Brandon Bay

About the Book

This is a novel set in and around Brandon Bay in south-west Ireland and about some of the people who live, work and play there. It is a blend of fact and fiction. The novel contrasts society's response to organised crime with its treatment of the individual criminal. The discoveries of two bodies early in the story allow the contrast to be made. This is only one of the threads of the story of Brandon Bay, but it is a basic one: the community is aware of smuggling and the activities of organised crime, because it has been in contact with the sea for generations and because republicans have been active there for many years. So this is not a story about I.R.A. violence but of an organisation which is part of the fabric of life and therefore not greatly affected by the Provisionals' announcement in July 2005 of an end to its armed campaign.

Not everyone is sympathetic to the cause. The local windsurfing expert and instructor will assist the organisation technically, but wants no political involvement. But the local tart becomes more and more involved. The position of the Provisionals' commanding officer in the area is vulnerable, particularly for a failed attempt to involve Welsh nationalists in a joint incident on mainland Britain. However, he does gain credit for his part in re-organising activities in southwest Ireland, particularly for the innovative use of windsurfers in bringing smuggled drugs ashore. The focus gradually fixes on what will happen to him, rather than the original killers — that outcome is more or less assured: an individual offender will be pursued by the law and the organisation will get away with their offences, as far as the police are concerned. But there are others, inside and outside the organisation, who seek to call the local commander to account.

About the Author

Peter Head is an economic historian, born and working in Britain and now living in Cyprus. He has reported on many economic and social issues, usually anonymously for, or on behalf of, local government of public bodies. Publications in Dr. Head's own name include works on the growth of the footwear and hosiery industries.

To offset academia and civil service, Peter and his wife have bred and fattened pigs, raised calves, produced homegrown pork and ham, run an Irish gift shop and established a new postcard company called Kerry Cards.

Brandon Bay is Peter's second novel. The first, This Island Now, was set in Cyprus and published there in 2005. Published very recently is an anthology of prose and verse, with drawings by daughter, Rebecca, titled That Iguana Flying By. On the stocks is a book about the Black Country industrial village of Cradley, famous for chain making, where he was born and where his great great grandfather migrated in the 1830's. Another novel in draft is a whodunit, set in the Adriatic.