Local author, John Ludlam, has released a gripping new historical novel set in the dark days of 1938, as Europe was sliding towards the chaos of all-out war and Britain faced an enemy it didn’t yet understand.
Set in London and war-ravaged southern Spain, We Are Made is a deeply affecting exploration of love, loss, and moral complexity played out against the brooding backdrop of pre-war London.
William, torn from academia by grief and responsibility, finds himself drawn into the industrial pulse of Spitfire production and the shadows of espionage. As he reconnects with Elizabeth, their love story is woven into an intricate web of political and personal tensions.
Local literature fans gathered at TAAG (Teignmouth Arts and Action Group) for a lively book launch, where John gave a reading and signed copies of the novel.
For more than thirty years John covered international news for the Visnews and Reuters news agencies.
We Are Made is the first in a series of novels examining what geopolitics does to people.
‘My years as a video agency journalist have taught me that geopolitics will never leave us alone,’ he said. ‘Ordinary people are always caught up in the ambitions of those who shout the loudest. This is as true today as it was in 1938, when We Are Made is set. Men, shouting… That pretty much sums up geopolitics.’
When I was 6 or 7, the second world war was ‘history’. Now I’m 66 and realise that that war was only yesterday. This rattling gd read shows us we must never let our guard down, against dictators, against ‘alternative facts’ . Tech has changed, humans haven’t.
We’ve all been aware of the dangers of aggression and tyranny, worldwide, from our cosy little British enclave for many years. We have known about them through news channels, other journalism, and social media. The comprised civil wars, genocide, human degradation in every way possible, and despots re-elected through fear, corruption, manipulation – and self interest. And our government has followed the ‘diplomatic’ line, making us practically (choose your sense of the adjective) complicit. I wonder does John predict serious consequent damage to British and European lives in such catastrophic ways and, if so, how soon? (We are already suffering the consequences of the lies and disinformation that influenced Brexit.)