Books

The Compartmentalist

Dominic Delaunay is a City solicitor for whom everything is going right until, just as he gets his luckiest break, his whole life starts to fall apart.

Dominic, in his forties, is in a loveless marriage, but he has managed to compensate for it: he works hard and plays hard, and he combines his love of exercise with his innate numeracy.

Professionally, Dominic is a recognised authority on franchise law and his success, earned by hard-work, has conferred on him the usual trappings. Despite all this, he has his insecurities.

There is tragedy in Dominic’s past, but he has developed his own coping mechanism: every trauma and challenge is packaged up and compartmentalised. This technique becomes increasingly important to him as his problems with ex-lovers, ex-business partners and the police proliferate.

While all this is going on, Dominic has to find a way to leverage his piece of good luck, so as to keep his bounty within his reach but put beyond that of his enemies.

Fortunately, Dominic finds a new love and together they surmount the obstacles, but not without ordeals on the way.

There is also Dominic’s Pandora’s Box, which has remained unopened for many years, until he is almost driven to suicide.

Finally, Dominic shakes off his arrogance and narcissism, finding a more giving and caring personality within.

This is compulsive page-turner is a thriller and a story of our times, with allegations of sexual harassment, #MeToo abuse and cyber-crime – a story of our times with current themes and an unexpected dénouement.

Israel at Seventy- Five: In Weizmann’s Image

In this work, Howard’s aim is to throw a spotlight on Weizmann’s vital, essential, crucial and, yes, indispensable contributions to the birth and life of one of the most remarkable and successful countries of the modern world.

When, in 1915, at the height of WWI, Britain was running short of acetone, an essential ingredient of cordite used for explosives and propellants, Weizmann had the answer: his synthetic acetone! His chemistry saved the day and led to the Balfour Declaration. But it was his chemistry with people also that led to three further essential diplomatic achievements necessary for the birth of the State of Israel in 1948.

How, the reader will ask, could one man have had the right answers at the right time and in the right place? Do you believe in miracles? You might when you have read this book.

The Nazi Who Saved America: von Braun, JFK and the Sputniks

This historical novel relates how German rocket genius, Wernher von Braun, redeemed his WWII Nazi past, and that of apparently-failing post world war American technology, by overcoming the Soviets’ lead in space to put man on the moon within the eight years demanded by President John F Kennedy. It is a rich story of human relationships, governmental failure and American Exceptionalism. While being a work of fiction, the major events are accurately related. This is yet another of Howard’s page-turners.

Traumatised Nation: How America Got to be so Violent

This is a major work of non-fiction, detailing the twenty main traumas that the American nation underwent in the 80 years between the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the Credit Crunch of 2009.

The author explains the problem that America has with guns and his conclusion: that it is a matter of gun culture – and not gun control – that has led to America uniquely suffering from gun crime. Finally, he sets out a practical plan of action for reducing the rampage-killings that continually afflict American life.

No Genius: Hitler’s Fatal Mistakes

This is a work of non-fiction and currently a work in progress.

On 25 June 1940, a triumphant Adolf Hitler toured Paris in his massive, opulent, open-top Mercedes-Benz 770 staff car, undoubtedly gloating at his achievement in defeating France in a matter of 44 days. There were several photo-opportunities, both in and out of the car. Famously, he was photographed from the Le Trocadero gardens, with the Eiffel Tower as the backdrop. At his feet lay the former City of Light — lugubrious, silent and vanquished. There, too, lay the whole of Europe, supine, impotent and at Hitler’s mercy – had he but had any.

This book charts Germany’s descent from superpower in 1914 to pariah state in 1945, largely through the unforced errors of Adolf Hitler. Hitler was for a time thought by many – not least himself – to be a military genius. The book, however, considers Hitler’s fatal errors that brought Germany to its knees, Europe to complete destruction and Hitler to suicide.

This book is a work in progress, but available for download for under £1, and registration on the waiting list to buy the whole book when finished.

Despoil the Child: A Short Global History of the Abasement, Abduction and Deportation of Children is a work in progress.

This most important work starts with the case of Great Britain, which transported some 350,000 British children to its colonies over a span of almost 400 years. Howard explains how a practice that started with a king wishing to clear London streets of indigent infants, and continued as a matter of trade, was worked up by Victorian do-gooders and always had British-Empire building at its heart. It did not end untl the 1960s!

Future chapters will cover the 350,000 Spanish children stolen from “unsuitable” parents by the dictator Franco, and continued as a practice long after his demise; the “Disappeareds” of Argentina; and the on-going commoditising, abuse and abasement of children in the four corners of the globe to this very day.

This book is a work in progress, but is available for download for under £1, and registration on the waiting list to buy the whole book when finished.