Il-i-ad That Lad by Paul Hawkes

Il-i-ad That Lad by Paul Hawkes

. Long ago in a far distant and different - though maybe not so - world, 1,250BCE, yet-to-be Greeks tried to retake that world's most beautiful woman, Helen of Troy, 'the face that launched a 1,000 ships' (actually 1,034). She'd been seduced/abducted by Paris, the Trojan prince. If she existed she may have been an excuse for colonial conquest, like the non-existent 'weapons of mass destruction' of Iraq 2003, as Troy was a key trading centre. Or the war may have been due to widespread famine, thus mass migration in the Med.
This innovative take on Homer's ancient epic Iliad uses a stream-of-consciousness style within a traditional ten-syllable rhyming structure. There are very graphic descriptions of one of our bloodiest wars, but also magic, as the god(desse)s interweave throughout, dispensing miracles for their favourites, nobbling rivals. Zeus, on Mount Olympus, plays chess master, pulling the strings, alongside Fate. And there are wonderful similes from the natural world.
Given new resonance by the continuing war in Ukraine, Troy's timeless lessons are unfortunately likely to become more, not less, relevant with increasing competition for shrinking resources, and now that the crises of global heating and nuclear Armageddon threaten practically all life on the planet. The futility of war and destruction has always been humankind's Achilles Heel The ancient Greek earth-mother goddess GAIA has largely become (G)reed, (A)rrogance), (I)gnorance, (A)ggression. The power-brokers of our brave new world are descendants of those peoples past - do we have enough of whatever wisdom they had to survive?
If you like Greek mythology or history-fantasy or similar, you'll love this modern twist on a tale of long ago.

John Abram began his career selling industrial textiles to major customers in industries as diverse as mining; water treatment and pollution control. He was promoted to head the firm's business development functions in the UK, where he was responsible for introducing one of the earliest examples of automated customer management systems used in the UK.
He was recruited by American Express in 1978 and appointed Marketing Manager, with responsibility for Cardmember recruitment and retention, as well as cross-sales of complementary products and services.
In 1981, backed by a leading publishing firm, he started his own business promoting a range of products and services to entrepreneurs and business managers. In 1984, he bought out his original backers and took the business on to become a significant innovator in the promotion of investment products by phone and post, being the first in the country to sell personal pension plans direct to consumers.

Paul Hawkes joined American Express Card Division in 1975 and subsequently became Marketing Manager for the merchant network in the UK and Ireland. In 1979, he moved to Time-Life Books and was promoted to become European Mark eting Vice President. In this role, he was responsible for mail order and retail marketing and sales, new product development and co-publishing relationships across 14 countries within Europe and Africa.
He was a director of the British Direct Marketing Association and a Council Member of both the Association of Mail Order Publishers and the Mail Order Publishers' Authority; and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. He is now a director of the Virtual Partnership Ltd.
John and Paul co-founded Abram, Hawkes plc in January 1987. Over the next 13 years they built and managed the company to become the UK's foremost consultancy specialising in marketing and customer management; or, more simply, advising and assisting organisations on how to grow revenues and build customer profitability. They sold the company at the beginning of 2000 to Valoris, a major European consulting firm. Their clients included many of the country's largest and most successful organisations, such as Norwich Union, Centrica, Switch Card Services, Thomas Cook, Lloyds Bank, MBNA, Visa, Barclaycard, Axa Sun Life, GUS Catalogue Order, and many others.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781398462861
ISBN 10	1398462861
Title	Il-i-ad That Lad
Author	Paul Hawkes
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Austin Macauley Publishers
Year published	2022-10-31
Number of pages	292
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.