L U S I T A N I A R. E. X

By Greg Taylor ’85. Self-published. November 2014. This book of historical fiction chronicles the sinking of the RMS Lusitania in May, 1915 after a single torpedo strike. The story unfolds on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean in settings that range from gilded palaces and the Lusitania to the blood-soaked trenches of Ypres. Taylor worked with the Duke of Marlborough and the grandson of Alfred Vanderbilt, both descendants of the book’s main characters, to incorporate their original material and anecdotes in the story. The book won the M.M.Bennetts Award for Historical Fiction July 2015 and is a finalist for the People’s Book Prize.