Profile: Gerald Hughes

About This Author

I first became interested in writing when I attended, what was in the late 1960s, the Northern Polytechnic in London. Two of my short plays were included in the annual student review. Since then I have spent most of my life travelling the world, often to countries at war or in political turmoil. My most recent assignment was two-and-a-half years spent living and working in Tanzania which, together with the earlier African stories by Wilbur Smith, provides the setting and inspiration for "Jangwani - I want a baby with blue eyes”. I currently reside on the Shropshire / Staffordshire border in the UK. Married to my wife Ann for forty years I have two daughters and six grandchildren. An extract from the first draft of a sequel ( Jangwani - I've got a baby with blue eyes) has been included as a work in progress in the anthology “What’s the Story’, funded by the Arts Council in England. Life has been pretty good for Paul, travelling the world, staying in high class hotels – until redundancy. For Siara, life has been grim. A broken home, and a failed romance, she is determined to climb out of the rut by any means possible. Paul, unaware of the dark powers that still abound in Africa today, finds himself entwined in a love triangle unable to resist Siara's charms, whilst her grandmother, Maaheen, has planned out Paul’s life's purpose from the beginning. They have been chosen to produce a child that will be the next Laibon, but first they need to overcome the evil of modern day slavery controlled by the detestable Hassan.