King Henry

A superb novel based on the true story of Henry Ford's amazing but doomed attempt to stop the First World War.

Galbraith has already established himself as a historical novelist of the highest calibre... With his third novel... he is set to propel himself further into the spotlight...Galbraith assembles the parts of his novel piece by piece and welds them together with care, until the whole ignites into a glorious roar of literary success

Written with wit and vigour, this is a hugely enjoyable read ... Galbraith has clearly been meticulous in his research, referencing contemporary cartoons and headlines. It has paid off: a more engaging and surprising historical novel is unlikely to be published this year

Among the very best of our historical novelists

A fascinating premise for a novel.... the feel of the era is convincing. So too, is the depiction of a nation on the cusp of a momentous decision

Douglas Galbraith was born in Glasgow in 1965 and is the author of three other books, The Rising Sun, A Winter in China, and My Son, My Son. He lives in Scotland.

1915. Neutral America is debating the proper response to the war: Henry Ford - inventor, industrialist, billionaire - decides it's bad for business. When he announces he will give up everything to stop it, the papers go to work and he agrees to fund a peace ship to sail to Europe with the promise: 'Out of the trenches by Christmas, never to return'. 
 
Struggling to persuade any serious political figures to join his quest, Ford leaves New York with the bombastic peace activist, Rosika Schwimmer, and her entourage, along with a sodden, cynical pack of journalists. Ford initially embraces the press, but he soon finds himself menaced by invisible U-boats in the mid-Atlantic, surrounded by eccentrics, idealists and parasites, while their reports to the papers back home turn the entire venture into a laughing stock. 
 
The resulting novel is a captivating and virtuosic tale based on one of the most extraordinary episodes of the early twentieth century.

Douglas Galbraith

This book is a howl of pain, beautifully written by a man wounded beyond endurance

A memoir and a meditation that is provocative, humorous, stimulating and profoundly affecting...accomplished...a great, unsettling book

Magnificent … as with the best art only suffering and loss can create such brilliance’

how one generation hurts the next

What do you do when your wife abducts your children? 
 
This was the question facing Douglas Galbraith when, in 2003, he returned home to Scotland from a few days' work in London. 
 
The house was silent, empty and locked; his four and six-year-old sons' pyjamas lay on the bedroom floor. And on the doormat, confirmation from the Post Office of a forwarding address - in Japan. He has not seen them since. 
 
This book goes to the very heart of relations between parents and children, men and women, and between races and nations - to the heart of what it is to be alive.

my son, my son

About us

About Us (Header 4)

Best-Jane-Austen-quotes_Online-Desktop_Penguin

James-Baldwin

Marian-Keyes

haruki-murakami-320×320-1

Richard-Osman

Malorie Blackman

Lisa-Jewell

Charlie-Mackesy

Authors (Header 3)

Children&#039;s

Company

Discover

Fiction

Non-fiction

Penguin Classics

Penguin Shop (Header 5)

Useful links

Work with us

sectionTitle

isEnabled

anchor

anchorLabel

prhuk/featured-book

prhuk/praise-section

maxBooks

showViewMore

prhuk/books-section

hideAuthorAlert

formName

iterableDivision

iterableBrand

buttonText

description

heading

legalText

successHeading

successText

image

alignment

variation

prhuk/email-section

prhuk/series-section

prhuk/biography-section

prhuk/articles-section

prhuk-authors

The perfect gift? A Penguin Shop gift card

East of Eden

Wuthering Heights

White Nights

Fyodor Dostoyevsky Boxed Set: Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, The Brothers Karamazov

Douglas Galbraith

Praise for my son, my son

This book is a howl of pain, beautifully written by a man wounded beyond endurance

A memoir and a meditation that is provocative, humorous, stimulating and profoundly affecting...accomplished...a great, unsettling book

Magnificent … as with the best art only suffering and loss can create such brilliance’

This book is a howl of pain, beautifully written by a man wounded beyond endurance

A memoir and a meditation that is provocative, humorous, stimulating and profoundly affecting...accomplished...a great, unsettling book

Magnificent … as with the best art only suffering and loss can create such brilliance’

This book is a howl of pain, beautifully written by a man wounded beyond endurance

A memoir and a meditation that is provocative, humorous, stimulating and profoundly affecting...accomplished...a great, unsettling book

Magnificent … as with the best art only suffering and loss can create such brilliance’

Books by Douglas Galbraith

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter