About the Book

Book: Collision Course

Author: Millie Norwich Inman

Genre: Historical Fiction

Release date: January 17, 2024

The shocking death of the popular Prince of Wales launches his young heir from innocent childhood into a roiling caldron of jealousy and intrigue. Set in all the glory of eighteenth century England, the young crown prince is urgently prepared for his aged grandfather’s throne. Under the wing of his godly mentor, the prince staggers through a minefield of hazards.

Parallel to the prince’s journey, is the story of a down-and-out firebrand statesman, considering retirement from the House of Commons because he’s under the king’s extreme disfavor. An alliance between the two ensures the prince’s safe ascension. It also renders his godly mentor and the statesman, the two most powerful men in Great Britain. Then, in the face of escalating war, a shocking twist changes everything.

Collision Course is a slice of real history with real people fleshed out and facing the real challenges of living in a fallen world. It shatters stereotypes as it treks through England’s finest gardens and dines with kings and statesmen all the while peering into the universal nature of the human soul and the heartbeat of corrupted constitutional government. This is the true, untold story of alliance, ambition, betrayal, war, loss, and recovery that set the world stage for the American Revolution.

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About the Author

Millie Norwich Inman holds a Bachelor of Arts cum laude from Washington University in St. Louis. She taught school and raised a family before dabbling in freelance for periodicals. A fair measure of success added to profound sorrow over the loss of Western Civilization culture and history, launched her into extensive research for this engaging slice of pre-American Revolution history. On two trips to England she read at the British Library and Richmond Records Office, and traipsed through fabulous architecture and scrumptious gardens. At home in Texas, she took advantage of the Trinity University, Rice University, and University of Texas San Antonio Libraries, as well as the amazing Inter-Library Loan System from her hometown Boerne Library. Similar to the research style of NYT bestseller, America’s First Daughter, some of the wittiest dialogue in Collision Course has been lifted and adapted from original letters.

More from Millie

Collision Course is a walk in the park to smell the roses compared to an all-nighter-adrenalin-rush. And the third Earl of Bute is a reluctant hero-protagonist. He’s far more interested in creating calming garden vistas than in jumping into the heart of a rough-housing political fray.

Lord Bute is John Stuart (b. 1713), a descendant of the Stuart kings of Scotland on his father’s side and the powerful Campbell Clan on his mother’s. Branches of the Campbell Clan were still known as the fiercest of highland fighters when Bute was in his twenties. The Highlanders identified as Catholics but knew little of Jesus, and I dare say, never seemed to have heard of the Bible. So, their war-like tendencies really went berserk, after the Bloodless Revolution of 1688. Whenever the banished Catholic heir, the debauched “Bonnie Prince Charlie,” felt sufficiently resentful to sail back from France and contend for the crown, he’d swing by Scotland and enlist belligerent Highlanders. On these occasions, the Campbells would take a respite from murdering the MacDonalds and bludgeoning Lowlander Presbyterians, to gleefully enlist for a bloody tromp into England.

However, by the third “Bonnie Prince” invasion in 1745, Lord Bute’s branch of the Campbell Clan had experienced a come to Jesus. Godly education had become a family priority. Since Lord Bute’s godly father had died when he was nine, his godly mother had tucked him under the wings of her two godly Campbell brothers. Bute’s Campbell uncles were entrenched in the Edinburg intelligentsia. Intellectuals were Christians. Enlightenment academics followed Christians. Bute’s Campbell family branch were Scotland’s civic leaders, innovators in banking, business, jurisprudence, and republican statesmanship in addition to their stellar reputations in science, theology, medicine, and literature.

Lord Bute’s Campbell uncles, along with his Stuart father, were instrumental in the forming the United Kingdom and in installing Protestant royalty, to act in the interest of all their subjects, on the throne of England. The value of the common man was a novel idea. Bute’s uncles ran the elections for nineteen Scottish representatives to Parliament in Westminster. So, it’s really no wonder, that in the third invasion of Prince Charlie tyrants, three contingents of militia from the Campbell Clan fought for British liberty under George II’s favorite son, the Duke of Cumberland. Campbells fought Campbells.

It was in this third invasion that the young protagonist prince’s uncle, the Duke of Cumberland, became feared as “The Butcher.” After Cumberland led the government’s final victory, and as the “Bonnie Prince” slipped away on his ship back to France, the Duke of Cumberland ran a genocide campaign of the most war-like Highlanders (30 something Campbells). That ended the north Britain invasions and turned thoughts to a walk in the park-like gardens. Let Collision Course begin.

Interview with the Author

1) What inspired this book?

The inspiration for Collision Course was awareness that history and classical literature were being scoured from our schools and public institutions. I was writing free-lance for periodicals while grieving the loss of Western Civilization. There’s wisdom that satisfies the soul in classical literature. And people that don’t know history are condemned to repeat its worst miseries.

I decided to research mid-eighteenth century England to find true causes behind the American Revolution. An untold story clarified, populated with amazing characters that might entice my children and grandchildren to thirst for more. I wrote Collision Course lovingly for posterity— yours and mine, and thoroughly enjoyed it myself. I wanted upcoming generations to find the love of God and personal virtue are the bulwark of our freedom. This book is a clarion call for young and old to taste afresh the sweetness of the British legacy behind America’s founding vision: the Creator God, His gift of inalienable rights to all men, equal justice, and sweet liberty.

2) Which character did you connect with best in this book?

