A new novel by high-flying businessman Christopher Lowery draws on the author's own experience of having to flee Portugal following the Carnation Revolution. He talks to Sarah Foster

AS Christopher Lowery reflects on what inspired his new novel, The Angolan Clan, he can't help but conclude that his is a family which attracts trouble. He had not long since moved to Portugal with his wife and daughter when, in 1974, the shift to communism following the Carnation Revolution made life untenable for capitalists like himself. Years later, his daughter, Kerry-Jane, an independent writer and photographer, was posted to Rwanda - only to end up in the midst of the genocide.

The latter has also inspired a novel - the second in Christopher's African Diamonds trilogy, which he is mid-way through writing. Like the first, it is an international thriller of epic proportions.

"The beginning of that story is the death of the president of Rwanda and the subsequent genocide," says Christopher. "The first book has a particular ending, which leads to the second book, and several of the characters are the same. People like the comfort of knowing who the characters are and where they came from."

Underpinning the trilogy is the closure of the Angolan diamond mines in the wake of the revolution and a vast fortune in diamonds smuggled out by refugees. There is death and glamour in equal measure - in The Angolan Clan, three wealthy jetsetters meet their ends, respectively, in the pool of a Marbella mansion, skiing in the Alps, and with a prostitute in New York. Unusually, Christopher chooses two female protagonists to investigate: Englishwoman Jenny Bishop and Angolan-born Leticia da Costa.

While he admits his own experience of the revolution was less dramatic, it was something that, for many years, he thought of writing about. "I was actually in Geneva when the chairman of the company I was working for called me and said they were putting everyone in jail and that they were waiting for me to come back to put me in jail also," says Christopher, 72.

"My poor wife had to come out with our daughter and the dog. As things progressed, we were busy in Geneva and I started to have the idea of creating a story about it."

Both born in South Shields, Christopher and his wife Marjorie now divide their time between homes in Marbella and Geneva, where Christopher's wireless communications company, Wyless, is based. It seems an unlikely outcome for the son of a bus conductor who lived in a council house, yet he always had ambition.

"I was very unhappy living in the North-East of England," Christopher admits. "I wanted to go to London, but a Geordie in London wouldn't have survived - we didn't speak the same way, we didn't dress the same way. I was fortunate enough to get a job in Geneva, so we moved there when I was 24 and my wife was 22, never having been abroad apart from on our honeymoon."

Christopher describes his path to success as, "more by good luck than by good judgement", starting off working for a large company then branching out on his own. He tried returning to Portugal, when a new government took over and was keen to attract entrepreneurs, but settled back in Geneva when this proved too difficult.

After forging a lucrative career in real estate, Christopher moved on to telecommunications, riding out various economic storms, before establishing his current business. Now, among his clients is the US government, with which Wyless has a programme enabling war veterans to be monitored remotely. Still active in the company, it's surprising that Christopher has time to fit in writing. He began with children's stories when Kerry-Jane was a child and has since written everything from poetry to "slightly naughty" limericks. Far from adding to his workload, Christopher sees it as providing a balance.

"The levels of satisfaction and the kinds of satisfaction are quite different," he says. "The characters take over the story. I think, 'why did I write that?', then I realise it's exactly what the characters would do. But it's very hard work putting 600 pages of a story from your head onto paper."

One of the biggest challenges of writing a thriller, admits Christopher, is keeping track of all the various storyline strands. He says the second book, The Rwanda Hostage, due for completion by the end of the year, is even more complex than the first. "I have to keep reminding myself what time it is in Africa and what time it is in Spain," he laughs.

After Christopher has completed the trilogy, which he estimates will be by the end of next year, he says he won't take on another major writing project - but doesn't rule out writing altogether. "We'll see what happens," he says. "Within the next year or so, my wife and I want to be quite relaxed and not have so many commitments."

Yet he can't quite picture himself with a pipe and slippers. "I think the worst thing is to have too little to do," says Christopher. "I think it's always best to have too much."

The Angolan Clan by Christopher Lowery (Urbane Publications, £6.99)