1904

Why do I care about Kara George? Who is this brigand from the Balkans who set Turks running and impressed Napoleon with his military genius!

Besides a great story, and it is, George killed Turks and liberated Serbia. No small thing. He is a king still today in the minds of monarchists and sympathizers. 

But who is he to me and why do I care?

Because George is the great grandfather of my grandfather Paul, a man I knew, and adored.

So the chain is closed in four generations.

My grandfather Paul was born into a fairytale life. Which soon ‘Fate’ robbed of him. Or you could blame Churchill, yes WC. I do. And in my book I detail WCs dirty finger swirling the pot, lives be damned unless they were English. Except these are my family members, and I care deeply.

And I can forgive, and understand: Patriotism and nationalism. 

But what I cannot forgive: Churchill personally didn’t like Paul, knew him and took the first instant he could to thrust his ego swollen envies into the sides of my grandfather’s life.

He had the power to do it, and he did it. That’s called choice. And that’s the basic principle of decency. WC had none.

The research I did for this book educated me on all these nasty secrets.

Paul was a child soldier and a military man. But before that he was an abandoned orphan, not coddled by his mama like WC.

But Paul is Serb and Russian and he is Kara George’s descendent. So it hurt him, but it didn’t kill him. Serbs are tough, even the poets.

My grandfather’s life was beyond extraordinary, but I never knew  it. He never complained. 

I shall do that for him. Eff Churchill and Anthony Eden, and how fitting that after Paul attended Oxford in 1913, almost exactly a hundred years later I will be there to speak for him. And I’ll be blunt, because I am Serb and I am American. So buckle up!

This is the subject of my new book. I’ll be speaking at the BODLEIAN LIBRARY 22 March, 10am.

DYNASTY- A TRUE STORY is on Amazon