The Munich Pursuit

Fiction based on fact, this a story of the search by the Germans and British to establish how far the other has reached in the development of a jet-engined fighter plane prior to WW2. In UK, the Germans use a dissident South-African-born engineer who lost both parents in the Boer War and harbours a resentment against the British government. Dogged police work eventually exposes him. In Germany, the British lose their experienced agent and are forced to use two reserve officers to fill the gap. The two are discovered by the German Security Forces in the act of taking photographs. They are forced to flee across Germany and France with their information, the Germans in hot pursuit. The German Security operatives have orders to kill them and retrieve the photographs. The Munich Crisis of 1938 with the threat of war causes travel chaos and in part, hinders both sides in the pursuit.

The Measure

One early winter’s morning, a teenage boy is found lying outside the gates of a monastery. The monks take him in, and eventually, in terrible distress, he tells them that he has killed his father. This story follows the life of the boy’s father and the discovery the boy makes about his father’s past.

The Long Dark Trail

The Long Dark Trail is an epic, centuries-spanning saga of American life, covering various generations of the Allen family, from their humble origins in England to their friendship with the neighboring Green family and beyond. The two families’ reactions to black emancipation could not be more different: while the Greens choose to give their land away to their former slaves, the Allens remain wedded to the past. By the middle of the twentieth century, the family patriarch Bob Allen continues to pursue his vicious hatred of people of color, even as the ground starts to shift beneath his feet…

This extraordinary novel provides a soul-searching account of America’s miraculous, complex history, recounting the triumphs and despairs of generations of white and black Americans joined together by slavery and its aftermath. The country’s changing racial landscape is reflected in the fortunes of the book’s main protagonist, Bob Allen’s daughter Elizabeth, and her biracial “dream son” Jesse.

The Life and Loves of Saint Columba

‘Years ago, I was captivated by a magical day spent on Iona and dreamed of writing a book on St Columba, an inspirational man far ahead of his time, who challenged the institutions of church and state, and created a monastery that became a beacon of spiritual and artistic light during the dark ages.’  Tim Hetherington
In this bold take on the life of Saint Columba – the founder of the religious community on the Scottish island of Iona and one of Ireland’s three patron saints – Tim Hetherington eschews the pieties of a conventional hagiography in favour of a more down-to-earth view of the saint and the religious, social and political world of Ireland and Scotland in the sixth century AD. Originally named Crimthann – the fox – and a member of the powerful Ui Neill Clan, Columba’s remarkable gifts of intellect and character were quickly noted and nourished by the leading clerics of the day. But his impetuous nature and family loyalties led him to involvement in political intrigues and conflicts.
Denounced by Church leaders, Columba left Ireland with twelve monks and founded the monastery on Iona. Over the years he established the Christian Church throughout Dalriada, the Irish kingdom in Western Scotland, and then in the rest of Scotland ruled by King Bridei of the Picts. Columba aligned himself closely, perhaps too closely, with the Dalriadan royal family. But the sheer force of his personality and his dedication to spreading Christianity by written works as well as by word of mouth ensured his special place in history.
Masterfully blending extensive research and novelistic imagination, The Life and Loves of Saint Columba is full of fascinating insights into the nature of faith and spirituality. This is a must-read for anyone interested in Christianity or Irish history.

The Lamb Of God

England, the 1460s: the conflict known as the Wars of the Roses, pitting Lancastrian against Yorkist, is at its height. After his terrible experiences at the Battle of Towton and the siege of  Bamburgh Castle, Philip Neville is tasked with finding and escorting the recently deposed Henry VI – a man so pious and kind-hearted that many call him ‘the lamb of God’ – to London. During the period of relative peace that follows, Philip, previously disappointed in love, is at last persuaded to take a wife and make his way at court but finds it difficult to rein in his belligerent and insubordinate nature.
Despite his burning hatred for the ambitious nobles who have profited from the war, Philip remains steadfastly loyal to the new king, Edward IV. However, that loyalty is tested as never before when the alliance between the two most powerful men in the country – King Edward and Richard Neville, known as ‘Warwick the Kingmaker’  – begins to fray…
The Lamb of God is the second book in Philip Photiou’s War of the Roses trilogy. The first, The Wrath of Kings, was praised by best-selling author Philippa Gregory for its ‘intense realism and wealth of period detail’: qualities that The Lamb of God displays on every page.

The Journey – Prologue to Hell

The Journey – Prologue to Hell is indeed what the book’s title tells all its readers. It gives exactly the train passengers’ experience to those who’d been gathered up from their homes to be transported on it. To what, those passengers had wondered. Given false knowledge of a wonderful life they were being taken to by Nazis who’d dragged them out onto the road into waiting lorries then onto a train, they soon found that was false. They discovered the train journey didn’t lie, though; it showed its passengers the truth long before it ended.

The Guard Dogs of Babylon

Lewis Henry lived through the post World War II demise of European imperial adventures. After centuries of conflict, genocide and slavery of indigenous peoples to maximise profits from their colonies, the ruling powers confronted each other in a devastating war. The lessons learned from this disaster led to the adoption of more enlightened philosophies, systems of government and social institutions to avoid further destruction on a global scale. Hence, European societies were transformed into welfare states, former colonies gained their ‘independence’, and transport and communications were improved worldwide. The technological revolutions of the 21^st century are now creating a global village that requires the elimination of oppression based on gender, class, race, caste and ethnicity so that people may live in peace and prosperity. This novel, by the descendant of slaves whose voices have not been heard for centuries, is a modest contribution to the creation of a better world.

