The Thala Talisman

Terence James is a retired lecturer in the social sciences and history. Is a graduate with an MSc in Psychology having spent his professional life working in the field of mental health before returning to writing and the academic world. Is a father and a grandfather. Terence James lives with his wife Patricia, at their home near Conwy in North Wales.

When I was asked why I begun writing the Reinecke saga, I started by reflecting upon some of the hair raising hazardous adventures in the days of my own intrepid youth. I then asked myself, what would I, as a reader, expect in such a story? A conflict set against the background of war, with the underlying current being the oldest theme of all, the struggle for good to ultimately triumph over the evils in the world. A readable fictional story would need to contain truths. It must have a firm basis founded in factual realities. It most of all must be believable, the characters need to be plausibly human with with all of the frailties, the desires and the fears we each in our own ways experience over the often unpredictable courses of our lives. .

Importantly, for the reader to come away from their reading of these books with a sense of imaginative stimulation. As the mental imagery, may, if I have succeeded, conjure up the vivid colourful pictures in the mind's eye of the individual. The unfolding dramas, the colourful vistas of foreign landscapes, to engage with these creations as the reader embarks with me on a journey of exploration: from the birth of an impulse in the inner mind, to the embryonic idea evolving into written words in creating the stories as told in the Reinecke saga.