The Triptych Images from the Past

Though fiction, The Triptych is firmly based on incidents in the lives of three ordinary men from the Hall family. Spanning nearly a century, this vivid narrative interweaves the fates of three generations caught in the tumult of three key historical events: the 1855 Siege of Sebastopol during the Crimean War; the Expedition to rescue General Gordon in 1884-85; and the fierce Dodecanese Campaign of 1943. While these stories form the triptych of the title, they are linked via the fate of a second triptych: an imaginary object bequeathed to James Hall by a dying Russian soldier. This passes repeatedly between the Halls and an Italian family, the Lassaros. These stories bring to life the struggles of those who had no hand in the politics that sent them to battle yet bore the brunt of its consequences. From the brutal battlefields to the quiet courage that followed, their journeys highlight the personal costs of conflicts initiated by distant politicians. Narrated by a fourth-generation Hall in the twenty-first century, himself a former soldier, The Triptych offers a window into a family's legacy across a period marked by both volatility and violence. This novel is a tribute to the often unheralded resilience of ordinary people in times of conflict. Their lives paint a vivid triptych of quiet courage, endurance and the survival of the human spirit.