Benoy B. Chowdhury, Ph. D

IRONY OF DESTINY is a reality-based fictional work. The story begins at the outbreak of WWII and surreptitiously delves into post-war developments emanating from the circumstances of the war itself. David Ardmore had returned to England from the war not knowing he had an unborn child with Helga Stein from his chance encounter with her in Thuringen which became part of Soviet East Germany. Konrad, born to Helga, had excelled in his agricultural studies and was fiercely loyal to the East German State which had entangled him in espionage activities in England when he had come to visit his newly-acquainted father for the first time and to learn about advanced agricultural methods there. He had unaccountably disappeared from Boxbury farm in Chipping Norton in SW England. When detective Barton Smith had brought Konrad back from West Germany, where he had taken refuge, his life took on bouts of romance and intrigue. Naval Officer Edwin Marsh, a bungling and over-eager suitor for Lord Carrington’s daughter Emily’s affection, had taken a jaundiced view of her emotional dependence on her colleagues at the BBC and in particular, her infatuation with Konrad (renamed Craig), when he had worked in horticulture at the Manor House. Craig’s own sensitivities were awakened by Linda Baxter of the Public Relations Firm when he had taken over responsibilities for running his father’s equipment business. In the end, Craig found stability and happiness with Hedda Vogel whom he had known in the Youth Movement in East Germany.