John Dorrell

You are leading a group of businessmen in an African country and the plane you are catching overflies without notice. You now find there are no staff of any kind left in the airport, what do you do? It is nearly midnight, you all have exit visas in your passports and all your baggage is out there on one big trolley on the tarmac. Discuss possible options.

This is just one incident among many which confronted the author during forty years of association with forty or so African countries. ONE DEATH FOR FREEDOM explores what nearly happened in one country seeking independence. IN THE HOT SEAT looks at a later stage in African development, when corruption comes with wealth and power. The hero David Jethro features in both. Three more novels,Elusive Ambitions, Break Up and The Jubilee Mission. with Evans Watanero as a linking character, together with his life-long friends Dipra Forfpi and Malachi Goodwill celebrate the honourable and rewarding history of Africans who emerged from the chaos to help build a vibrant society. The author, present at Ghana's Independence Day in Accra has lived through all Africa's modern history. It is no way to get rich, except in after-dinner stories. John Dorrell has been married twice, (14 years, widowed, and 41 years), has six children, (one born in Nigeria) fourteen grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, with another expected in September. 'Owzat? as he is wont to exclaim when watching cricket - also the title of one of his many short stories, a number published in magazines and small press publications.

First published in the West London Observer, recounting adventures on a hitch-hiking holiday cover Southern England from Bath to Lands End and back via Dover, wqhen John was 16. He has since contributed many articles to the house magazines of his various employers, written short stories by the dozen and finished five novels and one autobiography - The Fortunate Few, based on his RAF experience of National Service.