Time and Time Again by Ben Elton
The Blurb:
It’s the 1st of June 1914 and Hugh Stanton, ex-soldier and celebrated adventurer is quite literally the loneliest man on earth. No one he has ever known or loved has been born yet. Perhaps now they never will be. Stanton knows that a great and terrible war is coming. A collective suicidal madness that will destroy European civilization and bring misery to millions in the century to come. He knows this because, for him, that century is already history. Somehow he must change that history. He must prevent the war. A war that will begin with a single bullet. But can a single bullet truly corrupt an entire century? And, if so, could another single bullet save it?
About Ben Elton:
Ben Elton is one of Britain's most provocative and entertaining writers. From celebrity to climate change, from the First World War to the end of the world, his books give his unique perspective on some of the most controversial topics of our time. He has written twelve major bestsellers, including Stark, Popcorn, Inconceivable (filmed as Maybe Baby, which he also directed), Dead Famous, High Society (WH Smith People's Choice Award 2003) and The First Casualty. He has also written some of television's most popular and incisive comedy, including The Young Ones, Blackadder and The Man From Auntie. His stage work includes three West End plays and the hit musicals The Beautiful Game and We Will Rock You. He is married with three children.
My Review:
This is an epic story set very slightly in the future, in 2024-25, when a package of papers and a letter from Sir Isaac Newton, delivered in 1727 by the great man himself and entrusted with the Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, to be passed down the line and would not be opened until New Year's Day in 2024 by whoever the Master of Trinity should be. Newton's theory of time and space relativity that he describes as coiled as opposed to linear had hypothesised that the coil was subject to periodic interruptions when light is bent by gravity creating a portal that would allow someone to go back in time and change the world for the better and prevent history's worst global disaster, namely the First World War. Hugh Stanton, an ex-SAS officer had been selected for this task, following Newton's specific instructions as to the exact time and location that the portal would be available. It's an incredible story of great minds, that was made credible by a visionary of comparable intellect Ben Elton. A mammoth task for any writer, laying down historical facts accurately but then to bend and change everything and recreate the world based on a 'what if?' Not forgetting, that this is Ben Elton, a man who knows how to entertain, and to that end, this book had value for me.
