Books published by Derek Walker

The Cold War is coming to an end, as the Soviet Union holds free elections and the Berlin Wall is breached. Dan Leyland is chairing a conference of European NGOs in Perugia, and he observes that some of his colleagues are unhappy about having their political illusions shattered. He gets to know an Italian contessa who is acting as an interpreter, and when she confides in him about her troubled marriage he glimpses the possibility that his own post-marital loneliness could be coming to an end. But events do not always work out as expected - neither in politics nor in personal relationships. This volume is the third in The Peacekeepers trilogy; and when Dan talks with his parents and their group of friends, whose lives were completely disrupted by events in 'far away countries' in the 1930s, they tell him of their hopes and fears for a better future. The action moves from London to Switzerland, Germany and Italy, and back to London. Some of the events are predictable and others are not.

Three friends, Daniel, Ruth and Arthur, have survived the Second World War and are determined, in their different ways, to play a part in preventing such a catastrophe from ever happening again. Almost by accident Arthur wins a seat in Parliament in the 1945 General Election. To Daniel's great satisfaction the Army assigns him a job preparing for the peace-keeping rôle of the new United Nations Organization. Ruth has an idea for a novel that will remind people of a different Germany that existed before the years of the Kaiser and Hitler. Daniel and Ruth also have unfinished business from 1939, when they had postponed their plans to marry; and each is uncertain about whether to reveal a wartime secret to the other. Arthur is impatient to start a family. However, as in the years before 1939, it is public events in distant places that determine how their private lives develop; and the action moves between London, New York, Switzerland and Paris in ways that they couldn't have predicted.

When Daniel retrieves the red scarf dropped by Ruth at a 1937 peace rally he quickly gets to know her and her friend Nancy; and before long he introduces them to Arthur, his fellow student at the London School of Economics. They are all at the beginning of their careers and enjoying life in London but are also idealistic about working to prevent another war in Europe. Since they are all unattached, their attitudes to each other are influenced by the prospect of more intimate relationships. As their circle of friends widens and their private lives become more complex, public events in the wider world begin to intrude. But Mr Chamberlain flies to Munich and returns to tell them they can now sleep quietly in their beds.