The Windsor Caper

Alysa and Julie, two young American cousins are in England for the summer with Alysa's family. Visiting Windsor Castle they have a scary adbven ture after getting locked in for the night during a thunderstorm. They find themselves alone with a host of strange but fascinating characters from history. And then they have to face a coupke of ruthless art thieves.

This is a gentle and magical story with a strong retro feel, from a time when mobile phones and computers only existed in science fiction and perhaps life was a bit simpler. As well as providing some amusing insights into the differences between the American and British versions of the English language, it vividly brings alive some of the fascinating pageantry and drama of English History and integrates them into an exciting adventure. Set in the 1980s it is about two American girls. Alysa is in England for a year and Julie is visiting her for the summer vacation. Julie is surprised at how much England has changed her cousin! But things get complicated when they visit Windsor Castle to see Queen Mary’s Doll’s House. The girls get separated from their parents and find themselves locked in for the night! In several dreamlike passages they meet a series of ghostly characters and scary heraldic monsters from English History: are they awake or not? Things build up to a terrifying climax and then turn nasty when they come up against some ruthless art thieves ...

Gerda Weissmann Klein was born in 1924 in Bielsko, Poland. She was only fourteen years old when the Nazis invaded. Her parents and brother, died during the Holocaust but Gerda was destined to survive. She spent six years enduring a ghetto, a series of labour camps and a 350-mile death march from the Polish-German border to southern Czechoslovakia. Out of 2000 women just over 100 survived. In 1945, on the eve of her 21st birthday she was liberated by American Lieutenant, Kurt Klein. The couple fell in love and eventually married: In an amazing turn of events she was rescued by an American soldier; they fell in love, were married and Gerda found herself in America starting a completely new life. Her autobiography All But My Life, now in its 69th edition documents her astonishing story. In 1995 it became the subject of an Oscar and Emmy winning documentary "One Survivor Remembers". You can still see Gerda’s unforgettable Oscar speech on YouTube as well as some powerful excerpts from the movie. From 1998 — 2002 (when Kurt passed away) they ran the Gerda and Kurt Klein Foundation, to promote education, teach tolerance and reduce prejudice. In 2008 Gerda founded Citizenship Counts, which aims to educate middle and high school students about the rights and responsibilities of citizenship and the importance of “giving back” through community service. In 2011, in recognition of her work promoting community harmony and active citizenship, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Obama. She remains an ardent campaigner for tolerance and Human Rights. Between 1978 and 1996 Gerda was a featured columnist for the Buffalo News and in 1985 wrote The Windsor Caper as a children’s serial in 60 parts. When her English cousin, Martin Good, read the story (the only remaining version) he loved it and decided it should be published as a tribute to Gerda’s achievement and a source of delight for, in her own words, ‘children of all ages’. While most of her other writing deals with serious themes arising from her experience, The Windsor Caper is written purely to give pleasure to children of all ages, her only work that is not "rooted in pain”.