Once Upon A Thatcher Time

by Stephen Taylor

The year is 1970. Off the Normandy coast a fisherman is killed on board his own small fishing boat. But this is no fishing accident; this is murder, a petty squabble between criminals, this is the grubby world of smuggling and drug running.
Twenty Two years later Nick Beverley inherits, on his 25th birthday, shares in a company founded by his uncle, the dead fisherman, and his murderous partner. But in that time the company has prospered, it is respectable, a multi-million pound trading organisation. It has taken advantage of the Thatcherite principles of greed, unrestricted free market economics, the elimination of bureaucratic economic planning. The murderer himself is at the heart of government; in an ironic twist he is now President of the Board of Trade.
Nick goes to work for the company, he assimilates all those Thatcherite principles; he is a willing convert. But this is now just post Thatcher Britain, the busted flush of those principles is becoming apparent, the cost to the country becoming clearer, the fact that the ordinary people were not sharing in the illusionary prosperity.
Then fate raises an eyebrow. The company mounts a hostile bid for a haulage company based in Normandy. In France Nick uncovers the company's murky past, bit by bit he puts the pieces together. The company he has dedicated his future to, is founded on criminality, drug money. He meets a remarkable French girl, the daughter of his late uncle's widow. Through her he starts to challenge everything that the company stands for - and he doesn't like the conclusions that he comes to.
A thriller, a story of high finance, a story of intrigue, and a story of love and redemption.

312 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 18, 2013

About the author

Stephen Taylor was once a happy and reasonably well-adjusted person; that was until an urge to write invaded his psyche, this need to be a writer, to tell tales. He spent his days as a Tax Inspector (Now come on out from behind the sofa - they're a fine bunch of lads and lasses at the Tax office), and shuffling his daughter to and from school. But then these thoughts began to coalesce.

A Georgian trilogy was conceived. Three stories, set in London; a decadent time, a decadent place.

The first Novel – No Quarter Asked No Quarter Given was Born (later short listed for the BritWriters Award).
The second novel, A Canopy of Stars -. A Georgian courtroom drama,
The third novel - Ripples and Shadows - a historian uncovers the story of two amazing lives. Now winner of the Great Beeston Book Read.

A forth novel - Gospels. Also set in the late Georgian era but follows the adventures of Bible hunters and takes us to Egypt and the Ottoman empire.

And see also contemporary novels - In The Morning When I Leave, and Once Upon a Thatcher Time. Also a Children’s Novel - The King of Blognogpotin

Born in Yorkshire, brought up in Manchester; he now works near Loughborough, a widower with a daughter just out of University.

Contact details:
Website: www.stephentaylorauthor.com
Email: stephen.taylor5247@ntlworld.com
Blog: stephentaylorauthor.blogspot.com