in UK	in USA

An Autobiography of William J. Nicol, 
doctor, surgeon, Minister and pilgrim with Avril

Against the Grain:  By William J. Nicol

UK price: £18.19    US price: $33.95 Format: Paperback Size : 6 x 9 Pages: 590 ISBN: 0-595-40040-X Published: Jul-2006

Other Formats:  Hard Cover : $43.95  £23.54 

Autobiographic journey through the changing patterns of life in Medicine and the Church in many parts of the world over the past 75 years. Conflicting priorities don’t diminish the drive of destiny with a kindred spirit by your side.

Book Description
School days in Guiana, Glasgow and Fife, two years in the Army and six years studying Medicine turned the boy into a doctor. Dreaming dreams with Avril, their marriage, their family and their affinity for common spiritual and material values set them on a pilgrimage of repeated challenges. Three years in a mission hospital in apartheid South Africa, conflicting interests of specialization and family responsibilities didn’t deter the writer from returning to South Africa to develop the Orthopaedic Service for the Transkei before settling in Halifax, West Yorkshire. In time another phase of life beckoned. Ordained to the ministry in the United Reformed Church, churches in Newcastle, Ashington, the Borders, Pietermaritzburg, have all heard the sermon on the Hip Joint. Changing attitudes in Medicine and the Church, as in society worldwide are described from a personal, family, often humorous perspective as the journey Against the Grain unfolds.

About the author

A retired minister of the United Reformed Church, William J. Nicol, (Bill), MB ChB (St. Andrews), FRCS Ed, BA (OU), MSc in African Studies (Edinburgh) trained at Mansfield College, Oxford, and was Ordained in 1990. Before this and pastorates in Newcastle upon Tyne, Ashington, Hobkirk and other border towns, Bill was a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at the Royal Halifax Infirmary where he specialized in hip replacement surgery. He has travelled widely, notably to South Africa. His home is now in Kelso.

Also by William J. Nicol:

Another Story:    A Tale of a Son and a Daughter of Two Villages By William J. Nicol

UK price: £6.99    US price: $11.99 Publisher: DIADEM BOOKS Format: Paperback Size : 22.9 x 15.2 x 0.7 cm Pages: 118 ISBN: 978-1907294372 Published: Feb-2010

About the book: This book is the tale of a son and a daughter of two villages in the Kingdom of Fife, in Scotland.  Their similarities in background in coal-mining East Fife, and their decidedly different outlooks on life grounded on quite different life-styles, are confronted in the light of our national divided society over the past three hundred years since the time of Alexander Selkirk and Robinson Crusoe. Love thrived on conflicts of mind and ideologies. The book is an inspirational tonic.