It is the 1970's in hippie London. Tom Bloch, a South African spy, learns he is likely to inherit several millions from his dead grandmother Hazel. We discover how she met and fell in love with the priapic Count Laszlo Mindchyck, the Laszlo of the title, only to run away into the mists of war when bullied and tormented by his dreadful offspring. And how, many years later, she drops dead when informed that she is his heir...leaving Tom, her heir, likely to inherit everything. But there are conditions! Tom has nine months to prove that he is a responsible member of society and not a drug-fuelled hippie spy with a pathologically murderous wife...will a mere £68 million be enough to persuade Tom to wear a three-piece suit and betray his friends? Tom's adventures over these nine months take the reader on a journey which is both hilarious and heartbreaking.
About the Author: Jon Elkon was born and brought up in Apartheid South Africa. His parents were committed in a bourgeois way, to the struggle against Apartheid. His father Sam was a member of the Industrial Council, as well as being a self-made mattress millionaire and a member of the Industrial Council. As such he worked for the recognition of black trade unions. Mother Valerie, as a member of the Black Sash women's movement, protested against the injustices of the system by standing mutely in public places in a black sash symbolising the death of democracy. The family lived in the constant fear (or paranoia) of being watched, of the telephone being tapped, of the persecution one expects in a police state. Probably their fear was quite unjustified - neither parent ever posed a major threat to the system. Bridge and golf were more important to them than political injustice anyway. Which stung the idealistic young Jon who didn't make his views secret. He was the victim of a swarm of rugger buggers at this boys' school, who saw him as an effeminate 'Kaffir lover" and made his life hell. At 16, he left King Edward VII School for a cram college in the centre of Johannesburg. Here he found his self-confidence, and met regularly with a group of like-minded adolescents with the joint project of undermining Apartheid and returning the country to sanity. At 20 he escaped. Arriving in the UK penniless and homeless, he spent time on the streets, sleeping in shop doorways and parks. He was eventually rescued by the kindness of friends. These adventures are the basis for his three novels, Umfaan's Heroes, Laszlo's Millions and Celine, the first two of which were published by Andre Deutsch almost twenty years after the events they lie about. It took many years before he felt confident enough to submit a novel. His first was received enthusiastically by the critics. Umfaan's Heroes has now been re-issued by the Author in a new paperback edition and the sequel, Laszlo's Millions, has been fully remastered and rewritten - Elkon asserts it will "rewrite 1970's London" Jon Elkon now teaches in an inner city school in London, writes occasionally prizewinning poetry and novels (the Fifth Estate is now available on Kindle.) He has one son, Jamie, who lives in Cape Town and wonderful grandchildren all over the place. He lives in the hope that none of his ex-students will follow in his footsteps, that Apartheid will eventually be defeated, and that the world will remain habitable.