1) About me:

My name is Fabien Hallopeau (EDHEC Master 2013).

I started my career at Greenworking, a managerial innovation consultancy firm. It was an intense period with a steep learning curve in a context of strong growth. I used to run training sessions and conferences and oversaw missions designed to accompany change.

After that first phase, I took a sabbatical to pursue my dream: writing and publishing my first novel. It was an incredible year rich in encounters and achievements, capped off with the release of my first novel, Oliver Bridgetown, published by Michel Lafon.

I have now returned to the world of education, heading up governance programmes for Sciences Po Executive Education, but I also continue to write.

2) What being an EDHEC Resource means to me:

It’s about belonging to a rich and committed network. It’s about making yourself available if others need you and sharing your experience. There are moments in life, particularly during transitions, when it’s important to know that you can turn to others who will be willing to help and share their experience.

You might for example want to know more about a profession when starting off in your career, whatever your direction, or need advice and to establish your first “local” contacts if moving abroad, or perhaps some inspiration as was the case for me when I was thinking about becoming a writer. I renewed contact with someone from my secondary school whose story encouraged me to pursue that path.

3) So what’s this novel all about?

It’s the first volume in a saga about magic and other worlds. I have always been swept away by the worlds imagined by Philip Pullman (His Dark Materials), J. K. Rowling of course, and more recently Christelle Dabos (La Passe-Miroir). They made me want to imagine my own. What better than the back cover blurb as an appetiser?

“After centuries of chaos, the all-powerful Hégémonium imposes order, censorship and terror on the Kingdom of Anglie. Oliver, a 14-year-old orphan, happens upon a book in a store that has been banned by the authorities, and his life will never be the same again.

Pursued by the formidable agents of Hégémonium, Oliver must flee and finds refuge in the manor of the famous Lord Abberline, a strange and outrageously rich adventurer.

Despite himself, Oliver finds himself plunged into the heart of a merciless war, infused with magic and otherworldliness …”