In 1897 the cry "Gold!" resounds in the Yukon and reverberates round the world, promising riches for many but realizing the dreams of only a few. The yellow metal's siren-call lures hopefuls from crowded cities and barren farmsteads, cajoling them, naïve, unprepared and ill-equipped, to cross the harsh wilderness of the Canadian North-West. Many will succumb to brutal, implacable Nature. Those who survive to seek fortunes, will discover that desire alone does not ensure success. This is Fergal's story, orphaned in the turmoil of Irish dispossession, growing to manhood among his enemies, then forced to flee. It is the saga of his abandoned love Aileen who, despite her pregnancy, tries to follow him to Canada. It chronicles the life and times of Nicholas Craven, ill-suited for life as scion of an aristocratic family. All have been affected by life at Haddington Hall and their lives and fate are inextricably entwined. To survive they must face rigours as fierce as the torrents that shred the flesh of the unfortunates who drown in the Yukon waters.
About the Author: About the Author I spent my boyhood on various farms on the east coast of Scotland as the son of an itinerant, and argumentative, labourer who could hold a job no longer than a few months. Intoxicated, one Hogmanay, he was arrested, & held overnight in the cells for 'being drunk whilst in charge of a bicycle'. I joined a boxing club to develop a way of avoiding daily beatings. A spin-off benefit of this was winning the Midlands of Scotland Lightweight championship. I left Caledonia at the age of fifteen, narrowly evading Borstal, to join the British Army where I spent two and a half years in Boys Service and was posted to adult service and on stand-by for the Suez Emergency. Fortunately, that ended rather ignominiously and I shipped out to Malaya, at the height of the communist insurgency there. On the completion of three years my next port of call was Belgium, then the UK, where, after selection and training, I served with the airborne forces and passed sometime in the North, Belfast mainly, during The Troubles. Eventually I went to Germany, where I narrowly avoided being court-martialled for punching out a fellow warrant officer who had rather over estimated his own physical capabilities. Hong Kong followed the Fatherland where I moonlighted as an extra and stuntman for Shaw Bros and Golden Harvest Film studios. I appeared, albeit briefly, in Bruce Lee and I, episode nine of Hawaii Five O, and a myriad of other features produced purely for consumption by the Chinese cinema goer. Retuning to Europe I was recruited by a head-hunter on behalf of the U.S. Government and after several courses in CONUS served in most of the European countries and Israel & Turkey. I managed at this time to obtain two degrees from the University of Maryland and travel extensively on mainland Europe as a tour manager for a holiday firm concentrating on American clientele. With the downsizing of the U.S. presence in the European theatre a friend offered me the job of convoy manager, ferrying humanitarian aid to the beleaguered cities and towns of Bosnia-Herzegovina, under the auspices of UNHCR, during the conflict in the early nineties in the former Yugoslavia. I retired to the UK and took up golf, wrote The Tuzla Run and have offered my body, piecemeal, to medical science, which is currently in possession of three per cent of it, while I retain the rights to the balance - so far. Since then life has been boringly uncomplicated and decidedly humdrum.