Grandfathers' Gifts (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781517188962)

John Hargreaves began his working life teaching literacy skills to inmates of North Carolina prisons. He would later work with inmates of Drake Hall women's prison, in Staffordshire, to produce The Key - a magazine of creative writing which won numerous Koestler Awards. The first of his children was born in North Carolina, and a further three in the UK - all at home. Hugely influenced by Tom Brewer, the American obstetrician whose work focussed on the link between maternal nutrition and eclampsia, he wrote Dr Clegg's Machete (Tangible Press). In this novel a pioneering female obstetrician sacrifices her life to prove to her male colleagues the truth of her discoveries. He wrote the horticultural travelogue Harvests and Harvesters (Gollancz) and a number of genre novels before a stint in local government public relations. His latest novel, Grandfathers' Gifts, was inspired by a paper knife and hand bell which sit on his desk. They were made as a gift for his grandfather by a German prisoner he was escorting back from the trenches in 1918.