Garrett Jones

The Way Ahead Garrett Jones

This book completes the trilogy starting with HOW IT ALL HAPPENED which introduces us to Jamie, a 10 year-old who is virtually adopted by Reg and Jean when his mother dies. They are a retired couple but a close friendship grows between Reg and the boy. When he goes to University, Jamie befriends Colin, a somewhat unstable gay fellow student who drops out, joins the army, goes AWOL and manages to get to India, where he joins a community like no other called ANANDAM (the second book in the series) to which the other main characters eventually gravitate. In this third volume, THE WAY AHEAD, it is 2020 and we are in the thick of the pandemic but still in Anandam. The virus, awful as it is, does not overshadow what the community regard as the biggest threat - the climate and the way it is changing. Its main focus now becomes seeking ways to help promote a global union, powered, not by politicians or powerful persuaders, but by global grass roots opinion, to bring about massive change in the way we think, inter-relate, and care for each other, regardless of status, wealth, colour or any other factor apart from our shared humanity (which has also to be humane). War and killing, violence and cruelty, selfishness and greed, all of these thing have to be drowned in a sea of love and tolerance, patience and persistence. Unless these things materialise, the way ahead will be short and unsweet. If they do materialise, there is hope for our children. Nobody can predict where it will take us, but it will surely be a better place, one that will deserve a future.