That would be the 3^rd Earl of Bute, John Stuart of Scotland. I may have been born with that same didactic nature. I surly cleaved to the same love for the Lord and desire to please Him, like Lord Bute did. My mom’s dad and my dad’s mom, like Lord Bute’s Stuart father and Campbell uncles, nurtured a fascination for gardening in me. I think my great-grandfather, Johnny Graham from Glasgow helped my identifying with the Scottish earl. I have a picture of him in his tartan plaid with a prize feather in his cap. He brought his bagpipes to America and taught my Mama the Highland Fling. I know the dance steps but you’ll notice in the book Highland dancing was a celebration exclusive to the men.

Scots have a reputation for starched-stiff seriousness. My German genes aided and abetted what Brits would call “a want of sense of humor.” As a young woman, I recall praying fervently I would stop taking myself so seriously. God answered with an abundant dose of levity. So, you’ll find plenty of amusement in Collision Course. Two players break the tension of politics and intrigue crossing the stage periodically with comic relief like Shakespearian jesters. I also gave Lord Bute several occasions for humorous merriment.

3) What is your favorite vacation spot?

Well, after studying America’s roots in Great Britain, it’s there. I’ve taken great pleasure from sitting in the transepts of Westminster Abbey just drinking in the stunning, enormous leaded- glass rose window over the north entrance. Or being transported to ethereal realms by strains of the all-male (boys and men) choir singing Evensong. Parliament no longer meets in St. Stephens Chapel and the Painted Chamber, but it acts the same. I’ve sat looking over the green leather upholstery in the House of Commons as an MP spoke from the floor punctuated by loud huzzahs or drowned out by obnoxious scoffs and groans from colleagues. I’ve visited the mighty, cavernous red-upholstered House of Lords. I’ve startled at the large size of the iconic wool-sack. And I’ve recalled it was there to remind the ruling peers of the traditional wellspring of Great Britain’s economy— least anyone dare encumber the wool industry with regulations and taxes.

I’ve sucked in the fragrance of the mighty River Thames from an open boat cruising to Kew and Richmond. I’ve sauntered in public gardens rich with spring flowers. I’ve lingered in the high-walled kitchen garden at Kew where lettuce reclines under foxglove and hollyhocks stand as sentry behind carrots and herbs. I’ve gawked my way over hill and dale on the train to Edinburg. I’ve thrilled to the fragrance of salty air thicker than fog on the ferry ride from the village of Weams to the Isle of Bute in Scotland. I’ve wandered Lord Bute’s garden trails in May through waning crowds of daffodils and dwindling bluebell patches, stood speechless at the base of the solemn oblisque honoring the life of the widowed (dowager) Princess of Wales Augusta. (She’s the young prince’s struggling single mama in Collision Course). I’ve been awestruck by the perfume while walking through banks of yellow azaleas. I’ve lingered beneath towering ancient rhododendrons dressed for some surreal heavenly ball in the finest silks and satins of lavenders and pinks.

Yes. My favorite vacation spot is still the UK. At the mere thought, I envision a stroll beneath the Gothic spires of Oxford. I can already hear Big Ben striking the hour at Westminster. And, do I hear strains of Handel, the court composer for Collision Course, at a free noon concert among the homeless at the colonial style church, St. Martin-in-the Fields? At the mention of the Cotswold, I’m huddled by the stone hearth in a 400-year-old coaching Inn.

Or I’m tucked away upstairs under a down quilt in a Jacobean mansion with a pleasant green slope dotted with sheep just outside the iron-paned window. Sign me up for England.

4) Which part of Collision Course was most difficult to write?

This is a riveting question. And I need to be brief and nameless for the answer not to be a dreaded “spoiler.” I’ve long since taken note how God created people in three parts: body, soul (psyche: emotions and will), and spirit. The three seem to interact and affect each other. Especially, the spirit and the soul. If the spirit is healthy, usually the soul will be also.

It’s difficult to write about the effects of presumptuous sin which begins with subtle pride— the thing God hates most— and grows into obsession. If there’s no interruption by confession and repentance, pride claims increasing territory in the soul. I know there is grace, but following some heart-hardening secret event, the weakened spirit and corrupted soul seem to latch on to each other in a downward spin toward oblivion. Satanic strongholds deceive sufficiently to take that person down with emotional disorders. Obsession is painful to watch and difficult to write.

5) What is your favorite scripture or life verse?

There are so many favorites, the most favorite favorite changes from time to time. I used to think a lot about Ephesians 2:10 about the purpose for my creation is good works that God had already planned. Awesome! But for the last ten years, I’ve gravitated to the whole of Psalm139. I’ve devoured it in increments. In the first verse, I invite God to be my master and search and know me for accountability. Then, He assures me of His amazing intimate love, His stunning knowledge of me, and His presence wherever I go. Up to heaven, in the grave, across the sea, His right hand will lay ahold of me. Then I tell Him I sometimes fear this present darkness and He assures me the night is as bright as the day to Him Double awesome! While I’m wrapping my head around that, He assures me He knew me as unformed substance and knit me together in my mother’s womb. More awesome than I can ever fathom.

And He promises me He wrote in His book how many days He ordained for me before there was one of them. So, I need to take care of my life but not worry about it. The most spectacular kind of awesome!!

I never thought I would need to call on God to slay the wicked like David did. But I sometimes do now as I watch the machinations of wicked politicians with evil intentions. The Psalm ends with submitting to God again for accountability and praying He will lead me on the in the everlasting way.