Today is the start of the Chinese New Year. Here in Singapore, it is marked with a two day national holiday. It’s being celebrated by the majority of the population as the Chinese account for 76% of the inhabitants in this multicultural city-state. The date of the Chinese New Year is determined by the Chinese calendar… Continue reading…
We have finally moved to Singapore after months of frantic activity and precious little activity on this blog. I feel bad about that, so to make amends here is a super sized blog with oodles of photos and a brief account of how we’ve ended up moving half way across the world. … Continue reading…
I’m almost half way through my autumn book talks, so I wanted to share what’s happened so far. There was a good turnout at Shoreham Library on 10th November. William Earl, the 102-year-old star of Blood and Bandages was there. He was on fine form despite having recently returned from a five day wedding in… Continue reading…
This is a seriously busy week. Besides Tom’s home-schooling and sorting out what to take to Singapore, I will be preparing two brilliant talks on my book, Blood and Bandages – fighting for life in the RAMC Field Ambulance 1940 -1946. These entertaining and informative talks will be about the book, its theme and how… Continue reading…
To mark last Friday’s release of Dunkirk the movie, I’m re-publishing a blog I wrote in May 2010 on the RNLI’s role in the rescue. It’s an eye-opener and I hope you enjoy it. Last week, I featured the Royal Escape Race, and on Friday went to Brighton seafront to watch the start. It was surprisingly… Continue reading…
I hope you enjoyed reading the inside story of Blood and Bandages. William and I have now moved onto the book’s marketing phase and last weekend, we had great fun at the Armed Forces Day in Worthing. William and I set up our stall. (courtesy of Brian Woodford) While we were there we… Continue reading…
So there I was, paralysed with writer’s block with a deadline looming. Up until then, I thought you got writer’s block when you ran out of ideas. Not so. It’s when you feel an overwhelming sense of helplessness and a complete loss of confidence. You can only think of one thing, that you were a… Continue reading…
In place of this week’s final episode of the inside story of writing Blood and Bandages – fighting for life in a RAMC Field Ambulance 1940-1946, there will be a live Facebook feed of tonight’s book launch. To watch tonight’s events, you only need to click on the link above or copy and paste the following… Continue reading…
I couldn’t finish the book. However, Karl French had identified one outstanding chapter. I tweaked that and prepared a pitch, synopsis and a CV. Although I had created something to show, I lacked the confidence and skill to sell the book in person. Luckily, I had my good friend, Sandra Clark, to turn to. Sandra was… Continue reading…
I felt upset and hurt, but it was a blessing in disguise. The book had taken over my life. If I wasn’t researching it, I was thinking about it. If I wasn’t thinking about it, I was writing it. If I wasn’t writing it, I was interviewing William and if I wasn’t doing that, I… Continue reading…