UK comedian and author Ben Elton has tapped into the groundswell of interest in the history of World War I as its 100th anniversary approaches next year.
Elton, who now calls Perth home, has used the topic for the basis of his 15th novel, Time and Time Again, which he launched at Cleveland’s Grand View Hotel today.
The author said he got so caught up in the attraction of the war when he started to ponder the huge sacrifices made, he decided to write a book.
“There’s no doubt about it, the first world war wasn’t just a catastrophe of its own scale beyond imagination but also it bequeathed us the totalitarian genocidal 20th Century,” he said.
“Europe was at such a fork in the road in the summer of 1914 and the more I thought about it, the more drama that misdirected collective suicide - which was so unnecessary - took on.”
The book, an historical thriller and time-travel fantasy, is about a spy agent who gets the opportunity to go back in history to try to push Europe in a different direction.
He also loved inventing the time travel science, key to the book’s storyline.
“I just imagined ... when Newton first worked out that gravity obviously binds the planet together, he made the leap that took Einstein another 200 years to make which is that time affects gravity,” he said.
Elton said he enjoyed researching the book but also loved making up endings “in a type of Sliding Doors” way to some of the world’s most historical moments.
The Cleveland crowd listened intently as Elton spoke of his own "Sliding Doors" moment when he got off a plane in Australia and met his future wife, Sophie.
"All time travel stories are a little like Sliding Doors - where if you turned a corner you would never have met," he said.
"I've never had a parallel life running separately and I've never looked back on anything I've done with regret ... and I wouldn't want to go back in time and change anything.
"You take chances in life. I got off a plane and bumped into an Australian girl and made it happen - it wasn't easy and my advice for any young people is don't fall in love with someone from the other side of the world."
Time and Time Again is published by Random House and is available in stores now.
