The Book Doctor
NOTE:
As of 1st January 2005
John Trenhaile will be
offering a more limited service.
Please familiarise yourself
with the changes on the
page entitled 'Significant Alterations.'
Copyright © 2005 John Trenhaile Critiques. All rights reserved. Revised: December 14, 2004 .
The Credentials
This was my first novel, eventually filmed:
the one that began it all. In it I created
Colonel-General Stepan Ilyich Povin, a KGB
officer who was secretly working for the West.
Set deep in the Cold War and very much a
product of its time, it nevertheless set me on
my way to life as a full-time writer of fiction.
"A wonderfully tough and fascinating story that kept
me guessing to the end." -- New York Newsday
Second novels are traditionally hard to
write, but this one came easily. I wrote
most of it on the train during my daily
commute between Haywards Heath and
London, using blue counsel's notebooks
and an ordinary ballpoint pen.
"A breath of fresh air...fairly oozes authenticity and impending peril." -- Los Angeles Times Book Review
This third novel, the final part of the
Povin Trilogy, was destined to set me
on my way to full-time writing. People
often ask me how I had the heart to kill
off the old general, but I wanted to strike
out in another direction, and something
told me that the Cold War was not destined
to last much longer. This novel remains one
of my personal favourites. A huge amount of
rewriting was necessary, but it was very
much a labour of love.
"A very fast-moving and compelling story, brilliantly described." --Daily Telegraph
