My name is Dennis Higgins. Born in Surrey but now living in Yorkshire, I am a debut author at the grand old age of 92, but don't let my age put anyone off. 'The Heidorf Legacy ‘is a unique Cold War thriller that is as appropriate today as it would have been at the time of the original Cold War between the old Soviet Union and the Western Allies.
The inspiration for the story comes from the many visits that I made behind the so-called 'Iron Curtain' to East Germany, or the German Democratic Republic as it was then known as, during the time between 1953 and 1964 whilst I was serving in the Royal Air Force. This was at the height of the Cold War when East Germany was still under Russian rule.
Whilst serving time at RAF Oldenburg in West Germany I met and married a girl who had escaped to the West via the Berlin Underground Railway, a journey fraught with danger for anyone travelling without a permit. All of my friends were smitten by her, but it was a case of 'to the victor the spoils' as I was the only one who spoke fluent German. She was never able to return to her home in East Germany and sadly she died from cancer at a very young age. One of the main characters in my book, Helga, is my tribute to her. In the meantime I managed to make contact with her family on several of my visits to the East, and it was from her father, an ex-member of the old Kaiser's Prussian Guard that I learned much about Germany's decline during the rise of the Nazi regime. At the same time, I was also able to witness for myself the oppressive and devious methods used by both the Russian rulers and the East German Nationals who chose to support them.
As a widower with two very young children I was granted a compassionate discharge from the RAF but found the transition to civilian life very difficult. I tried my hand at several jobs, all of which I failed at before becoming the Administrator for a small group of Care Homes for elderly dementia sufferers, a post from which I retired at the age of seventy-five.
Fast forward fifteen years into the Covid epidemic. Now housebound by lockdown, I started to spend most of my time on the internet where I saw an advert for an international song-writing contest and, despite never having written anything before, decided to enter the lyric writing category. The contest attracted over ten thousand entries from eighty-three different countries worldwide and, much to my surprise and delight I not only won the lyrics category, but I became the overall winner of the whole contest. As a result of this I was asked to write lyrics for the late Queen's Platinum Jubilee Song.
Now ninety years old, and spurred on by these successes, I decided to try and write a thriller from an idea that had been lurking at the back of my mind ever since my time in East Germany, and The Heidorf Legacy is the result.
I am currently married to my second wife Bettina. We have been married sixty years this year and I describe her as the person who made my life worth living again. In total I now have three wonderful sons and an equally wonderful daughter.
My
second novel, a crime thriller, based on a terrorist campaign against the
innocent citizens of London, is almost ready for publication, as are my
memoirs. I am also trying to follow another new path by attempting to write a
film script for The Heidorf Legacy. Hopefully, I live long enough to finish it.
The
Heidorf Legacy by Dennis Higgins (Foreshore Publishing) Out Now
Destiny
is no matter of chance. It is 1945 and a young German physician pioneering
genetic experiments to breed the new Nazi race is killed during the fall of
Berlin to the Soviet Red Army. Straightforward: secrets to the grave. But a
shocking legacy is discovered. A unique set of new-born identical twin boys -
the world's first with matching fingerprints - are found by a Russian army
officer. The babies are taken to Moscow for further examination. There plans
are made to exploit the twin boy’s uniqueness. Years later with the Cold War
rapidly becoming a distant memory the fate of the twin boys could not be more
different. One is working for the Soviet Union's secret intelligence agency.
The other has a privileged life in the upper echelons of American society. Both
powerful men in their own right. The plan is simple. make the switch. reignite
the cold war. from the inside.