The story in the Tangerine Horse of the London Olympics:
During
the 1948 London Olympics, the aftermath of World War II in the city of
London was startling. The skeletal remains of buildings destroyed by
Hitler’s Luftwaffe, V1 flying bombs, and V2 rockets were stark reminders
of the 30,000 Londoners who perished in the attacks.
After a 12-year hiatus caused by the war, the summer games were a Phoenix rising from the ashes of destruction, and as such, they were celebrated with jubilation by the 59 countries participating in amateur athletic competition at its highest level following the World War II horrors the nations had survived.
The star of the 1948 London Olympics was Holland’s Francina "Fanny" Blankers-Koen, who not only became the first woman to win four gold medals in an Olympiad, but also equaled Jesse Owens’s record number of gold medals in track and field at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Francina — known as the “Flying Housewife” by the time the games ended — was 30 years old and the mother of two.
Another aging athlete, and one bearing scars to prove it, was a copper-chestnut horse named Red, who’d escaped from a slaughterhouse in America and had survived years of pulling a junk wagon prior to his appearance in England. The efforts of Red and his equestrian partner in the three-day event, one of the three equestrian competitions at the 1948 summer games, are central to the historical fiction Tangerine Horse of the London Olympics.
Set in 1934 America initially, the story progresses to post-war Germany and England, and concludes with a brief moment at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. There are 52,000 words in the novel's 15 chapters.
After a 12-year hiatus caused by the war, the summer games were a Phoenix rising from the ashes of destruction, and as such, they were celebrated with jubilation by the 59 countries participating in amateur athletic competition at its highest level following the World War II horrors the nations had survived.
The star of the 1948 London Olympics was Holland’s Francina "Fanny" Blankers-Koen, who not only became the first woman to win four gold medals in an Olympiad, but also equaled Jesse Owens’s record number of gold medals in track and field at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Francina — known as the “Flying Housewife” by the time the games ended — was 30 years old and the mother of two.
Another aging athlete, and one bearing scars to prove it, was a copper-chestnut horse named Red, who’d escaped from a slaughterhouse in America and had survived years of pulling a junk wagon prior to his appearance in England. The efforts of Red and his equestrian partner in the three-day event, one of the three equestrian competitions at the 1948 summer games, are central to the historical fiction Tangerine Horse of the London Olympics.
Set in 1934 America initially, the story progresses to post-war Germany and England, and concludes with a brief moment at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. There are 52,000 words in the novel's 15 chapters.
Click here to see the opening chapter of TANGERINE HORSE OF THE LONDON OLYMPICS on this website.
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