I've just finished recording The Encore, a novel by Lauren Holmes. It's an interesting idea - how would you go about solving a global problem where the eco-system is in meltdown?! In The Encore, set a short time in the future, Connor Kane is a man with a certain talent for finding solutions to difficult problems, and has proven his worth helping to save Earth's population and ecosystems from pollution and environmental damage when all appeared to be lost. His talents and achievements had not gone unnoticed by other intelligent lifeforms elsewhere in the universe - other lifeforms also facing an environmental crisis and needing Connors skills! 

The Encore is a thought provoking story looking at some philosophical questions, such as what would it take for societal differences to be put aside, what would have to be at stake for all to forget their own prejudices and baggage and work together toward a common goal? What is the most rewarding thing a person can do? Is altruism the ultimate achievement? 

Please enjoy a short sample below and head over to Audible from 15th August 2021 if you feel inclined to acquire the book!



Raghnall's Revenge

The audiobook adaptation of the novel by Shona Redmond is finally complete!



The story continues as the group of friends persevere with their plan to recruit new allies in order to regain what was stolen from them. With the traitor seemingly unmasked houses Olden and Raghnall make it their mission to seek vengeance on all of those who cost so many loved ones their lives. The plot thickens when Finn discovers his uncle is in league with the same men that took his home. New enemies emerge causing the friends to separate from one another, in order to ensure their survival. As the mysteries unravel, the group begin to find out that everything may not always be as it appears. Secrets from the past come back to bite them, sacrifices must be made and lives lost proving even heroes can bleed in order to get to the truth. Can the group beat the odds once again or are they truly cursed and destined only for death?

Find it on Amazon and Audible here.


German Newspaper from 1944
German newspaper
Propaganda poster/leaflet

Here's another excerpt from the book transcribed from the diary of a POW in WW2. British Army Royal Engineers Sapper Bill Warren was prisoner for four years, in Germany, working on oil refineries near Berlin producing fuel and lubricants for Germany's war machine. 

About ½ an hour later we met him again, & he invited us up to his home, telling us that his wife spoke a little English, and would be most pleased to cook for us any food we were unable to cook at the farm. We spent a very pleasant hour there – the first time we had enjoyed the comforts of a free man for well over 4 years – sitting on a sofa, or at a table which had been properly laid, all of which was luxury to us. Before we left Frau Kromer, for that was their name, invited us again, with any friends we wished to bring for 3 ‘o’ clock, when she would have some suet dumplings and meat & gravy cooked for us. To anyone who understands the food situation in Germany, this was tremendously generous of her as only the most fortunately placed (or racketeering!) families have anywhere near enough food for their own requirements. On arriving back in the farm it seemed as though our dreams of 3 ‘o’ clock were completely shattered. The Hauptramm had been up and announced that some English had been seen in the village, & if any more went out they would be shot on sight. However, the thought of the blog at Frau Kromer’s was too much for us & away we went at 2:45, the 3 of us & Ray.

 What do you do before settling down to read or work on a book?

I tend to walk my dogs....and cat! Our feline, Rosie, follows us on our twice daily outings, much to everyone's amusement. Here she is below following us along the canal and into the fields....

I asked Jim Ellis to tell me a bit about some of his novels. Please read on and click the title to find each one on Amazon.

The Music Room 

 A unique tale of war and desire about the life of Tim Ronsard, a young Scot: he runs from Clydeside shipbuilding and engineering and volunteers for the French Foreign Legion. Tim Ronsard means to travel as far as the Legion can take him soldiering in Algeria and elsewhere in Africa. But he discovers he can’t break the bonds that tie him to Cliesh, the older woman who taught him about music and love.


One Summer 

In this compelling story of class and religious conflict, Nathan Forrest, a Catholic, a welder and illegitimate son, is reared by his grandmother, a pawnbroker. A gifted jazz trumpeter, Nathan pursues Dorothy Jones, a Protestant girl from a middle-class family. Against a background of decaying Westburn’s doomed (Scottish) shipyards and bitter Protestant-Catholic antagonisms, the young lovers seek to escape the constraints of prejudice and hate.


