"The Lost Kings" covers the period 16th-24th April 2021. It is a work of fiction, based on a re-interpretation of historical facts relating to the Royal Blood of the descendants of Jesus, known over the centuries as the 'sang real'/Holy Grail.

So in a sense it is a work of current/historical fiction/non-fiction spanning two millenia. It opens with the immediate aftermath of the crucifixion of Jesus, the direct descendant of King David and therefore the legitimate pretender to the throne of Israel as well as a Prophet of God.

The book finishes with the installation of his direct descendant as Pope Jesus II, who after the passage of two millenia finally brings together the temporal and religious succession to both King David and Jesus. Our hero is David Whitecastle.

He, like Ian Fleming and his creation James Bond, had a Scottish father and Swiss mother, attended Fettes College in Edinburgh, and was in a special unit of the armed forces. David is an Oxbridge graduate who joined Jardine Matheson, the Princely Hong immortalised both by its history as the most powerful foreign trading house in Asia, and more recently through the novels of the late James Clavel, whom I got to know and who initiated me into the dark art of story-telling.

Through David, the reader meets the larger than life but enigmatic Monseigneur Sobieski, as well as the delightful Anna who turns out to be much more than just pleasing on the eye. The cast includes the 82 year old Madame Fatin who longs to share a secret which has eluded even the most ardent seekers of the hidden truths of Rennes-le-Chateau.

Through her we meet the dyed-in-the-wool but confused SS colonel whose uncle Adolf Hitler has entrusted him with a family lineage quest of his own. She also reveals the secret identity and story of Marie who fathered twin sons whose offspring have the most legitimate claim to the throne of the Lost Kings.

Then our journey takes us to the corridors of power in Paris and Vienna which have consistently sought out, adopted and used for their own ends the current representatives of the ancient bloodline of David. The book begins with an apparently open-and-shut homicide in the Vatican.

But as the story unfolds it takes the reader on a truly secret and magical whirlwind tour of history, the world and Mankind itself, embracing the ancient Jewish Kingdom of Septimanie in southern France as well as the Visigoth, Merovingian, Carolingian and Habsburg dynasties. It is also a truly inside look at the machinations from its inception of the Church of Rome and its rival factions, through the eyes of some of the key people who have shaped European and world history, politics and religion.

It transpires that there are two living descendants of the original undiluted bloodline, whose existence has not been revealed even to those who considered themselves its custodians and protectors over the centuries. The story culminates in a papal election where the two main contenders are, unbeknownst to themselves, the progeny of twin brothers and the current claimants to the most legitimate bloodline of the House of David.

The book finishes on an upbeat note. It seems that the winds of change may finally be beginning to blow away the ancient cobwebs which over the centuries have blighted even the most high-minded of religious leaders and organisations, and so in turn failed to fulfil what the average person expects and needs from them.

The book is intended to give readers a new, refreshing, but provocative interpretation of the evolution of our culture and civilisation, and in the process stimulate the little grey cells and encourage each one of us to critically and conscientiously re-appraise some of the supposedly self-evident truths which we have taken for granted. It is my hope that this will lead to greater awareness and understanding of ourselves and our place in things.

I also hope that this cocktail of light-hearted banter, unexpected love, adventu. .

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