King Henry - Douglas Galbraith

1915. Neutral America is debating the proper response to the war: Henry Ford - inventor, industrialist, billionaire - decides it's bad for business. When he announces he will give up everything to stop it, the papers go to work and he agrees to fund a peace ship to sail to Europe with the promise: 'Out of the trenches by Christmas, never to return'.

Struggling to persuade any serious political figures to join his quest, Ford leaves New York with the bombastic peace activist, Rosika Schwimmer, and her entourage, along with a sodden, cynical pack of journalists. Ford initially embraces the press, but he soon finds himself menaced by invisible U-boats in the mid-Atlantic, surrounded by eccentrics, idealists adn parasites, while their reports to the papers back home turn the entire venture into a laughing stock.

The resulting novel is a captivating and virtuosic tale based on one of the most extraordinary episodes of the early twentieth century.

Douglas Galbraith was born in Glasgow in 1965 and is the author of four novels, The Rising Sun, A Winter in China, King Henry and my Son, my Son: How One Generation Hurts the Next. He lives in Scotland.

Galbraith has already established himself as a historical novelist of the highest calibre... With his third novel... he is set to propel himself further into the spotlight...Galbraith assembles the parts of his novel piece by piece and welds them together with care, until the whole ignites into a glorious roar of literary success
Scotland on Sunday - Vanessa Curtis

Written with wit and vigour, this is a hugely enjoyable read ... Galbraith has clearly been meticulous in his research, referencing contemporary cartoons and headlines. It has paid off: a more engaging and surprising historical novel is unlikely to be published this year
Daily Mail - Stephanie Cross

Among the very best of our historical novelists
Observer

A fascinating premise for a novel.... the feel of the era is convincing. So too, is the depiction of a nation on the cusp of a momentous decision
Herald