Founders Keepers

by John Pomfret

Written aagainst a technical background, the book tells a story of lust, power-seeking and greed. It is 1947 and the country is recovering from the effects of WW2. Because of his eldest son's belligerent attitude, ailing Charlie Artinstall has decided to break with tradition and leave the ancestral foundry to his younger son, Steven. It sets the two brothers apart and when George finds Steven in bed with his wife, the shock brings on the death of their father and George takes advantage and gains control of the foundry. Full of remorse Steven flees to India, but is subsequently framed for robbery and is forced to return. Dejected and depressed, he has a succession of jobs, but is finally reduced to living rough. He is rescued and employed by Mary, the daughter of Josh Cavendish, a grieving and compassionate owner of a struggling foundry, who sees Steven as a surrogate for his dead son. Steven's fortunes change. He makes a success of the business, marries Mary, and eventually becomes owner of the foundry. George, who has srtuggled to control his workforce, discovers Steven's success and motivated by jealousy and revenge, resorts to acts of sabotage. Driven insane by impending bankruptcy, loss of the ancestral business and injury at the hand of the union convener, he has one final act of desperation to commit......

268 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 22, 2012

About the author

John Pomfret is an American journalist and writer. He was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and raised in New York. He attended Stanford University, receiving his B.A. and M.A. in East Asian Studies. In 1980, he was one of the first American students to go to China and study at Nanjing University. Between 1983 and 1984 he attended Singapore’s Institute of Southeast Asian Studies as a Fulbright Scholar, researching the Cambodian conflict.

He started his journalistic career at the Stanford Daily as a photographer, from where he was fired. After that he worked at a newspaper in Riverside County, California, and after a year was hired by Associated Press to work in New York, covering the graveyard shift.

After two years with the AP in New York, in 1988, he was sent to China as a foreign correspondent, thanks to his knowledge of Mandarin and Asian studies background. After that, he worked in several countries, including Bosnia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Iraq, Turkey and Iran. For over 15 years he covered the armed conflicts in these countries and the politics of the post-Cold War era. Currently, he is the editor of the Washington Post's weekend opinion section, Outlook.

During his career, he received several awards, including 2003's Osborne Elliot Prize for the best coverage of Asia by the Asia Society and 2007's Shorenstein Prize for coverage of Asia.

The experiences he had when he attended Nanjing University, and his perspective of the Chinese opening, are narrated in his 2006 book "Chinese Lessons: Five Classmates and the Story of the New China."

Pomfret won an Alicia Patterson Journalism Fellowship[1]] in 2004 writing about education in China.

He speaks, reads and writes Mandarin, and also speaks French, Japanese and Serbo-Croatian. He lives near Washington, D.C., with his wife and family


pomfretjohn@gmail.com