Engineering Paradise

by David Gardiner, Daffni Percival (Editor), Sam Styles (Photographer)

The title comes from a Stafford Beer "The Holocaust has shown us that the creation of hell on earth is just a matter of engineering. The creation of an earthly paradise is an engineering problem also." Based very loosely on my teenage years in 1960s Belfast, this is essentially a love story, set against a background of religious bigotry, sexual liberation, communes, folk music, pirate radio and armed revolution. Setting out to build a Utopian community with the dream of changing the world, whether it wants to be changed or not. Idealism and youthful optimism, quickly giving way to compromise and disillusionment. A Faustian bargain, casually entered into, from which there is no escape.

280 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 12, 2011