Retired lecturer conjectures that if Hell exists it will be administered as a modern university

GLOSSOP, U.K. - Nov. 5, 2019 - PRLog -- While retired doctor and university lecturer, Mark P Henderson, was teaching part-time in a men's prison, one of his students, who he describes as an intelligent ex-SAS officer, conjectured that modern economies (and hence society) would collapse if people ceased to commit crimes. Henderson mused on this idea for several years as he worked as a junior hospital doctor and as a university lecturer, and somehow it chimed with his growing detestation of the political minefields that both universities and hospitals had become.

"It took 14 years," he says, "for the germ of this idea to become the draft of a book, The Engklimiastat." The manuscript he finally completed takes the idea of removing all possibility of crime from the UK, and explores the consequences.

The Engklimastat is a fable set in present-day Britain and has two settings; one is a fictitious city in present-day England, the other is Hell, shown as a community not of scholars but of demons, with all the complex hierarchies, multifarious administrative structures and glut of convoluted procedures of a modern university.

I ask why Hell is depicted as a university. "How better to portray the workings of a dysfunctional underworld, how else could Hell possibly be managed?"

Where did the unusual title come from? "It's an invented word derived from Greek roots, meaning that which stops or prevents crime," he tells me.

"This is classic Henderson," says Dan Grubb, CEO of Fantastic Books Publishing, "and a worthy successor to his first novel, National Cake Day in Ruritania. The Engklimastat is logical, well-researched, fast moving, funny and unique. Mark's cast gives us a cross-section of modern society, while the story centres around the antics of a junior demon called Hypostates. There is drama, tension, comedy and romance."

I ask about crime, but Dan just smiles and says, "No spoilers."

It looks like early readers agree. One review reads: This is an angry tale, raging against modern evils and injustice, but made palatable and enjoyable by brilliant, erudite wit and an array of delightful characters – mortal and otherwise. I don't know anyone except Mark Henderson who would think of translating "Abandon hope, all ye that enter here" into Gangsta-Rap!

Further information about the book
The Engklimastat is available as paperback and ebook: http://getbook.at/TheEngklimastat

Further information about the author
Learn more about Mark P Henderson on his author page on the Fantastic Books Store: https://www.fantasticbooksstore.com/authors/mark-p-henderson