by Alan Gold
I often pose a question to an audience . . . name just a couple of women who lived before the nineteenth century, and who were famous in their own right for their own deeds, and not because they were the family or consorts of famous men. The silence in almost all audiences is something of a revelation.
To bring Gertrude back to life, I was joined on the journey by the invaluable help of my wife Eva, many distant friends found in academic and other sites on the internet, and long-suffering librarians
Peter and Sandra Riva, of International Transactions, my literary agents, have been a wellspring of ideas and advice as well as persistence; they are experts at guiding and encouraging and suggesting changes which reveal landscapes in a manuscript that the author might never have known were there. I have followed their advice with considerable gratitude.
ALAN GOLD
For many years, Alan has specialized in bringing back from obscurity those fabulous but forgotten women who changed the course of their societies.
When not writing novels, Alan is an opinion columnist and a literary critic for major newspapers, and an occasional lecturer in creative writing at universities.
He has also been a human rights orator and represented a leading NGO at United Nations Forums and Conferences dealing with racism and human rights.
