King Henry Hardback
by Douglas Galbraith
Hardback
Description
It is the year 1915. Neutral America is debating the proper response to the war in Europe.
Increasingly involved in this debate is Henry Ford: inventor, industrialist, and billionaire.
He is against war - it is bad for business. Ford is barely educated but knows how to make a headline, and when he declares that he will give up all he possesses to stop the build-up to war, the papers get to work.
Into his orbit comes the bombastic peace-activist Rosika Schwimmer, who persuades him that a Peace Ship filled with the great and the good should sail to Europe, set up a mediation commission, and 'get the boys out of the trenches by Christmas'.
With Ford's money the idea quickly becomes a reality and everyone is in on the act.
Fortunes are spent in his name. Chartering the Oscar and leaving in a storm of publicity, but with most credible invitees turning him down, Ford finds himself in the mid-Atlantic, menaced by invisible U-boats, on a ship full of eccentrics, idealists, parasites, and hard-drinking journalists on the story of their lives.
Back home, he is ridiculed as the expedition descends into acrimonious farce. Told in the many voices of those around Ford - his wife, his chauffeur, the activists, politicians, and journalists aboard his Ship of Fools - "King Henry" is a captivating and virtuosic novel based on one of the most extraordinary episodes of the early twentieth century.
It is a strikingly contemporary story of a well-intentioned king with a court that has run mad who suffers a spectacular fall from grace.
Information
-
Item not Available
- Format:Hardback
- Pages:416 pages
- Publisher:Vintage
- Publication Date:05/04/2007
- Category:
- ISBN:9780436206283
Other Formats
- Paperback / softback from £7.69
Information
-
Item not Available
- Format:Hardback
- Pages:416 pages
- Publisher:Vintage
- Publication Date:05/04/2007
- Category:
- ISBN:9780436206283
