On 11th November, the BBC broadcast a moving and important documentary called Gary Lineker: My Grandad’s War. It had been commissioned from Wall to Wall Media and told the story of Gary Lineker‘s grandad, Stanley Abbs, who had served as a nursing orderly in the Royal Army Medical Corps in Italy in World War Two… Continue reading…
Life as an expat is mixed. You have the excitement of sights that broaden your mind… challenge your faith… transfix… shame… and surprise. Upon arrival, we were embraced by the English speaking expat community and automatically included by dint of being there. It’s a community which includes, English, American, Australian and Dutch, all of whom… Continue reading…
Well, my resolve to write a fortnightly blog has failed miserably and I apologise for going AWOL. How many times have you heard that?! This week is one of celebrations. On Saturday 12th May, it was William Earl’s 103rd Birthday. In case you have not met William before, he is the hero of Blood and… Continue reading…
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…
I’m delighted to say that since my last blog on Blood and Bandages, excellent reviews have continued to appear on Amazon Books. All About History has added its voice saying that, ‘Blood and Bandages is easy to read and a unique perspective of WWII,’ while Books Monthly described the book as a ‘Superb account of… 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…