This is one of those gems you can only find in a second hand bookshop. The tatty cover of the edition I found of this relatively thin novel had been well worn in it’s 35 year life. For the life of me I don’t know how second hand book sellers know what is worth keeping and what needs to be thrown. This thin novel is the sort to be thrown away but I think it was saved by it’s authors name alone. He wrote the “Hornblower” series which I have yet to start reading but have only heard good things.
This story is a totally non nautical story of a very intelligent mathematician and physics teacher who discovers that a magnetic field can not only be cancelled out by his new invention, a permanent magnet can loose it’s magnetic effect completely. Through a set of circumstances he tries to use the device to force the world to disarm so there cannot be war again. It is easy to forget just how magnets are crucial to our modern lives, so 30 years after this book was printed the story is still just as valid and realistic. Except this book wasn’t the first edition, C S Forrester wrote this story over 70 years ago in the 1930’s.
The story of the Peacemaker is fabulously told and if you come across it, pick it up to read.