John F. Hanley

About John F. Hanley

John F Hanley was born in Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands, which is only ten miles from France but over 100 from England. Though the French have been trying to absorb it through conquest, for over 800 years, it has remained loyal to the British Crown.

He grew up surrounded by the massive fortifications the Germans had constructed to stop the British reclaiming the island they had bombed and occupied in 1940.

He discovered that everyone, including his mother, who had endured that Occupation, had stories to tell. Eventually, he decided to immerse himself in the history of that period and use some of that first-hand material to write a series of novels set before, during, and after the Second World War.

Before he had the luxury of retirement to fund the time for such a venture, he spent nearly forty years teaching in London, Cornwall, and Jersey where he ended his career as deputy headteacher of his old high school.

When he was eighteen, he left the island to study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. He often wondered what it would have been like to be eighteen in 1939 and faced with a rather different choice and this question provided the initial impetus for the series.

The first five novels have been published with more in the pipeline.

1. AGAINST THE TIDE (1939)

2. THE LAST BOAT (1940)

3. DIAMONDS FOR THE WOLF (1941)

4. IRISH LASS (1941)

5. UNDER THE TIDE (1990)