David Tory never intended to write a novel.

But as he researched what was intended to be a white paper on the history of philanthropy in New England he hit a roadblock.

“I became fascinated about how New England got settled and the information that I had from my history lessons and from what was generally available in books didn't altogether square with what I was discovering,” he said.

“I went deeper and deeper into the research until I found that I had what I considered a slightly different approach, or a different understanding, of what actually happened.”

Reluctant to waste his efforts, he developed his research into a trilogy called The Stanfield Chronicles, which follows “the opening up of New England prior to and after the arrival of the Separatists, seen through the eyes of a young man called Isaac Stanfield”.

“Because what I discovered was possibly contentious, I made it into historical fiction so that I could at least explain away any serious disagreement as being poetic license on my part, or never letting facts get in the way of a good story,” said Mr Tory, who will discuss and sign copies of his books at the Bermuda National Library this month.

The author is the half-brother of Michael Winfield, the former Senate Leader and hotelier, who served as chief executive of the America’s Cup Bermuda Development Authority.

The island features heavily in Retribution, the second novel in The Stanfield Chronicles. In writing the book, Mr Tory drew on multiple trips here.

He believes he first visited in the spring of 1959, during the popular College Weeks.

“I was 16 or 17 and I'd come out of a boys’ boarding school in England for a holiday with my mother and stepfather and Mike,” he said.

“I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. College Weeks in 1959 were quite something – I suppose they were every year. But certainly for me, the first time seeing all these beautiful young American boys and girls and being involved and enjoying the shenanigans that went on, I thought it was wonderful. And then I’d be back every year, sometimes several times a year.”

In 1962, Mr Tory joined the software industry, which was then in its infancy; the career ultimately took him from England to the United States.

On retiring 35 years later he embarked on a new path, working with non-profits as co-founder of the Essex County Community Foundation in Topsfield, Massachusetts. The Stanfield Chronicles developed from Mr Tory’s interest in the difficulty in raising money for charities in New England. His research started in hope of finding a solution he could share with fellow philanthropists.

“By the time I was really quite serious about converting it into a book, I realised that there was a long story here. It wasn't just about New England. It was about the whole process of settlement, starting with Jamestown and Bermuda in 1609 and the efforts behind the settlement process,” he said.

Most incredible to Mr Tory was that the Separatists left England intending to join a Dutch settlement on the Hudson River and somehow landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

“They ended up where they did, where two Native Americans were waiting for them, having been educated and trained in England, in the exact spot where the various adventurers and explorers and people behind the settlements had been trying to establish a settlement for ten to 15 years.

“[It was] well-mapped, well-charted by various people through the years so it's a very well-known spot, and a very obvious spot for settlers to go, if in fact, it had been planned that they should go there.”

That the wind might have pushed the Mayflower, the ship the Pilgrims travelled on, “didn't make sense” to the author.

“As I explored that further it became more and more clear to me that, in my opinion, there was a great deal of intrigue behind ensuring that the Mayflower ended up where it should have ended up rather than where they thought it was going to end up, which is in the mouth of the Hudson.”

Isaac Stanfield became the fictional character whose journal allowed readers “a worm's-eye view” of the settlements here and in the United States.

“And of course, being a young adventurer he had adventures of his own,” said Mr Tory, who is now writing the third and final book in the trilogy. “He had his own romances and his own life and so as his life developed in concert with the actual establishment of those settlements.”

The Stanfield Chronicles was his first effort at writing fiction. First friends, and professional editors, helped him convert the 400,000 words he had intended for a white paper into a story. The books have picked up several awards.

“This was not something for me to start a career on. I'm well on in my life and I didn't feel I needed to earn my living by writing. I just wrote it because of the sheer enjoyment of converting what I found fascinating in terms of research into a story which people enjoy reading. And certainly I've had some very, very nice responses,” Mr Tory said.

He plans to continue writing once The Stanfield Chronicles is complete.

“When you actually do get into the writing mode, you're thinking about things that you think that would make a good story; stories that could be fun to write,” he said.

• David Tory will speak at The Bermuda National Library on October 18 at 6pm. For more information, visit www.bnl.bm or www.davidtoryauthor.com