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Michael Gordon Powell

Goodreads Author

Born

in London, The United Kingdom

Website

http://www.foursdestiny.uk

Twitter

foursdestiny

Genre

Historical Fiction, World War II, The Aegean Islands

Member Since

June 2018

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As a young man Michael was a Choral Exhibitioner at Christ Church Oxford and dreamed of becoming a full-time opera singer. Close to achieving this ambition he later sang professionally as a baritone soloist. But making a living as a singer is hard so he also supplemented the family income as an IT consultant. That work took more and more time from singing. However, once it dawned on him that tenors have more fun and get to kiss the girls, he had a second operatic career as tenor and during the 1990s and 2000s sang many tenor roles.
He designed and wrote three quite successful software products – one of which (for analysing Operational Risk) is still in use. He also started writing, contributing regular articles to Computer Weekly, The Guard As a young man Michael was a Choral Exhibitioner at Christ Church Oxford and dreamed of becoming a full-time opera singer. Close to achieving this ambition he later sang professionally as a baritone soloist. But making a living as a singer is hard so he also supplemented the family income as an IT consultant. That work took more and more time from singing. However, once it dawned on him that tenors have more fun and get to kiss the girls, he had a second operatic career as tenor and during the 1990s and 2000s sang many tenor roles.
He designed and wrote three quite successful software products – one of which (for analysing Operational Risk) is still in use. He also started writing, contributing regular articles to Computer Weekly, The Guardian and FT and producing two rather dull books on Contracting published by Reed Business Publishing (astonishingly still available although completely out of date!). He also wrote the libretto for an opera, called “Mister Butterfly”, which was composed by Ken Roberts and performed in Hong Kong in 2000.
In 1993 he met his lovely Swedish wife, Kerstin, who had been living in Greece for many years, running a charter yacht with her previous husband. She persuaded him, at a time when his fortunes had reached a nadir, to buy a boat. Though this seemed completely crazy at the time, it proved to be one of their best decisions. They have been lucky enough subsequently to visit every inhabited Greek island.
In the course of their travels, they came to the Dodecanese island of Leros. Michael became interested in the history of the island. It is riddled with tunnels, dug before and during the war as shelter from bombing. It has a myriad of interesting old buildings from the time of the Italian occupation and a British War Cemetery, the last resting place of many brave and distinguished soldiers who died futilely trying to stop the Germans taking over in 1943.
They were entranced by the people of Leros - amongst the most friendly and outgoing Greek people. They proved eager to include foreigners and Michael and Kerstin were made to feel welcome immediately. After a lot of discussion, and spending a winter there in their boat, they found a house on the cliffs, needing some work, overlooking a wild bay. Kerstin happened upon a neighbour, Giorgos, who is a master builder. He, with Kerstin’s input and her ability to speak Greek, has finished the house beautifully as well as becoming a close friend.
The Greek character in “Four’s Destiny” is based on Goprgos’s stories of his young life and he furnished some of the anecdotes about the locals’ relationships with the Italians. Over long evenings, over a few ouzos, discussing with Giorgos life on the island during the occupation by Turks, Italians, Germans and finally the British, who handed them back to the Greeks, "Four's Destiny" came to be written.
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Average rating: 4.5 · 12 ratings · 9 reviews · 1 distinct work

Four's Destiny

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Michael Gordon Powell's Blog

Welcome

I've been encouraged by the many messages of support I've had from friends and family about my new book, Four's Destiny.
I published it myself to make sure that it was available before the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Leros on September 26th 2018. It will be mentioned there and I hope that it will prove very interesting to the many people who visit and love the island of Leros.

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Published on July 21, 2018 06:51

Michael is Currently Reading

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Quantum of Menace (Q Mysteries, #1)

by Vaseem Khan (Goodreads Author)

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Sep 19, 2026 03:48AM

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Waiting For Death

by Jack Cartwright

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Hornet Flight

by Ken Follett (Goodreads Author)

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Jul 25, 2026 05:06AM

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