More about the book
The ‘Gateway to Gandamak’ has been at least thirty years — probably my full seventy years — in the making. It has taken a bad hip and the Covid pandemic to make me sit still and actually write it. I would still not have done so but for the encouragement of my entire family, in the United Kingdom and in Thailand. A great deal of patience has been required by them, and thousands of cups of coffee and plates of “phad thai” prepared.
I’m very grateful to everyone.
My thanks are especially due to all the friends and colleagues who have read parts of the text and helped me avoid silly mistakes. My sister, Philippa Clark, has most patiently edited the entire book, a job far more difficult than actually writing it. Any mistakes that remain are, of course, my own. A special shout out to Bob Lindley, my close friend, who kindly took a day and researched the Hastings battlefield for me. My son, Sean Bastin, has designed a great logo and cover.
Comments have ranged from “Stop writing and read more books” to sincere praise, and helpful, but tough criticism. This is not an easy book; it has been difficult to write about my own personal experiences, some of which have not been known to my closest family. I’ve spent much time researching, and as far as possible, as a non-historian, I’ve based the fictional parts of the story on documented fact. There’s also real history, math, computer science, and sheer speculation in this book. I’ve changed some names for obvious reasons, but mainly, the accounts here are truthful, at least in the sense that “truth” might be what we want it to be or what we remember. As Arthur Schopenhauer explains to his pet dog, Butz (yes really), the world is Will and Representation. So here is mine.
A note about the epigrams. I originally thought to write a book structured on the Chinese ‘Book of Changes’, the “I Ching’. That proved impossible. However, I kept many of the wise sayings that seem to reflect the text of the particular chapter.
The book is a saga that evolves from a chance meeting, and jumps in time from the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, to the 1840s in India and Afghanistan, and then to the present day. It is written in two parts; Book 1 sets the scene, but some of what’s written early on will only find its full meaning in Book 2.
Do persevere. There is much mystery, and that’s the point. Book 1 opens the Gateway, there is much beyond it. The Traveler will be your narrator, and the Shaman will drop in to guide and explain things from time to time. Both are avatars, but of whom or what…. Well, open the Gateway and pass through.
I’ll be posting excerpts and abridge chapters here. The full book itself, 200,000 words of thereabouts will be published later this year.
G.J. Quartermaine
Please read and let me know what you think. All criticism that is constructive is well received. Email me at gqquartermaine@pm.me. Please mark your email MEDIUM. Thanks.
