"Without a City Wall" is the first-hand account of a young Englishman, James Badby,  and covers a period of about seven years - from 1533 to 1539. It is a story that straddles several countries - England, Malta, Flanders, Florence of the Medici, Venice, the Maldives, Malabar of the Zamorin and Cochin in present day Kerala and the fabled capital of the Vijayanagar Empire - at a time when Western Christianity was breaking up, when the world economy began to change as it never had before and when the world started to become a global village - one without walls.

The chronicle begins with the imprisonment, on the orders of King Henry VIII,  of the priors of the Carthusian monasteries in England.

James Badby, who is clairvoyant, has a foreboding of things to come and he persuades and helps his  younger brother Maurice, a Carthusian monk, to escape from the Carthusian Charterhouse in London.

When the Carthusian priors are executed in May 1535, they decide to escape to Antwerp where they manage to secure jobs as translators at the bourse. A year later when their friend Hugh Moreton joins them, they begin to get involved in business deals also. Unfortunately the Bartoli Bank of Florence, with which they have dealings, collapses and they travel to Florence to try and get Lorenzino de Medici, distant cousin and the constant companion of the Duke of Florence, to help recover at least part of their losses from the bank. Unwittingly, however, they become eyewitnesses to the murder of Alessandro de Medici, the reigning Duke, and are thrown into the Florence bargello.

On their release from that prison a few weeks later, they travel to Venice and stay with their friend, the celebrated writer Pietro Aretino who arranges to get them on board a Venetian expedition to India. From the Cape Verde islands, they trace Vasco da Gama's historic journey around the Cape of Good Hope to the Court of the Zamorin of Calicut.

Mid-way across the Indian Ocean, they run into a hurricane and are shipwrecked. After floating for days, they are rescued by islanders from the Maldives who take them to Rubhidoo an island in the Maldives archipalego where they spend a few weeks recovering from their gruelling experience.

From the Maldives they manage to find their way to Calicut, in present day Kerala and get involved with the local ruler, the Zamorin, and his ongoing conflicts with the Portuguese, in Cochin and Goa.

They have several escapades - a secret foray into Fort Cochin in present day Kerala to bring out two Italian gunsmiths, a couple of naval engagements with the Portuguese - off the Malabar coast and then later near Diu, an island off the coast of Gujarat, a sword fight with some Portuguese in Vijayanagar, the capital of the powerful empire that held sway over Malabar an elephant attack in the mountains of South India. They also witness several incredible happenings such as the Mamamkam festival and Kalaripayattu in Malabar, Sutee, and plastic surgery in Vijayanagar and finally a journey to the fabled graveyard of the elephants.

Although it is fiction "Without a City Wall" is a plausible story inter-vowen through several actual events in the history of Europe and South India of the 1500s - in particular:-

Polyandry and inheritance through women among the Nairs of Kerala.
Kalaripayattu, the ancient martial arts system of Malabar in present day Kerala. Kalaripayattu is now believed to be the forerunner of the martial arts in China,  Japan and Korea.

The Mamamkam - a festival in Malabar, which used to be held every twelve years till 1743, At the Mamamkam armed squads of specially trained Kalaripayattu exponents could have a go at trying to overthrow the Zamorin.

Vijayanagar- capital of the Vijayanagar Empire at the height of its power. Maldives  -  the  tropical  island  archipelago  in  the  Indian  Ocean  and considered by many as the home of Homer's mythical lotus eaters.

Kundalini - a yogic interpretation of psychic phenomena. The settings and the events are very authentic - the result of considerable research into the period, coupled with the author's visits to almost all the places described in the 115,000 (approx.) word novel.

Thomas Chacko - author of "Without a City Wall" Thomas Chacko was born in 1949 in Kottayam. A member of the almost 2000 year old Syrian Christian community in Kerala, his early childhood (1949-56) was spent largely in the town of his birth and thereafter (1956-81) in Calcutta in where he graduated with honours in Commerce from St.Xavier's, the Jesuit College there.

Although he has not been a formal student of history, he has always had an abiding passion for that subject, particularly that relating to South India and Europe. Without a City Wall, his maiden effort, is an attempt to link these two cultures - coincidentally around the 500th anniversary of the Portuguese discovery of the sea route to India around the Cape of Good Hope in 1498. It is the result of considerable research into the background of that  period, both in Europe and in South India.

He has since co-authored and published on behalf of UPASI, the United Planters' Association of South India, Forest Gold - The story of South Indian Tea. Forest Gold is a 200 page colour glossy and has been very well received by the plantation industry and by the general reading public.

Widely travelled and multi-lingual, Thomas has visited all the places described in "Without a City Wall", other than Malta, the Maldives and the ruins of Vijayanagar.

A voracious reader and enthusiastic traveller, his interests also lie in music - singing and playing musical instruments - kalaripayattu and  motor sports.

A Company Secretary by qualification he was for 20 years the Company Secretary of Harrisons Malayalam Limited, a large plantation company in Kerala in South India, including a six month stint as its interim Chief Executive