There was once a hermit who lived in a cave on the Isle of Patmos, at the most easterly edge of the Mediterranean Sea. He was referred to only as the Beloved One, and he lived longer than anyone can remember. The cavern stands on a high escarpment facing the surf as it edges slowly from the basin of the Aegean Sea into her esteemed sister the Mediterranean. The face of the cave is hidden from the beginning of the day and gazes lethargically towards its end. Not small enough to be considered a grotto, nor sufficiently large to yield an echo, this dark vault was hewn from the cragged rocks by time itself. The Captain spoke with all the artistry of Boccaccio and with the unlaboured finesse of Sheherazade herself, as the vizier's daughter charmed the Sultan Shahryar with her wondrous tales.It is not unreasonable for you to presume that I cannot know, let alone be sure of all the events I am about to relate to you. The sheer period encompassed by the tale demands extensive reliance on hearsay, which, as we all know, is as reliable as a Nostradamus prophecy. This is the tale of a child, separated from his parents, alone and cast adrift in a foreign land, the victim of a shipwreck. The Captain hesitated, wondering if his summary might be too brutal, too poignant for the boy. His concern appeared misplaced for, although the comment singed his emotions, the boy's unflinching response was to simply adjust his pillow and settle back to listen. Billy hoped for a swashbuckling tale of the high seas. So he was surprised to learn that the hero of this final story was a boy, not unlike himself.Peter Larner wrote The Old Explorers' Club for his four grandchildren, who arrived in alphabetical order: George, Harry, Isobel and Jack. The novel is a companion piece to the journals he wrote for them, each containing links to the story, featuring old coins, old times and old friends. There is also a leather-bound journal which connects the book and the journal.The author is a direct descendent of several characters who appear in The Old Explorers' Club, including Boniface del Vasto, Ferdinand III, Tomasso di Saluzzo, and the Plantagenet kings of England. Many of the characters are based on friends he has made during his travels around Europe. Fabio, Aurelio, Laura, and Maurizio Salvideri all live in Bellagio on Lake Como. And Sebastiano is a sculptor who owns a company called Pots, in Rome.The author was born and grew up in post-war London. The street he lived in was heavily bombed, and his family occupied one of the remaining terraced houses. His mother Nora held down several jobs concurrently, including home machining, cleaning houses, serving in a fish and chip shop, and handling stolen property. His father, George, worked as a blacksmith in Brick Lane, who specialised in making metal rings when such items were hand-made at a forge. At the age of fifty-eight, Peter published his first book and wrote twelve more in the next fifteen years.