Chapter 1 (partial)

After the Holidays I flew back to England to start my new term at Oxford. The first thing waiting for me at the mail table sitting in The Meadows entrance was a stack of telegrams.

Every one of them was from my brothers and sister. Each telegram reminded me that I was seventeen years old. During my birthday celebrations, I made the mistake of saying I was eighteen.

Why I made that mistake, I don't know, but my wonderful siblings weren't going to let me forget it. Something about not being as perfect as I thought I was.

Maybe I was getting forgetful at my advanced age. Who knew? I might forget to buy them Christmas presents next year.

Speaking of Christmas, when arriving at The Meadows, it was Christmas all over again. Nothing big, but Grand Mum had knitted me a sweater.

It was dark blue with the Oxford logo in grey. The logo was offset on my left side. It was really neat looking.

I had bought her a one-hundred-pound gift certificate from Harrods. I know I should have picked out a real gift, but I had no idea what to get a lady of her age.

She seemed very happy with it. To her, she would be getting her shopping for free!

I also had Mr. Hamilton purchase cufflinks for the male staff and a brooch for the females. I gave him a matching tie clasp and cuff links from Tiffany's in New York.

Having staff all over the world was very convenient for running errands. The staff chipped in and gave me a new set of riding clothes. I thought that strange as I didn't have a horse in England. That is until I was handed a card from Mum and Dad.

A riding horse was waiting for me at a local stable. They had purchased it, and it would be kept there as we couldn't justify supporting a stable at The Meadows.

I was glad to see that while money was no object, the family was still mindful of spending.

My first class at Oxford was part of a business course. I had given up on a formal program leading to a specific degree. Instead, I was taking those courses that would help me in general and sounded interesting.

This business course was part of the MBA program. I thought I would have an easy A, but that I would learn a few things along the way.

I had a rude surprise about the easy A.

The Don introduced himself and then told us the course requirements. Besides the normal reading requirements, there was a live business case study.

The course was run over two terms, so we would have six months to complete the case study. We had to start a business and make a profit. Our grades would depend on the gross profit made.

Cast in Time Book 6 Available in June 2024!

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More details coming soon.

Earl E. (Ed) Nelson

I have always wanted to be an author. I had my first rejection slip in about 1965. Wish I had saved it. For many years the only writing I did was technical as pesky things like three children, nine grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren came along.

My technical writing was in the field of quality in several different journals. I worked in the field of quality for over fifty years, starting as a line inspector and ending up as a Vice-President of Quality and elected a Fellow of the American Society for Quality.

Then a wonderful thing happened. I lost my job and was out of work for almost eight months. To keep from going crazy I wrote. I posted my stories on an online site, and lo and behold people read them and said nice things. Fast forward about eight years and I am retired and writing for the fun of it.

A lot of what is in my stories is based on my life experiences, gasp! Give or take a lie or two that is. The one fortunate thing in my career is that I got to travel worldwide and have been to most of the locations I write about.

In my younger days, I tried hot air ballooning, sky diving, white water rafting, spelunking, and target shooting. I have collected stamps, drove in road rallies, lowly rated by the US Chess federation. I built a Kentucky long rifle and a dueling pistol. I am a licensed HAM radio operator. My hobby is having hobbies.

My true passion is reading. Trapped in a hotel room I would read the telephone book. The TV would not be turned on. I have averaged 200 books a year for the last sixty years. I knew those long flights were good for something.

BTW I was born in the middle of an air raid in England during World War II, the house next door was destroyed and our windows were blown out. That is probably the most interesting thing I have been involved with. Mum never forgave me. Happily married for 56 years I hope my wife doesn’t catch on to what a goof I am.