Books by Nigel Patten

« L’imagination nous emporte souvent vers des mondes qui n’ont jamais existés, mais sans elle, nous allons nulle part. » – Carl SaganSans archives pour la région du Chablais avant le XI siècle, ce conte populaire, appuyé par des déductions historiques, nous parle des premiers habitants d’un village alpin au-dessus de la vallée du Rhône à la fin du IX siècle.Nous suivons les aventures d’un jeune couple, une fille serve et un jeune homme affranchi, un rapport incompatible à l’époque. Ils se réfugient à la montagne en hiver et survivent avec l’appui d’un moine et d’un garde-chasse.« J’habite sur le plateau de Gryon/Villars depuis un demi-siècle. Il était temps de mettre mes sentiments sur papier pour cette région », déclare l’auteur. « J’ai toujours essayé d’imaginer qui étaient les premiers habitants à y passer l’hiver et pas seulement pratiquer la transhumance d’été avec leur moutons et leurs chèvres. »(A propos de l’auteur)Nigel Patten est né près de Londres en 1940 et vit en Suisse depuis 1961 où il a enseigné l’anglais dans un lycée français. Il a publié dix livres, des romans historiques, une biographie, un cours d’anglais pour des francophones et une pièce de théâtre sur les dernières semaines de la vie du poète Shelley. Il a gagné un Readers Favorite Award à deux reprises. L’auteur voyage beaucoup en camping-car comme par exemple jusqu’en Inde. Pendant 15 ans, il a navigué entre les îles grecques dans son propre voilier chaque été. Ayant atteint deux fois le sommet du Mont Kilimandjaro, il pratique encore la marche en montagne dont les Grandes Randonnées comme le GR20 en Corse. Acteur et metteur en scène, il a fait partie d’une troupe de théâtre amateur à Vevey pendant 40 ans.

By the end of the 18th century, Corsica had been occupied by France for over thirty years. Islanders yearned to recover their lost independence, and the French Revolution gave them the opportunity. Their leader, Pasquale Paoli, realized that alone they could never defeat the well-organized French forces. He offered Corsica to King George III of England, on condition that the French were driven from the island.Based on documented historical fact, the author paints a detailed portrait of Corsica through the captivating adventures of Damian Berra, a young man from what is today the Swiss canton of Valais. After wandering through Lombardy to the Ligurian coast, as the victim of a press gang on a French frigate, he becomes marooned on Corsica, an island infested with bandits and crippled with vendettas, where murders are seven times more numerous than in mainland France. The story also describes the attempts of the English to administer an island they eventually called “The Ungovernable Rock.”Nigel Patten was born near London in 1940 and has lived in Switzerland since 1961, writing and teaching English in an alpine lycée. He has published nine books, including historical novels, a biography, and a three-act play on the last weeks of the life of poet Percy Shelley, and has twice won a Reader’s Favorite Award. The author has traveled widely on all continents, driving from Switzerland to India and back. For many years he sailed his own boat in the Greek islands, and has twice climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, as well as hiked other famous mountain trails. He has also directed and acted in numerous stage plays. 

An Intermediate English Drill Book for French Speakers offers a complete series of intermediate bilingual drills in French/English that is presented in ten sections.The drills cover all major tenses, irregular, modal, and phrasal verbs, as well as everyday and idiomatic expressions. Drills can also be used individually or in the classroom, orally, and as written assignments.To facilitate use, the verbs appear in alphabetic order in each section.This drill book has been tested on the author’s students with good results.Born in England, Nigel Patten has dual citizenship in Switzerland, where he has lived since 1961. For fifty years, he taught English in an international alpine lycée that prepares students for the French baccalauréat. Active in amateur dramatics, he has acted and directed many musical comedies, including playing Professor Henry Higgins in “My Fair Lady.” An enthusiastic mountaineer (has twice climbed Mt Kilimanjaro), cross country skier, and traveller (has driven from Europe to India and back), the author has published seven books (historical novels, biography, and theatre). He has twice been a Readers’ Favorite Award Winner and also holds an Outstanding Teacher Award from Chicago University.Publisher’s website: http://sbpra.com/NigelPatten

An Incompatible Passion tells the dramatized history of the last three months in the life of the controversial poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley. In the spring of 1822, Percy and his second wife, Mary Woolstonecroft, the author of the famous novel "e;Frankenstein,"e; along with her half-sister, Claire, rented a villa on the Tuscan Coast. They were joined there by Jane and Edward Williams, and later the Cornish adventurer Edward Trelawny. The relationship between Mary and her husband soured after two of their three children died young. Both Mary and Claire shared Percy's affections, which caused tremendous friction, as the poet had a tendency to pursue pretty women. Claire had given birth to illegitimate daughters by both Shelley and Lord Byron, so living together in the same house was not easy for Mary. Trelawny persuaded a friend to construct a yacht for the poet, and while sailing one day with Edward Williams, a sudden squall capsized the boat and both men drowned. The remains of Shelley's body were cremated on the beach in the presence of Byron and Trelawny.

Shortly before WWII erupts, George Ghikas starts having recurring dreams about an unknown dancing girl. Because George has Greek ancestry, the military sends him behind enemy lines on occupied Crete with orders to organize partisan groups in the White Mountains. While George is performing his important work, he has hallucinations of the same dancing girl who has appeared so often in his dreams. Progressively, George is enmeshed in a 3,600-year-old world, where it appears he was once the victim of a human sacrifice ceremony that was taking place in a restored Minoan temple located near his current base camp. The girl who has been haunting his dreams is the officiating priestess during the ancient sacrificial ceremony... until the temple is destroyed by an earthquake. Back in the 20th century, George narrowly avoids a suicide attempt by reenacting the sacrificial ceremony of so long ago...until the temple is once again destroyed, this time by German bombs.Author Nigel Patten loves words and the music behind them. He teaches English literature for the French Baccalaureate in an international alpine college. Patten grew up in the United Kingdom and later moved to Switzerland. He now lives and writes in a ski resort in the mountains above Lake Geneva.