantham and Isaac Newton and Maggie Thatcher, Billy James and His Magical Bagpipes, and much much more. Taken together, these essays bring the Harlaxton Experience to life, making it clear why for more than fifty years, students and faculty in Britain and America, from Harlaxton to Stanford to Evansville, from Eau Claire to Western Kentucky to Eastern Illinois, from Baker to Jewell, from Texas Woman's to Texas Lutheran, from USI to Wabash to Marian, and in dozens of other schools, have said again and again words that have become for them almost a sacred mantra in coming of age: "Harlaxton changed my life
Dr. J. Gordon Kingsley was Principal and a lecturer in British Studies at Harlaxton College from January, 2003 to his retirement in June, 2014. His long and deep love of Harlaxton began in 1973 when, as a young Professor of English at William Jewell College in Missouri, he arranged a Partner relationship with Harlaxton's home campus, the University of Evansville, which he then nourished through his terms of service as Dean of the College and President of William Jewell. He has often said it outright: "I love Harlaxton College"; and this book is a testament to how he sought, "Inch by Inch, and Row by Row," to help Harlaxton become #1 among "The 50 Best Study Abroad Programs" from the United States.