The Rivers of Eden

Five remarkable people, linked by war, tell their stories and lead you into the vibrant, fascinating, troubled world of Arabia at the start of the twentieth century. A world transformed from paradise to chaos, but still managing to capture the hearts of those who can see the magnificence of the past hidden behind the turbulence of the present.I cried out in shock, having never witnessed such horror, such vile inhumanity before.The land of the Bible has been torn apart by centuries of unrest. Mesopotamia during World War I is a grim and terrifying place, with disease, starvation and a brutal enemy running wild throughout the inhospitable settlements around the Rivers Tigris and Euphrates. It is hard for the British troops who are suffering and dying to believe that in historic times, they wouldn’t have been far from the legendary Garden of Eden.A Lieutenant Colonel finds an old friend horribly injured, recognising the man whose quick thinking and bravado saved him from the firing squad many years earlier. The injured man’s sister risks her life and her reputation to travel alone across the war-torn world to be at his side. A Political Officer will stop at nothing to bring the local people onto the side of the British, meting out the harshest of punishments for disloyalty. A wife, separated from her new husband by the War almost as soon as their vows were exchanged, works tirelessly with the inimitable Edith Cavell, putting her own life on the line to smuggle injured soldiers to safety.This is a story of historical fiction inspired by the author’s family’s experiences in India and the Middle East during World War I and before. 6