The AQALAN Initiative

Dave loved Michelle more than life itself. But when, at 40, he finds himself alone, he can no longer cope. Big Al and James, concerned that their friend might top himself, need to formulate a rescue plan; and fast. Spanish language classes, a crash course in the traditional Andalusian dance of sevillanas and a week of fiesta in Sevilla ought to do the trick. Brilliant! Itʼ s a project requiring preparation, and in the case of tall, ungainly, rugby fanatic Big Al, a large dollop of humiliation as "second row forwards donʼ t do bleedinʼ flamenco". With Osama bin Laden dead and the Arab Spring having reached its zenith, al-Qaeda splits into two factions. There may be a more intelligent way to Islamicise the decadent west. But could the AQALAN Initiative be strangled at birth, and the world thrown into turmoil, by a seemingly innocuous spat between two men attending a sevillanas dance class in south London?

Dave loved Michelle more than life itself. But when, at 40, he finds himself alone, he can no longer cope. Big Al and James, concerned that their friend might top himself, need to formulate a rescue plan; and fast. Spanish language classes, a crash course in the traditional Andalusian dance of sevillanas and a week of fiesta in Sevilla ought to do the trick. Brilliant! Itʼ s a project requiring preparation, and in the case of tall, ungainly, rugby fanatic Big Al, a large dollop of humiliation as "second row forwards donʼ t do bleedinʼ flamenco". With Osama bin Laden dead and the Arab Spring having reached its zenith, al-Qaeda splits into two factions. There may be a more intelligent way to Islamicise the decadent west. But could the AQALAN Initiative be strangled at birth, and the world thrown into turmoil, by a seemingly innocuous spat between two men attending a sevillanas dance class in south London?

Edmund Fitzgerald (Greenwich, London) began his professional life as a trainee management accountant for an emblematic, though now defunct, airline. He spent the next couple of decades gnawing his way up the corporate food chain, ascending to the agreeable billet of country manager to the Spanish branch of a successful software house. Having honed his creative writing talents on a myriad of mellifluous emails, inspired management reporting and imaginatively worded submissions as to why sales targets were not being met, Edmund decided to go the whole hog and immerse himself full-time into the world of fiction writing. Madrid has been Edmund´s home for much of the last fifteen years. Due to the precarious and mostly impecunious nature of his newfound profession, the author has redoubled his resolve not to marry, not to have kids, and not to own a Mercedes.