AN author who is related to Anne Frank, Albert Einstein, Virginia Woolf and Wilfred Owen, among others, has just published his first novel.

Philip Peereboom’s book, entitled Ecuador, At Last tells the stories of several people who meet at a beach bar in Ecuador. In the course of the book, they tell their stories of how they got there – against the backdrop of a Third World War.

Philip, who lives near Shrewton, said: “I started writing the book after a couple of very strange dreams. I felt they were more than just dreams; rather the foundation stones of a book.

“When writing the book, I completely relied on the characters telling me their stories while taking me on their journey to Ecuador. The greater part of the book was written at home, in Orcheston, but some parts were written on the train to London, the ferry to France, at Gatwick, Amsterdam and New York airport and in several other places.

“Of course, living in Wiltshire, one of the characters had to come to this part of the world to visit Stonehenge, Avebury, look at the Salisbury Plain and muse on the ley lines.”

In the book, there are echoes from the works of Virginia Woolf, Wilfred Owen, George Harrison, T.S. Eliot and others.

“When I was writing the book, I came across so many coincidences that I decided to write them all down,” he said.

“It was amazing and, like Carl Jung, I now believe there is no such thing as coincidence.

“Two years ago, for example, when my partner and I were in Ireland for a few months, we met a couple from Shrewsbury and visited them last year.

“I had the manuscript of the book with me, including the page with the Wilfred Owen poem, Dulce et Decorum Est.

“The people turned out to live in Wilfred Owen’s parental home, where Wilfred wrote that poem. I sat down in his room and read the poem from my manuscript.

“A couple of months ago, when I was researching the family tree, I discovered I am related to, amongst others, Anne Frank, Albert Einstein, Virginia Woolf and Wilfred Owen as well.”

Philip who was born in Rotterdam is now working on his next book, The Photograph in my Hand.

“It is about a Jewish great-uncle of mine, a director of Paramount Films, who mysteriously disappeared during the Second World War,” he said.

“After a lot of research, I found his grave in Greenwich last year, and then came the rest.

“It’s a very interesting story, as he travelled half the world in the early 1940s to escape from the Nazis, but it’s also quite tragic as, like his sister, nieces, nephews, a brother and many other relatives, he ends up in a camp, not in Auschwitz, but in Richmond.”

Ecuador, At Last has been published by Pegasus Publishers in Cambridge and is now available to buy online and in book shops.