Steve Ellis 
Red on Green 

Seething with tension in monsoon heat and humidity, Red on Green is a captivating story of love across cultural barriers, corruption, abuse of humanitarian aid and sexual exploitation. British aid worker, Ben Altringham, meets medical student, Ayesha, through her father, Dr Abdur Rahman. He is a kind and highly skilled doctor who volunteers to help people struggling to survive in desperate poverty and squalor. Ayesha and Ben’s relationship is a dangerous liaison in the turbulent aftermath of a savage civil conflict on the Indian subcontinent. The war had ended. But recrimination and revenge were rife. Fuelling the danger, Ayesha’s closest friend, Khalida, asks for help to escape the clutches of a government minister’s son. She was being coerced into a suffocating marriage. Driven by his love for Ayesha, Ben risks his liberty and life in a plot to help Khalida flee the country. The novel is set in Bangladesh, a year after the nine-month civil war in 1971. Unfortunately, the nine-month ‘War of Liberation’ did not free the population from poverty, disease and natural disasters, nor endemic corruption, nepotism and discrimination. Former ‘freedom fighters’ took revenge against those accused of being traitors and collaborators during the conflict. Blood continued to flow into the new nation’s lush landscape – hence the title, Red on Green Red on Green.