Tony Cope

Stealing Stones Tony Cope

Publisher Marketing: The Chambers Concise Dictionary defines the word "serendipity" as "the faculty of making happy chance finds." In the Merriam Webster Dictionary it is "the faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought after." Coined by Horace Walpole in 1754, it is the term that characterizes the author's life and is the theme that runs throughout this book. Stealing Stones is about a journey; one which has taken many unexpected and for the most part happy turns. The author has probably been, metaphorically speaking, Stealing Stones throughout his whole adult life, finding himself in professions and activities for which he had no preparation or training and in which he had no expectations of ever being involved. The comedian and actor, W. C. Fields, once said, "Never work with children or animals." For eighteen years the author as first director of the Oatland Island Wildlife Center worked with both and loved it, but it was a job he never expected to have and one for which he had no real background. After retiring he left Savannah, a city said by many to be the most beautiful in North America, the place where he had been born and raised and spent his whole working life and had many life-long friends. He and his wife moved to Northern Ireland a country with which he had no connection, one he had never even visited and one in which he was afraid to say or do anything as it was still immersed in the "Troubles." One might think that this was the end of this journey, One might... and be wrong. As soon as he had become both comfortable and settled in his new situation and enjoying life in the "North," the decision was made to move south to the Republic, a country that the author knew only through the huge annual St. Patrick's Day celebrations in Savannah. There he became involved in a variety of new and unexpected activities which included authoring three books and writing the scripts for and performing in several highly acclaimed musical shows. Most importantly, in mid life he acquired a wonderful family with whom he has shared much of this journey. Stealing Stones is about a career and indeed a life that has been totally serendipitous. Contributor Bio:  Cope, Tony Tony Cope is a native of Savannah, Georgia, who retired after thirty years in public education, serving as a teacher, head baseball coach, administrator and creator and long-time director of the award winning environmental education facility, the Oatland Island Education Centre. He was a member of a long list of State and local boards, served three terms as president of the Savannah Symphony and was featured in the book, "Movers and Shakers of Georgia." He is the author of "On the Swing Shift: Building Liberty Ships in Savannah" published by the Naval Institute Press in 2009, and has written the scripts for and performed in three highly acclaimed musical productions, "Moon River; A Tribute to Johnny Mercer," The Rat Pack and Friends" and "Tin Pan Alley: From Ragtime to Show Time." He is also the author of "A History of the Mashie-Niblicks Golfing Society" published in 2012. Tony now lives with his wife, Ellen, and five cats near Kinsale in County Cork, dividing his time between writing, playing golf (badly) and building dry stone walls.