The Last Hundred

Set in the nineteen twenties in Mexico and the American Southwest. The story of Jock MacNeil’s transformative journey from Apprentice Blacksmith, Ships Boy on a merchant schooner, Jane Brown. Volunteering for the Confederate as Loblolly Boy, aboard CSS Alabama. Stranded in Galveston, he saves the life of a Cherokee soldier and, with him, journeys to Oklahoma to enlist in the Cherokee Mounted Rifles, Confederate Army. Jock MacNeil is a made Chiricahua Apache warrior and husband in a gripping story of adventure, heartbreak and redemption.


Westburn Blues 

Westburn Blues is the story of the Rinaldis from Liguria and their migration to Scotland in the 1890s.  It follows The Music Room and One Summer, the final part of the Westburn Trilogy. The novel is centred on Dante Rinaldi, born to Italian immigrants to the West of Scotland. In 1939, staying with his grandfather, Dante is left in Italy when war breaks out. He grows roots in his family’s rural homeland and, as a young adult, identifies with a band of mountain partisans fighting the fascists. He finds love with Chiarina in the partisan band.  Their passion is delayed when Dante is repatriated at the end of the war. The Rinaldis’ struggles in post-war Scotland influence the life of Chris McCoull, a neglected adolescent who finds his calling and romance while working for a Greek-owned shipping line. Carefully researched, this authentic rendering of the Scots-Italian experience showcases Ellis’ fine eye for historical detail and deft drawing of characters – from sympathetic to genuinely evil.


Only The Leaves Whispering, a prequel to The Last Hundred 


Jock MacNeil, the eldest son of a Highland Catholic family, leaves school at thirteen to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a blacksmith. But after a family tragedy changes his plans. 

At the beginning of his sea-going life as a ship’s boy on the merchant schooner, Jane Brown, he is befriended by retired Royal Navy Surgeon James Gunn. Volunteering for the Confederate Navy, Jock bonds with Assistant Surgeon David Llewellyn, CSS Alabama building in Birkenhead. Living among the seamen, Jock learns to deal with responsibility - and how to defend himself. 

But can Jock survive the cruise of Alabama and fighting for the South, soldiering in the Cherokee Mounted Rifles?


JIM ELLIS

Jim Ellis writes compelling historical novels about lost love, conflicts and characters at odds with their lives in Scotland, who search for enlightenment in dangerous and forbidding places.

A sixth novel, The Near East, is underway. The action takes place in the borderlands of Turkey, Syria, and Iraq. A band of soldiers of fortune, led by a Scot, are hired to raise a force of raiders to protect the Yezidis from ISIS.

Jim is from the West of Scotland. He has been a sea-going engineer and a tool setter in a canning factory. For many years he worked in computer manufacturing and spent a decade as a university lecturer. Ellis has a life long passion for history, and it surfaces in his novels.

 “I like to write. When I’m not writing I’m reading. I listen to Jazz and enjoy travelling the world with my wife.”


 



Greets once again. I've decided to make an audiobook of We 67 English, and share it out among friends and family. This whole project started in September 2020 as an idea for a Christmas gift for my partners family. My partners grandfather, Bill Warren, wrote the diary while POW in Leipzig in Germany. His diary only came to light a couple of years ago and most of the family hadn't been able to read it but were greatly interested in this memory of their treasured patriarch, Bill. I decided to set my self a challenge, and transcribe the diary (150+ pages of tiny, tiny writing) and turn it into a book which I could present to Bill's children and grandchildren. 

His diary also contained a number of artefacts that Bill had collected, mostly propaganda leaflets dropped by airplane by both sides, each asserting that should you, the enemy, surrender, you'd be treated really rather well and looked after. I've scanned those and included them in the book. There are a few below! 

