Good morning,
Please find below the latest news from Literally PR. We're very proud to confirm that our client, Greg Taylor, is currently in the US where he has won an historical fiction award. Greg is also preparing for his US book launch in New York on July 16th (more details available upon request).
We can arrange for you to receive a copy of the prize-winning historical fiction novel - Lusitania R.E.X. as well as provide photography, editorial and interviews with Greg Taylor.
Kind regards,
Helen Lewis
Director - Literally PR
PRESS RELEASE
July 2,2015
The M.M. Bennetts Award for Historical Fiction Announced
For Immediate Release
The winner of the M. M. Bennetts Award for Historical Fiction was announced today at the Historical Novel Society Conference in Denver. Originality of subject and characters, depth of research and excellence of literary style were the criteria. From among an exceptionally broad field of subjects, which ranged from novels on the Aryan Heresy and the dissolution of the empire of Alexander the Great to domestic life in the camps of Genghis Khan and early logging camps in Oregon, three finalists were chosen.
These were The Prince's Doom on the politics and hazards of noble life in 15th-century Verona; Lusitania R.E.X, a speculative novel focused on the mysterious second explosion that doomed the Lusitania; and This Old World on a small, pioneering utopian community and its struggle to survive after the American Civil War.
The winner is Lusitania R.E.X by Greg Taylor. European nobility, obscure Russian scientists, American millionaires, horse racing, Yale's Skull and Bones Club and early rocket science figure in this complex tale. A wide assortment of vivid characters, unrelenting pace, and an intricate narrative composed with clarity and a persuasive thread of cause and effect have distinguished this novel above the very laudable competition.
Using the novel form to explore one of the mysteries of recent history, working from private family archives including those of such notables as the Vanderbilts and the Duke of Marlborough, Taylor has assembled a highly plausible portrait of the uses of private capital and social influence to effect matters of international importance, a subject pertinent today and at all times.
Remarkably, this is Taylor's first novel. Studying history at Williams College in Massachusetts and the University of Durham, Taylor went on to attend the School of Management at Yale University, where he lived one block from The Tomb, the headquarters of Skull and Bones, an organization that figures prominently in Lusitania R.E.X Taylor says he was drawn to the tale of the Lusitania, fascinated by the collapse of Edwardian society, the epitome of elegance, in the brutal warfare their own industrial success had made possible. His passion for his subject moved the Vanderbilt family, the Duke of Marlborough and others to open to him family archives previously unavailable.
Coming from Colorado originally, London has been Taylor's home since 2000. He is an investment banker and financial asset manager, founder of Sequoia Investment Management.
The M.M. Bennetts Award for Historical Fiction has been created to honor author M. M. Bennetts whose two volumes on the British intelligence service during the Napoleonic Wars are models of extraordinary, in-depth research, broad evocation of life of the period and literary excellence. In August 2014, while engaged in research for a much-awaited third volume in the series, Bennetts succumbed to cancer. The award is intended to further the standards of research, literary quality and originality in the historical fiction genre.
M.M. Bennetts Award
http://mmbaward.org
Debra Brown, President
mmbaward@gmail.com
Lusitania R.E.X and Its Author
Lusitania R.E.X, an historical novel about the sinking of the RMS Lusitania in the early days of World War I, is Greg Taylor's first novel and a significant debut. Taylor says he was drawn to accounts of the Lusitania, fascinated by the collapse of Edwardian society, the epitome of elegance, in the brutal warfare their industrial success had made possible. Taylor's passion for history and research earned him access to private family archives never before opened to a writer and has taken him to numerous sites that appear in the book, from the palaces of the Tsar, the Kaiser and the Vanderbilts to the battlefields of Ypres.
Lusitania R.E.X explores the events and influences leading up to the sinking, with a well argued theory as to the cause of a second, unexplained blast that doomed the ship after it had been struck by a single German torpedo on May 7th, 1915. The Lusitania sank eighteen minutes after that second, internal blast. Taylor's book is brimming with convincingly drawn spies and secret societies, superweapons, obscure Russian physicists and playboy millionaires, including Alfred Vanderbilt I, the main character of the novel.
Since the time of her sinking, the Lusitania has been wrapped in mystery and intrigue. Experts continue to debate the cause of that second explosion. Imperial Germany immediately claimed the ship was loaded with explosives destined for the front.
Lusitania R.E.X weaves fiction around the known facts to create a plausible explanation of unresolved questions surrounding her sinking and explores how modern, mechanized war, with its zeppelin raids and poison gas, brought to an end the gilded age of Newport, Edwardian England and Imperial Germany and Russia.
The Nautilus Telegraph wrote: "Through it's fictionalised treatment of historical events, Lusitania R.E.X tries to get inside the head of Vanderbilt, exploring the reasons why this rather indolent heir to a fortune could have developed into someone capable of heroism. In the best blockbuster tradition, the book also features plenty of romance and glamour, as well as a Dan Brown-style conspiracy posited by the author as the real reason why the German navy attacked the ship in the First World War."
Originally from Colorado, Greg Taylor has made London his home since 2000; he divides his investment banking and asset management career between New York and London. Lusitania R.E.X was written while the author was founding and developing his own investment management firm, Sequoia Investment Management.
Undergraduate studies in history at Williams College in Massachusetts and the University of Durham in England influenced Taylor's writing of Lusitania R.E.X, as did his work at the School of Management at Yale University, where he lived a single block from The Tomb, the headquarters of the Skull and Bones Club, which figures prominently in the book.
During his research, Taylor came to know descendants of some of the principal characters in Lusitania R.E.X. He spent time with Alfred Vanderbilt III, including accompanying Alfred and his wife on a visit to his grandfather's Great Camp Sagamore in the Adirondacks, described with first-hand vividness in the book. Alfred Vanderbilt I, who inherited one of the largest fortunes of America's Gilded Age, perished on the Lusitania after giving his lifebelt to a woman passenger.
The Duke of Marlborough also took an interest in Lusitania R.E.X. His father and grandfather are significant in the story through the 9th Duke's marriage to Consuelo Vanderbilt. The 11th Duke, whose middle name is Vanderbilt, wrote the forward to Lusitania R.E.X.
Taylor also was able to sail on the Cunard Line's "Lusitania Remembered" Voyage in May of 2015 and participated in marking the 100th anniversary over the site of the Lusitania wreck which lies beneath 260 feet of water eleven miles off the coast of Ireland. Taylor had the pleasure of meeting a number of descendants of Lusitania victims and survivors and is hosting an upcoming event with Lady Helen Gaskell, the descendant of a survivor.
Lusitania R.E.X is published by Filament (hard bound and paperback) and Autharium (electronic formats) and is available on the book website, Amazon, and from other retailers and your local bookshop.
The book website is www.lusitaniarex.com
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/LUSITANIAREX/303457686474329
Taylor's Twitter address is Greg@GregTaylor_LUSI
Press contact:info@literallypr.com
M.M. Bennetts Award for Historical Fiction Association