The Salt Lake

In 1961, Cyprus becomes more than just a sun-soaked backdrop for Geoff and Harry, two young British soldiers from the Army Intelligence Corps. Envisioning a tranquil assignment filled with sunbathing and casual duties, they’re quickly thrust into a world of intrigue and danger.

Their civilian chief, amidst political chaos that’s left the secret services scrambling, demands vigilance. The duo soon finds themselves at the heart of a perilous incident, one that risks unveiling the RAF’s clandestine nuclear weapons on the island.

While the garrison theatre offers a semblance of normalcy, staging plays that inadvertently spotlight the simmering Greek and Turkish tensions, a larger geopolitical storm brews. The Arab world’s animosity towards Israel looms large, and Geoff’s blossoming romance with the mysterious Lucinda unveils unexpected ties to the conflict. With Saddam Hussein’s covetous gaze fixed on Kuwait, sabotage strikes the island, leading to tragic consequences.

Set against the serene backdrop of the Salt Lake, with its iconic mosque and elegant flamingos, Geoff’s personal reckoning with Lucinda unfolds. The Salt Lake weaves a tale of romance, espionage, and the shadows that dance in paradise.

Christopher May was educated at a Catholic grammar school in the London area and after national service in Cyprus in army intelligence, he studied aeronautics at Imperial College. He worked for Blackburn Aircraft in Kensington and then the British Aircraft Corporation at Filton, Bristol, where he married and settled. Following the failure of the Concorde to gain large-scale orders from world airlines, he moved into civil engineering with Wiltshire County and was soon elected MICE, moving to the new Avon County and leaving early when Avon was dismantled, in order to run a smallholding for a few years, while also volunteering at aviation museums. He now lives comfortably on high ground overlooking the Bristol Channel.