The Great History of the Manor Bouchove Part 1: Small Village in the Big World

We live in a house in the centre of a small village. With its stately façades and turret, the villagers sweetly call it châtelet. Before us, French noblesse stayed in it, gentry with impressive estates in France. During numerous holiday trips, we located and documented all of it. But that didn't give an answer to the question: How to present it in a digestible...no, into a captivating manner?
How to abridge the centuries and how to connect the turbulent history of Europe with everyday life in the village?
For that purpose, I introduced a family of estate stewards employed by the Masters of Bouchove. After all, ‘masters come and go, but stewards stay’. Besides clerks, marketers and a villain.
Thus, I got a storyline and could start processing the numerous bits and pieces of information into three volumes that give the rich history of Bouchove.

The Golden Threads

Nellie was brought up by her grandparents and lived in the East End of London. At the age of 19, she was able to start the job she had wanted, in a large J. Lyons & Co. Corner House tea room in London, where she became a ‘Nippy’, as the waitresses were called, where she also met her lifelong friend Connie.

Soon after she also met the love of her life, Tommy Brown, but her idyllic life was soon to change with the outbreak of WW2. The comfortable and safe routine of life was soon turned on its head.

The Emperor's Marble Pavement

The Emperor’s Marble Pavement, the second of four novels about the fall of Constantinople, finds Niccolo Gritti and Demetrius Alexandrou plunged in the turmoil of a city on war’s brink, their friendship complicated by the presence of Theodora, Demetrius’ pious sister and the prostitute Cinnamon. Now in the Emperor’s service, Niccolo must make accommodation with an embattled Venetian merchant colony. The struggle between Constantine’s supporters and those who would appease the Ottomans climaxes in the infamous Service of Union in Hagia Sophia. Then Demetrius disappears, a victim of his peace-party enemies. Niccolo goes in pursuit and the friends are reunited in the Turkish court, under the cynical eye of Mehmet II. Here, courtesy of Nestor-Iskander, a Christian fanatic in the Sultan’s service, they witness the Ottoman siege train’s ominous preparations before fleeing back to Constantinople. In The Emperor’s Marble Pavement, the cross-currents of personal and historical destiny take on new turbulence.

The Cedars of Beckenham

The Mystery of an Antique German Doll reunites members of a family torn apart during The Third Reich of Nazi Germany.

This family saga, starting in the leafy suburb of Beckenham on the borders of Kent and London, begins in 1930 in the comfortable world of four British upper-middle class families blind to the impending changes that are about to threaten not only their world, but everyone else’s world, too.

A doll belonging to the Abuthnott family becomes the catalyst that brings about two sides of the Rubenstein family, who were able to escape from Germany in the late 1930s finding refuge in the United States of America and in the British Mandate of Palestine.

Along the way, the horrors of the Blitz and the British struggle for survival are enacted out against the parallel Germanic horror of holocaust separation. The survivors in the United States, Great Britain and Israel adapt to a new world as it unfolds through the second half of the 20th century, until by the chance sale of a German Biedermeier doll at Sotheby’s in New York, their separate paths are brought together in 2017.

The four Beckenham families adapt to their changing lifestyles witnessing a rich tapestry of 20th century history taking the reader all over the world with its beauty, passion and prejudices.

The Boy from Kalimpong

This story is about a boy who grew up in Kalimpong at an approximate distance on a straight line as the crow flies 100 miles (162 kms) towards southeast of the highest mountain in the world, Mount Everest, amongst the Rong folks, Lepchas the autochthones, ‘Ronkup’, ‘Ronkum’, or ‘Rong’ people. Lepcha people designated as UN ancient tribe, native to the region; and their land ‘Mayel-Lyang’ once bordered further into Tibet, eastern Nepal, western Bhutan and as far south as Siliguri and Jalpaiguri in West Bengal and some parts of Duars than it does today.

Kalimpong part of Lepcha culture was the ridge where Mary and Nigel played happily with unabated joy until his sister, Mary Maung Taung Lai’s early, untimely death and Nigel Kenchinz Lai’s journey to America because of the impact of the 1960 Sino-Indian border war. Many Chinese Indians were stranded, declared stateless, homeless and their inability to get jobs in India caused them to move abroad. Nigel was fortunate to receive four scholarships, four from American universities and one from Canada.

Some parts of the story are true and some portions of this book have been developed that closely parallel the real events experienced by the author. The author and his sister were fascinated with the dragon ‘Thunder and Lightning’, where clouds burst into flashing lightning followed by a big thunder storm every monsoon season. Mr. Karamkurung was their common thread for connection.

Chris Ahoy was born in Kalimpong in 1939. He started at St. Joseph Convent, Kalimpong all girls’ school, co-educational school at Dr. Graham’s Homes, Victoria Boys’ School, Kurseong, St. Xavier’s College Calcutta (Kolkata), Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur and University of California, Berkeley, California (UCB), where he received the coveted Regent’s Fellowship Award to complete his masters’ degree in nine months. Chris is a US citizen, served as Assistant Director and Campus Architect at UCB, Statewide Director for Systemwide of Higher Education in Alaska, Assistant Vice President Business and Finance and Director of Facilities Planning and Management at University of Nebraska central offices and finally Associate Vice President for Facilities Planning and Management at Iowa State University. Before retiring in 2010, his organization received the coveted State of Iowa, Iowa Recognition Performance Excellence (IRPE) 2009 Gold Award (State Baldrige Award). After retirement he continues to mentor and provide consulting in ‘Creating World-Class Organization’.