Dead Innocent

About the Book

George Luckhurst is a bully and racist bigot, determined to control his family and force them to conform to his own twisted beliefs.

Alice Luckhurst, his eldest daughter, is feisty and fiercely independent, with her own ideas on how she wants to live her life.

Calvin Thomas is her lover.

And he is black.

One terrible night in 1922, these three are joined in a gruesome ballet that totally alters their own lives, and the future of everyone around them. Although troubled by feelings of guilt, George cannot escape from his firmly held beliefs, no matter how distorted. He attempts to find salvation by joining a fundamental religious sect.

Two years later, Jimmy Whitehead is born to George's younger daughter, Ivy. He grows up against the background of looming war, hunger and deprivation in 1930s England. But though naïve, he is also ambitious and determined to escape from the suffocating poverty endured by his family.

Expect tension and drama in a story that mixes humour, religion, sex, hatred and hopeless love, as George takes every opportunity to thwart his grandson's aspirations, while battling with his own guilty desires.

About the Author

Ivan Brissenden was born in 1924 and has lived in many of the locations described in Dead Innocent. In 1943 he became a pilot in the RAF, eventually flying Lancaster bombers.

After WWII, he worked in London as a sales rep before settling down to a career in advertising. This included a stint as publicity manager of an international engineering firm and a major finance company, before working as a copywriter in various London ad agencies, later becoming a founder director/creative director of a major ad agency in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Upon retirement, he and his wife moved to Florida for three years, but they now live in Lincolnshire. He has one son and four daughters, umpteen grandchildren and two great-grandsons.