There's No Pride In Prejudice

There's No Pride In Prejudice is a sequel to Billy's War, but you don't necessarily need to have read Billy's War first - though if you haven't, you will probably want to read it afterwards! Biily Frecknall is a university student when we first meet him in this book, and we share his experiences in various countries of the world (France, USA, Yugoslavia, as well as his native Britain). Even when he was a little boy Billy was a fighter, fighting for what he believed was right, and he learns quite early that many people in this world claim to believe in a fair and just society - whilst simultaneously restricting that fairness and justice to sections of society of their own choosing, The two loves of Billy's life ultimately teach him what the results of such discrimination are, and he goes on to use the worldwide success and fame he gains in his chosen career to campaign for fairness and justice throughout the world. His enemy is prejudice in all its forms. He describes prejudice as ''a disease, a virulent and malign disease, a disease of the mind. I have a vision of a brain encircled by barbed wire. And barbed wire, I might remind you, has barbs that point both ways. And so does prejudice - it damages both those who harbour it, and those who are its target". But, despite its serious theme, this is fundamentally a happy book, a book full of hope How could it be otherwise when Billy Frecknall's aims are identical to those of the founding fathers of the USA: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? And when you finish reading the book, you'll need to ask yourself two questions: If I were Billy, would I have had the courage to do what he did? and If I were listening to Billy, would I have been swayed by the force of his arguments? Because, at the end of the day, these are issues which are absolutely fundamental to the happy survival of the human race!