Mandrake’s Mission

About the Author Bernard Lord was born in Pinner, Middlesex, England to hard-working parents, Mary and Frank. During World War II he spent much of his childhood in various air-raid shelters, but having survived bombs, V-1’s and V-2’s went on to a quieter education in a local boys grammar school. There, an excellent, stern, but fair, Scottish Headmaster saw to it that students left with a rigorous academic grounding and a disciplined approach to life. A little rugby, athletics and swimming, coupled with a heavy dose of arts and science subjects, led the author to King’s College, London University, where he earned an honors degree in mechanical engineering. By this time he had also pursued a very special girl called Margaret, an infant school teacher who played the piano and sang like an angel. He then left London behind for a two-year vacation in the Royal Air Force, training as a navigator attached to the Royal Canadian Air Force in Winnipeg, Manitoba. This was an exciting and refreshing experience, and the food in the Officer’s Mess was unbelievably good. Back in the UK, he continued his engineering training as a graduate apprentice with the General Electric Company. For two years he worked in various parts of a steam turbine factory, namely, the foundry, the boilershop, the assembly shop and machine shops. These were places where real men did real work, and where university graduates were forced to get off their high horses and sweat a bit. A change of job to work for an engineering consulting firm took him to live in the heart of London with a group of carefree bachelors, all intent on enjoying the 1950’s scene of wild parties and wild music. However, tempus fugit, and marriage to Margaret Cozens-Walker was more than tempting as the next step, so the knot was tied and the west coast of Scotland replaced swinging London as their first home together. Construction and commissioning work on Scotland’s first nuclear power generating station kept him occupied while their first child, Mark, was born who certainly kept Margaret from becoming bored. Next stop was Basel, Switzerland, for two years; a new job, some new friends, a new culture, and a new baby, Matthew. It was at this time that the author first started to write The Renaissance Group but only in a very spasmodic fashion as time was limited for extra-mural activities. Then came the big move in 1966 to the United States of America and the Boeing Airplane Company in Seattle. The family was only going to stay for three years but somehow that has stretched to thirty-five and counting. Exciting work on the Boeing 747 design and in propulsion research took him to 1974 when the family went south in search of sunnier climes. However, the child count by this time was up by one, a daughter Kirstan, and also the car count, a VW bug as well as a Ford Falcon. In San Jose a house was bought which meant roots had finally been planted, and with steady employment at General Electric, children to educate, and a good climate, there was no incentive to move on. The tortuous gestation of The Renaissance Group eventually reached fruition but then suffered other vicissitudes. A literary agent in Florida had it for many months but lost it in a hurricane and promptly retired with ill-health. A publishing house in England then got so far as producing the galleys before a serious setback occurred. The company CEO embezzled all the company assets and fled to Spain with his secretary. However, publishing success was eventually achieved with the advent of the print-on-demand publishers; in his case Xlibris Corporation offered their services. Xlibris has also recently completed production of Bernard Lord´s second novel, entitled, Mandrake´s Mission. He has a third one in the process of being written. Product Description In 1944, an American bomber, carrying dead navigator Paul Mandrake, crashes in the Swiss Alps. Twenty-one years later, his son, Peter, learns that Stephen Craddock, the fa