Dimensions
165 x 240 x 52mm
'Upon a Wheel of Fire' is an ambitious, epic historical novel that spans the century. It centres around the problematic issue of Europe's fatal slide into World War 2, after the botched and carving peace treaties at Versailles in 1919. We observe it through the troubled eyes of an Englishman, Yves Beauchamp, who first appears as Lloyd George's driver at Versailles in 1919, having served in the Great War.
Yves spends the interwar years a King's Messenger in Paris and Berlin. It is his delusion or crime that he failed to deliver in time a crucial message to Neville Chamberlain that could have helped avert World War 2. By the time he reaches London, the British PM is already on his fated course of appeasement.
Yves is a fascinating mixture of vanity and self-recrimination. He's continually on the edge of world events with duties that involve him peripherally. The reader is drawn into the intense drama of history - to the individual's involvement, responsibility and powerlessness in its progress.
The energy and wit of the narrative make this novel an outstanding debut. Paul Grieve's dazzling ability to marry vast historical issues with an acute and impartial perception of human psychology will grip the reader from start to finish.
