Lewis with his book
AFTER spending the best part of a year doing desk-based research for his novel “Silver Llama” Warrington author Lewis Kingston decided a fact-finding mission was essential.
The novel is set in Bolivia – so Lewis set off for the landlocked South American country to gain the local colour that would bring his story to life.
The trip added a valuable insight into the country and an important sense of “being there” – especially experiencing the oxygen sapping atmosphere at more than 4000 metres above sea level.
As an independent traveller he had no tour guide to turn to if things went wrong. Fortunately nothing did – except when he was “arrested” by a bogus policeman who tried to bundle him into an unmarked car. Lewis escaped by outrunning his pursuer through the congested pavements of La Paz – the country’s administrative capital.
Safe back in Warrington, Lewis revised and completed his novel.
The story begins in 1537 with an Inca family and the Silver Llama – a mystical piece of jewellery. It fast forwards to Victorian times, when there was a now forgotten dispute between Bolivia and Britain which led to Queen Victorian ordering that Bolivia be removed from the map!
There’s a love a story and then, as the story moves on to modern times, plenty of adventure and intrigue as a group of friends who visit Bolivia get tangled up with various problems arising from the rediscovery of the Silver Llama.
The book is available from Waterstones, WH Smith and Amazon.
