A book by Clive Parker-Sharp based on the true life accounts of Nina Brem-Wilson (laced with her inimitable wit), the diaries of her Grandfather Thomas, and interviews with Thomas's sons. The Box is beautiful, bound in leather with raised designs of jungle scenes, elephants' eyes bejeweled with precious stones, hand-crafted in a far away African village. Brought to England it becomes a legacy passed through three generations. To open The Box is to unleash an unput-downable bumpy ride of sex, betrayal, zealotry, larceny, and fanaticism. Were Thomas Brem-Wilson and his family blighted, never able to regain the status and glory of their ancestors? Is The Box cursed? A revealing portrait of an African businessman arriving in England and thrown into Victorian high society. Controversy surrounds this black man s marriage to white Jewish music-hall starlet Ettie Cinders, but behind his dandy persona lay religious and erotic obsessions. In his quest for salvation he embarks on a pilgrimage to the vast Zion City sect in Chicago, but it could be his ruin. Thomas Brem-Wilson s family deals with the fallout of his legacy. The inventive lives of his mixed-race offspring expose a Bingo empire, East End gangsters, and two nerve-racking high court trials. His granddaughter Nina Brem-Wilson takes The Box back to Ghana in 1975 retracing Thomas s steps in a fantastical hunt for land and Gold mines. Nina s character alters, and the now dusty and battered Box s tired hinges may once again open for downfall or redemption

An account of a solo journey by bike through Mexico and Central America.