GRIPPING NOVEL OF DANGER AND INTRIGUE FROM THE RIOTS
OF PARIS TO THE MINES IN CONGO
'David Longridge has crafted an enjoyable, fast paced story, set in a little-known part of the history of what is currently known as the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo). He has managed to capture the atmosphere of the major events and influences which occurred during the time in which this adventure is set'
Alain Banza is witness in Katanga province to an event that will prove pivotal to the future of Congo, soon after it gains its independence from Belgium in 1960. We are with Alain as he meets Kim de Rochefort, an investigative journalist in Paris. Their aim is to bring to world attention those threatening to steal from its people the mineral wealth of newly independent Congo.
Later, in Paris, Alain is swept up in the rising tide of student unrest that results in the massive demonstrations of May 1968. At a barricade in the Latin Quarter, he goes to the help of a fellow protester with disastrous consequences.
How can Alain escape and renew the fight in Congo?
Who are the real enemies of the nation he loves?
Who are those who will fight to the end with him?
David Longridge lived and worked in Paris and Brussels in 1960’s, spanning the period that followed Belgium granting independence to Congo. He also worked in Algiers and the Sahara during the same period, and subsequently in Kenya and South Africa. From his time in these countries, he has strong interest in the postcolonial politics of that period.
Conflicting loyalties drive a fault line through the French nation. Even the President is a target....
Kim Cho is an investigative reporter on the Paris Tribune. Cambodian and beautiful, she confronts the trauma of France as Algerian independence looms. Kim’s search for the truth after the crash of an express train from Strasbourg to Paris leads her to forces determined that Algeria, part of France on the other side of the Mediterranean, should remain French.
Henri de Rochefort, career officer in the French Foreign Legion, faces the dilemma of whether to embrace an army mutiny in order to save from retribution Arab special forces he has trained to serve France.
Justine Müller, left-wing deputy in the National Assembly, is recruited by the Gaullist government to bridge the gap between the ordinary people of Paris and the ruthless forces of security. She holds a secret that can destroy the most powerful police chief in France.
Kim, Henri, and Justine are caught up on both sides of the drama of General de Gaulle’s plan that fractures French society, threatening assassination and civil war.
A Novel of political intrigue, from the glamour of the Paris catwalks to the ravages of war.
Paris Haute Couture is recovering after world war two and Justine Müller, having suffered terribly during that conflict, is now a fashion model. A traumatic experience opens her eyes to the poor and destitute of post-war France and sets her on a new path into politics.
Funding her ambitions by relying on the charity of the wealthy fails. Recruiting the help of a close friend in the fashion house where she works, Justine and her accomplice decide to launch a business as potentially lucrative as it is dangerous.
Thousands of miles away in French Indochina, a terrible struggle is being waged between the French and Vietnamese freedom fighters. Calling on an allegiance of the past, Justine recruits the help of Bill Lomberg, a former RAF pilot now flying contraband between Hanoi and Saigon.
As the Vietnamese family connections of her accomplice in Paris are drawn into the plot, Justine is halted in her tracks by forces that will stop at nothing to protect their interests from outsiders.
Three young women struggle to take possession of a secret that can alter the course of the war.
Working as a courier for an escape line over the Pyrenees early in the Second World War, Françoise is approached by the British Secret Service. Is what they propose, involving leaving her family and entering the lethal game of wartime espionage, reasonable for a young woman only two years after finishing her schooldays in Bordeaux?
Françoise's best friend, Justine, enters the glamorous world of haute couture, which is still thriving in occupied Paris. Justine has a past that, should it be discovered, could mean deportation to the camps in Eastern Europe.
Justine's sister, Claudia, a brilliant mathematician working in Berlin on a top secret project for the German High Command, is faced with the nightmare of betraying her country if she is to save her life.
Powerful and emotional, the close relationships between Françoise, Justine and Claudia are tested by their conflicting wartime allegiances as they struggle to take possession of a secret that can alter the course of the war.
Four young people, forced into conflicting allegiances incompatible with the morality of their backgrounds.
Henri's family sends a son from each generation to military college for a commission in the French Foreign Legion. As he fulfils this tradition and the Second World War breaks out, Henri is soon faced with a dilemma which will lead to an adventure few could match in that conflict.
Leo is set on joining Goering's new Luftwaffe. Like Henri, his closest friend at their school in Britain, his mother was born British. Leo's war leads him into the secret world of signals intelligence, while the suspension of the moral law in time of conflict raises issues which he struggles to reconcile with his conscience and the ethics of his upbringing.
Bill is South African, a talented young rugby player at the same school as Henri and Leo, and heads for Cambridge on an RAF scholarship. His ultimate test comes from the least expected direction and a woman who has already suffered terribly.
Elizabeth’s home was Munich until she started her medical training in Paris. Her crucial decision to return to Germany conflicts with the circumstances of her family and the legacy of its past. Alone and threatened, Elisabeth escapes to the deserts of North Africa and the man who will change her life.
‘‘David Longridge has again skilfully woven fact and fiction together in this well researched and fast moving tale set against the backdrop of Congolese independence and the 1968 Paris riots’
David Longridge is a writer with a wealth of experience and success in the real world.
After school he worked for, and became, Chief Executive of Avis International, the second largest car rental company globally. That was followed by a long stint in investment banking in the City of London. On retirement, he decided to release his creativity by writing books that were fictional, but in an historical setting of a period he loved.
David has a strong interest in political and military history in the period from 1940 until 1970, including events in post-colonial Africa. Living in Paris, his work and travels have included Algeria, Morocco, Kenya, and South Africa. He works from his home in Malmesbury, England, with his wife Anna who is a practising artist.
http://www.annalongridge.com/