For The Good Of All: Die Glocke

Description

Former journalist Steve Diamond is diagnosed with terminal leukaemia just as his closest friend, Toby, is sent to work at an above-top-secret government facility in Wiltshire. Toby discovers that not only does the mythical German “wonder-weapon” Die Glocke exist, but it has also actually been successfully used to move backwards in time. With nothing to lose, Steve volunteers himself for a trial.

Time travel, however, is a moral and ethical minefield, and Diamond is adamant that he will only risk bending the laws of science and physics if it is “for the good of all”.

His plan is to travel back in time to save rock star Jim Morrison from succumbing to a drug overdose in 1970 and to prevent his hero Oscar Wilde from dying in a squalid Paris hotel room in 1900.

His belief is that if he is successful his actions will in no way change the fabric of the world he will come home to.

Twice he travels in Die Glocke only to realise that he is wrong – in fact, much has changed in the world he returns to and now he must find out why.

Ian J Ross, a journalist of some forty-five years standing, was born and raised in Leeds but has lived in Liverpool for more than four decades. He has previously had three non-fiction books published – all sport-related – but this is his first novel. Ian has worked for the Southport Visiter, the Liverpool Daily Post and Echo, The Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian and he spent ten years as the Director of Communications at Everton Football Club.

Ian has a quite extraordinary story to tell about how For The Good of All came to the market – in fact, he may well go down as the man who actually forgot that he had written a novel!

“I underwent major heart surgery a few years ago and had been pre-warned that my memory may well be temporarily affected during my recovery. After major post-op complications, I very nearly died – spending three weeks in a coma on life-support and a total of eight weeks in an Intensive Care Unit. Thanks to the NHS I survived and two months after returning home I was clearing out my aging laptop when I found ‘For The Good of All’. I simply could not remember writing it – strange but true.“