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It took a childhood in France to provide a setting for Winner Takes Nothing, and the story, much based on truth, features areas around and in the French Alps at various stages. Evoking days spent in Annecy, a town near the high mountains, brought back memories of the lake's clear water that the city perches on, with peaks providing a stunning backdrop.

Divonne, a small town nearby also set on mountain slopes, though of the smaller Jura mountain chain, is where a few tense scenes take place. It took a couple of summers in Divonne to get those scenes right, and so even now the town casts a spell on me, of subterfuge and secrecy on me.

Early on in the epic adventure that is Winner Takes Nothing the action starts in Nice, a fine city on the French Riviera. The city is a key location for many young men seeking a different kind of life, and a few pages of the book should show you why.

I love France. It is perhaps the country I would first choose to defend, or even shed my blood for, and some of my friends did. But that's probably within the pages too, if I remember correctly.

Read it - for free now, and for a while, by clicking on the title of the ebook on the top right of this page. Let me know what you think. I think you'll discover a few things at the very least, and may find yourself swept on a long journey you are happy to be on. Of course there are one or two scenes reserved for those over 18; and they are not exactly 'based' on the truth, because they are entirely factual, and faithfully rendered, in appealing style I hope.

So I love France, not least because it led me to my first book, of over 600 pages, so something of a small epic, I suppose, that covers three continents and about three decades, and yes, I am anxious and interested to know what you think of it.

ah, France!

land of the written word

a scenery of emotions