Charles and Charlie

Charles Stoker, in 1910, is a brilliant young engineer and inventor with a wonderful career before him. Given a unique opportunity by the powerful Collick family to test his inventions and serve his country, he enlists in the Royal Flying Corps. In 1918, Major Stoker returns home to his wife and child, bones and dreams shattered by his experience and refusing any contact with his former life and colleagues.Only after he is shockingly killed, eight years later, does the distraught Milly Stoker begin to discover the truth about her husband’s war.In 1928, still numbed by the loss of his father, their innocent son Charlie goes to college, where he is easily led into a student’s life and a student’s sins. When suddenly faced with an agonising crisis, however, like his father he tackles the problem head on… with devastating consequences.Charles and Charlie is Book One of the Stoker Trilogy.The Tallyman, Book Two of the set, will be released in 2021.

Tod Benjamin’s first novel was published in 2017 at the age of 81, after a long and varied life of three careers. Firstly, a five year management course led to five years as a department store manager. That was followed by twenty-five years in the chemical industry, a career that took him all over the world.

Retirement to Bournemouth to play golf and to write created the opportunity for his third career. He began to write seriously. Now, unable to play golf, he devotes most of his time to writing. With an amount of poetry, some short stories and three novels completed, Charles and Charlie, his second novel, is the first of The Stoker Trilogy. Book two, The Tallyman, continues this saga of the first half of the twentieth century through the 1930s, and the third volume, The Soldier, completes the story through World War 2 to 1950.

Customer Reviews

5.0

5 reviews

Frances Taylor

I have just finished reading ‘Charles and Charlie’ by Tod Benjamin and feel that I must write to tell you how much I thoroughly ENJOYED reading this first part of The Stoker Trilogy. The book is beautifully written and I became totally absorbed with the characters and their interactions. The writing of the period is perfect and the details clearly well-researched and conveyed. I felt transported back in time and I also loved the politeness and etiquette of the time which has always appealed to me. All emotions and moods are expressed so wonderfully, even if buttoned up as befitting of the times, or character. After a few paragraphs, I found myself totally immersed within this family group and friends. I have no criticism. The references to the war and the injuries sustained by Charles were not bogged down by endless war-detail but were sensitively hinted at so well that they left no doubt as to the horror of it all. Beautifully written. Well researched. Sensitively written. A read that holds the attention from beginning to end. I can’t wait for book two.
Elaine

I enjoyed it very much, a lot of things that interested me, & I look forward to reading the next book, yours sincerely Elaine.
Molho Ingles

An amazing read can’t wait for the second instalment.
Georgette Perrins

Loved this book, took you in a journey with Charlie’s life.
I completely enjoyed reading Charles and Charlie. It is a book rich in detail that allows the reader to get to know the characters in depth. It's a well researched and thought out piece of historical fiction that leaves the reader feeling as though the characters are friends living next door. I found myself caring about them long after I finished reading the book. I felt the same way about The Supervisor (Tod Benjamin's first novel). I'm delighted that Charles and Charlie is the first book of a trilogy and I look forward to the next in the series to be once again transported into Charlie's world.