Around the Next Bend

About the Book

The saga of a family that fights back. The Haleys pull themselves out of the slums of northern England to make their destinies in the new world. Jim, smart and aggressive; he burned to escape the poverty. Nellie, the quintessential matriarch; strong through adversity that would destroy a weaker woman – she held the family together. And Charlie, the renegade; he wouldn’t do what the family thought he was destined to do – he went his own way regardless of the consequences. These and the extended family of uncles, aunts, and cousins, all weave their way in and out of the Haleys lives.

Together and apart they travel on four continents. Through the agony of the depression and the terrors of the war years they sail to a new destiny in Canada, only to find their hopes crushed. Another attempt to live the good life in the USA.

Charlie, stranded and without money, in desperation joins the US Army – not a welcoming home for an alien with an accent.  Ruth, fresh off the banana boat, as Charlie says, how will she fit in to the family?  A fascinating tale of a family determined to succeed.

About the Author

Dennis grew into his teens during the war years in England. In 1950 he left to work in an aircraft factory in Canada while farming a hundred acre farm as a sideline. Leaving Canada he served twenty years in the US Army as a Bomb Squad technician. During his military career he met and is still married to Ruth, also English born. They served a three tour of duty with the US Peace Corps after their three children grew and left home. They taught gardening and crop production to Maya Indians in Guatemala. Now grandparents, they own and operate a Recreational Vehicle Park in the desert of northwest Arizona.