The Day the Call Came - Softcover

Thomas Hinde

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0441139752 ISBN 13: 9780441139750

Publisher: Charter, 1980

Synopsis

Though THE DAY THE CALL CAME reads like fantasy, it is far from being that, and just how horrifyingly real it all is becomes clear as the story develops. When the call came, Harry Bale, the nervous eccentric hero, was ready for it. He receives his sinister instructions by letter, telephone, and the winking of car mirrors. But can Harry ever be sure just what his masters mean---or who his enemy is?

About this title

About the Author

Thomas Hinde (Sir Thomas Chitty, Bart., though he prefers his writing name) was born in Felixstowe, Suffolk, an English seaside resort. The son of a boys' school head- master, he attended his father's school until he was twelve, then transferred to Winchester College, a more prestigious "public" school. Undecided about his future after school, he chose the Royal Navy as a career, but soon realized his mistake. After three years of service he went to University College, Oxford, where he read Modern History. He began writing his first novel, MR. NICHOLAS, while teaching a farmer's two children. Mr. Nicholas was pub- lished in 1952 and widely admired. While working at a job driving the Big Dipper at the Battersea Fun Fair he became engaged to his future wife, Susan Chitty, who was working in the Fair's children's zoo. Susan has since become a fashion journalist, novelist in her own right and the writer of a number of biographies including those of Edward Lear, Gwen John and Anna Sewell—author of BLACK BEAUTY. After his marriage Hinde worked for two years measur- ing the houses of London for rating. For the next seven years (1953-60) he worked as a public relations officer for the Shell Petroleum Company. While working for Shell he wrote his second novel, HAPPY AS LARRY, published in 1957. Between 1961 and 1980, Hinde wrote and published thirteen critically-acclaimed novels. In this period Hinde also taught writing for two years at the University of Illinois, and as a professor for one year at Boston University. In 1975-76 he, his wife and two of their little girls, Miranda (7) and Jessica (3) walked and rode donkies from western Spain to Northern Greece, a journey which led to their jointly written THE GREAT DONKEY WALK. Since then Hinde has written a number of historical books including a biography of Capability Brown, various other natural history books including a history of British forests and the histories of half a dozen schools including IMPS OF PROMISE, about King's School Canterbury.

Review

This establishes Thomas Hinde as one of our finest and most individual novelists. A superb book---deep, rapid, thrilling, disturbing. --Anthony Burgess

It would be hard to imagine a novel more quietly terrifying than this sunlit nightmare of a novel. --THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

About this edition

• Publisher: Charter
• Publication date: 1980
• ISBN 10: 0441139752
• ISBN 13: 9780441139750
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 191