Join us for a conversation with David Tuch on the never-before-told story of Harold Derber, the debonair British Merchant Navy veteran who invented the modern drug trade and subject of The Wireless Operator. He will be joined by Ben Smith, a Professor of Latin American Studies at the University of Warwick who also specialises in the narcotics trade.There will be a Q&A after the talk followed by an opportunity to get books signed. Refreshments available.About the BookThrough his ghost fleet of drug ships, Derber eventually became the chief supplier of marijuana to post-war America. This gripping true tale follows Derber from humble beginnings in Manchester, England to his assassination in the sun-kissed streets of Miami. Along the way, Derber’s story takes in some of the most significant events of the twentieth century – the Second World War’s Battle of the Atlantic, the Cuban Revolution and the murky shadows of the Cold War.Shedding light on a litany of plots including arms and refugee smuggling, large-scale stock fraud and Derber’s rise to the pinnacle of the drug world, this remarkable transatlantic story paints a complex picture of a singular figure and brings his extraordinary life into focus for the first time.David Tuch is the cousin of Harold Derber. A technology entrepreneur, he was born in New York and received his doctorate from MIT and Harvard Medical School. He lives in Brookline, Massachusetts with his wife and four children. This is his first book.
