A Chance Encounter

France, July 1918. Nineteen-year-old Roland Massey, fresh out of grammar school, has been conscripted into the British Army and sent to the Western Front. His overriding aim is to see out the remainder of the war and return unscathed to the comfortable middle-class life he left behind in Cheshire. Following a battle near Rheims, he is given temporary charge of Paul Sondheim, a captured German soldier. Their brief conversation results in a reunion after the war … and Roland’s introduction to Paul’s sister, the beautiful Stefanie Sondheim. A Chance Encounter is a tale of friendship, romance, and betrayal set in the turbulent period between the closing months of the First World War and the early years of the Nazi dictatorship. It is a time of momentous social and political change in Germany, a time when those who dare to speak out run the risk of imprisonment or worse. As Paul and Steffi are drawn into situations that have the potential to endanger their lives, can Roland intervene to prevent disaster?

John Clark was born in Cheshire in 1951. He is a retired history teacher with a particular interest in the First World War. His many visits to the former battlefields of France and Flanders became the inspiration for this, his first novel.