The Adventures of Thadeus Burke Vol 1

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Terry Minahan. The Adventures of Thadeus Burke Vol 1

CHAPTER 1. THE NEW OFFICE

CHAPTER 2. ASSASSINATION IN THE ROOM

CHAPTER 3. A DOG FIGHT IN ESSEX

CHAPTER 4. A DAY AT THE RACES

CHAPTER 5. NOUGHTS AND CROSSES

CHAPTER 6. WHO WANTS TO BUY A DEAD FOAL?

CHAPTER 7. A PARADOX FOR LUNCH

CHAPTER 8. CHRISTMAS WITH THE FAMILY

CHAPTER 9. A NEW YEAR

CHAPTER 10. A FAREWELL CONCERT

CHAPTER 11. A VISIT TO THE WHIRLING DERVISHES

CHAPTER 12. THE CHELTENHAM GOLD CUP

CHAPTER 13. THE DOCTOR’S GRADUATION

CHAPTER 14. THE MINING DISASTER

CHAPTER 15. THE END AND A NEW BEGINNING

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The Honourable Thadeus Burke met the Chairman of Lloyd’s of London, Mr P G Mackinnon, for the second time on Tuesday the first day of September 1925. Two years earlier they had met when Thadeus became an underwriting member or ‘name’ as they are known on the floor of the famous international insurance market. Several sheets of paper were signed regarding the relationship between the ‘name’ and Lloyd’s and the ‘name’s’ agent. The chairman of Lloyd’s, at that time a Mr A L Sturge, was a personal friend of Thadeus’ father and his eldest brother. His father was a proper lord coming from a long line of aristocracy and land ownership; his brother’s peerage had been bought from the Liberal Party just for the fun of it. Thadeus was the third son and might have been destined for the church had not his mother totally opposed what she termed ‘such a stupid idea’. Fortunately Thadeus had proved far too intelligent for the Church of Ireland and even the Church of England, graduating at Trinity College Dublin and having a year at St John’s College Cambridge. Mathematics and music were his subjects.

He might have become a professional pianist or cellist, but his older brother Jonathan, the middle one, died in an air accident in 1920 and Thadeus moved up the aristocratic ladder, his father quickly deciding that he should become ‘something in the city’, in particular something within the golden financial square mile. This suited Thadeus for he was keen to engage in the cut and thrust, duck and dive, of the business world – he could play numbers with anyone!

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‘I asked Mr Pearson for a brief description of the major, he said he was a little shorter, and slightly heavier than his brother, and, entirely unprompted by me, I quote again, “a rather dapper little man”.’

‘Gotchyer!’ cried the two men clicking glasses.

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