Authors: Hammond; Innes

Levkas Man (43 page)

But I think the most dramatic of all the experiences that have contributed to the atmosphere of the book was a visit we paid in 1968â69 to the Dordogne and VÃ©zÃ¨re cave-shelters in France, and here I have to acknowledge my debt to the French authorities for permitting us to examine the cave paintings at Lascaux; the cave remains officially closed, except for scientific study. Here I was very fortunate in having Jacques Marsal as my guide. It was he who discovered the cave paintings with three young companions in 1940.

This then is the raw material out of which, over the years,
Levkas Man
has gradually grown. The theories upon which it is based are academic, and here I would like to acknowledge the kindly and constructive help I received from Eric S. Wood. For the purposes of my story I have taken some liberties with geology and with the placing of the various cave-shelters; none with the settings, all of which I have personally explored. The rod dunes do exist; they were shown to me by E. S. Higgs.

HAMMOND INNES

Kerseyâ1970

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author has quoted from the following works: Raymond Dart:
Adventures with the Missing Link
(Hamish Hamilton); Kenneth Oakley:
Frameworks for Dating Fossil Man
(Weidenfeld and Nicolson); W. J. Turner: lines from âThe Caves of Auvergne', which appears in
Modern Poets
, ed. J. C. Squire (Martin Seeker). The author is also indebted to many other source books, including of course Robert Ardrey's
African Genesis
.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Hammond Innes (1913â1998) was the British author of over thirty novels, as well as children's and travel books. Born Ralph Hammond Innes in Horsham, Sussex, he was educated at the Cranbrook School in Kent. He left in 1931 to work as a journalist at the
Financial News. The Doppelganger
, his first novel, was published in 1937. Innes served in the Royal Artillery in World War II, eventually rising to the rank of major. A number of his books were published during the war, including
Wreckers Must Breathe
(1940),
The Trojan Horse
(1940), and
Attack Alarm
(1941), which was based on his experiences as an anti-aircraft gunner during the Battle of Britain.

Following his demobilization in 1946, Innes worked full-time as a writer, achieving a number of early successes. His novels are notable for their fine attention to accurate detail in descriptions of place, such as
Air Bridge
(1951), which is set at RAF stations during the Berlin Airlift. Innes's protagonists were often not heroes in the typical sense, but ordinary men suddenly thrust into extreme situations by circumstance. Often, this involved being placed in a hostile environmentâfor example, the Arctic, the open sea, desertsâor unwittingly becoming involved in a larger conflict or conspiracy. Innes's protagonists are forced to rely on their own wits rather than the weapons and gadgetry commonly used by thriller writers. An experienced yachtsman, his great love and understanding of the sea was reflected in many of his novels.

Innes went on to produce books on a regular schedule of six months for travel and research followed by six months of writing. He continued to write until just before his death, his final novel being
Delta Connection
(1996). At his death, he left the bulk of his estate to the Association of Sea Training Organisations to enable others to experience sailing in the element he loved.

All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Cover design by Jason Gabbert

ISBN: 978-1-5040-4093-8

This edition published in 2016 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.

180 Maiden Lane

New York, NY 10038

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