by Lewis Griffiths (Author)
THE BELL THAT NEVER RANG
This is Jim Bowen's story. The story of a boy born in the shadow of a lonely church bell and forced to leave the farm he loves to become a sailor, only to fall in love with the beautiful Marie while on a voyage to New Zealand.
A story of Wales and New Zealand; of romance, rugby and the struggles of two farming families.
And of a battleship, HMS New Zealand, purchased by a young country and protected by a Maori prophecy, as it fought in a world war. Will the prophecy hold true at the Battle of Jutland? And what of Jim and Marie?
And the bell that never rang on the Queen Mary?
Based on a true story and supported by extensive research into the author's ancestry, this book brings alive the dramas of ordinary lives disrupted by a war that nobody wanted; lives haunted by "turanga wae wae" and "hiraeth", the deep call of the roots that bind you to land of your birth.