Dorneywood — Dan Ryan

Dorneywood is a continuation of the novel Enigma and it is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents portrayed in this novel are the product of the author's imagination or have been used fictitiously. The characters are placed in two time periods. Part One is from December 7, 1929 to December 7, 1938 and is narrated by Sir John Atwell. Sir John Atwell is the undercover personage for Admiral James Caldwell whose attempted assassination at the end of Enigma left everyone hanging, will he live, will he die? He lives and assumes the identity of a British nobleman. He returns to his home at Springwell. In the novel, Springwell is based upon the purchase of Chartwell by Winston Churchill in 1921. Winston Churchill faced a similar situation in his life at this time in history. Churchill entered the British army in 1893, fought at the battle of Khartoum with the Nile Expeditionary Forces in 1898 and was in the Boer War of 1899. He was elected to parliament for Oldham in 1900, was Under-secretary of State for the Colonies in 1906, marries Clementine Hozier in 1908 and was Home Secretary in 1910. He served as First Lord of the Admiralty, Minister of Munitions and Secretary for War and Air during WWI. In 1921 he was voted out of office and the House of Commons. In 1929, Churchill has returned as Chancellor of the Exchequer and offers the narrator of part one (Sir John Atwell) a similar position to what he held in Washington D.C. He is given an estate in southern England called Dorneywood and is asked to set up a farm setting like that of the NIA in Lancaster, Virginia. This new effort is called Dorneywood Institute. Part two is called Infamie and the characters are placed in the second time period, December 7, 1938 to December 7, 1940. The narrator of part two is Louis Caldwell, son of Admiral James Caldwell. The father suffers a stroke on December 7, 1938 and Louis is asked to assume his father's position on a temporary basis until he can return to work. The second part is the start of WWII in Europe and ends with the completion of the Battle of Britain. The novel is a work of fiction. Its location was inspired by my time spent in London during the spring semester of 1974. The Rotary Foundation Group Exchange, district 114 in England invited a number of scholars from the United States to spend time in England living with various Rotarians of District 114. I was teaching at the University of Nebraska in Omaha at the time, and I was chosen to represent District 565 of the United States. It was during this time that I came to know the people of Reigate, Redhill and Merstham, just south of London. This is where I met some of the characters for my novels and I visited Chartwell a number of times. The Baroness Churchill lived in Chartwell with her husband until his death on January 24, 1965. She willed the estate to the British Government upon her death but would accept visitors from the United States who were writing about her husband on certain occasions. I had the opportunity to walk through the house and gardens with other Rotary members. The written word cannot describe all that it meant to me to see the house as it existed in 1929. The historical events which are outlined in this book all took place. The dates and locations are accurate, but the characters are the products of my overactive imagination. Some persons mentioned, however, are real. You cannot write about this period of our history without making reference to elected officials.