Welcome to The Kerr Chronicles!
The genesis of The Kerr Chronicles might best be described as unexpected.
On a pleasant Sunday afternoon in the Spring of 1998, Max McLean walked into the lobby of Omni Berkshire Place Hotel at 52nd and Madison in New York City. He thanked me for my work as Executive Producer of his one-man show, Genesis, which would enjoy a record run at the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Kalita Humphreys Theater in Dallas, and gave me a paperback copy of Glittering Images, the first of six books in Susan Howatch’s marvelous Starbridge Series. I was hooked.
Six Howatch books and a year later I was inspired to attempt a series of books that I would call The Kerr Chronicles. Howatch’s series follows fictional characters that intersect with the twentieth century history of the Church of England. The Kerr Chronicles follow their own cast of ecclesiastical and societal stars through the twentieth century, but on this side of the pond, starting in New York City on Valentine’s Day of 1901.
First Sight (2013, expanded edition 2022) introduces John Knox Kerr, Julia Adams Fairchild, and other principal characters and follows them through the roaring – and then crashing – 1920s. The expanded edition, released in late July 2022, includes additional chapters, images, and backstory details.
Second Thoughts (2019) follows John Knox Kerr as he goes to work for newly elected President Franklin Delano Roosevelt as Deputy Secretary of State for Communication. John, Julia, and a host of compelling characters face surprising new challenges and opportunities in the 1930s – in the midst of the Great Depression.
Third Person (2022) explores lives transformed by the winds of war in the early 1940s, including London meetings with the newly chosen prime minister, Winston Churchill.
Fourth Quandary (2022) follows John, Julia, JEFF/Lis, Bill, Anne – plus now-familiar and new Kerr Chronicles characters – through the many trying yet exhilarating days of World War II.
Fifth Horizon (working title) begins with John Knox Kerr and his new wife contemplating their exciting future in Los Angeles.
In all, seven books are planned to complete The Kerr Chronicles. Read on!
I hope you will take a few minutes to explore this website because it will give you added insights into the characters, why they act as they do, and will give you added insight into their stories. Be sure to check out "Meet the Characters." You'll not only find out a bit more about each one (facts not always present in the series' books!), but you will also get to see what they might look like when the books are made into movies!