If you want to read the whole thing, please contact me via the little widget on the right and I'll see what I can do. 

Image 01


Please find below the first few pages of Bill's diary, starting in June 1941.

June 6th 
At last the long awaited day has arrived! The day for which we had hopefully sought for three summers now. It seems that Anglo-American troops have landed along the coast of France between Cherbourg and La Havre. The sky black with ‘planes, the sea a mass of boats. Time either 11am or 12am, on the other hand it may have been pm! Germans claim 75% losses in the initial landing. June 7th Apparently the first troops landed a few minutes after midnight, A froggy told me that 12,000 planes, 6,000 boats and 3 million men took part in the operation which was completely successful. Other sources mention 11,000 planes and 4,000 boats, - probably the sailors and airmen themselves don’t know which is right. It seems dummy parachutists were first dropped, followed later (but at different places) by the genuine live article. Many parts of the distance already penetrated, anything up to 50km. All the Frenchmen here, although are usually cheerful, are now most unusually cheerful & can always be seen “thumbs upping” & wearing that inimitable smile. 8pm: Radio LaBrise reports the fall of Rouen and a speech by DeGaulle in which he tells the French people to keep their heads down until the invasion wave has passed, & then join in the bloody massacre of the Hun & also that he will be in Paris at the head of a new French government by June 22nd.

June 8th
The fall of Rouen seems to be generally confirmed; a froggy informs me that the fighting is on a 250km front, and there have been fresh landings at Dunkirk, Dieppe, Calais etc etc. Also, 10,000 boats have been used . Churchill is supposed to have said that the landings were more successful than ever he had anticipated and the large reserves of boats and planes were not required. Rumors of large “breakthroughs” in the German line in Russia and south of Rome. Radio reports fighting between German troops in France, recent amendment states that it is the Polish volunteers you have turned on the Germans.

June 9th
The German radio and newspapers have been significantly silent regarding the second front for the past 2 days, and rather reticent today, but admitted the fall of Baen. A square head informs us that the Gerries are making swift strategic withdrawals in Italy and the fighting is now 60km north of Rome. Also that 4,000 large and 4,000 small ships are taking part in the landings of troops. Begging your pardon, but a recent report from Kommando (square head source) claims the British forces to be 120km north of Rome after effecting a breakthrough in the German lines. Also that the Allied forces in France are 140km from the coast at one point.

 Here's a little sample of The Encore audiobook:




In-between recording chapters of Raghnalls Revenge where I describe bloodthirsty Vikings slaying evil witches and Kings, I like to stroll to the lake and film the wildlife. And this week we have Signets, and they are FLUFFY.

So FLUFFY.






 In my lunch break I left the recording room and grabbed my camera as I'd spotted the tiniest little black fluffy specks swimming about the canal by my house - Moorhen chicks! You can see them in the video when the dad is passing materials to the Hen among the reed, they're tiny!

For videographers, I used my trusty Csanon C100, plus Atomos Ninja external recorder, plus my positively ancient yet still working Sigma APO f4.0 300mm prime lens. If ever there were a good advert for build quality this is it - bombproof. I've had it since 1999!!!! And it is RAZOR sharp.





 

So, I've been busy writing a book - it's really just a transcription of the diary kept by a British Army soldier, who is also my partners grandfather. William Warren was a Sapper (explosives expert) in the British army, and was captured in France in 1941, and held as a POW for nearly 4 years until his eventual release towards the  end of the conflict in June '44. It was a real marathon, 4 months of scribbling and deciphering in my spare time after work, his handwriting is very swirly and neat looking yet hard to decipher. One of the hardest things was the place names, as they were spelled phonetically mostly, and so I had to spend a lot of time trying variations on the spelling until I found the real place on a map. A selection of artefacts were kept inside, such as wartime propaganda leaflets from both sides, each promising a wonderful reception if you were to surrender your arms peacefully.
A small extract from the diary:
19 April. Which was Ray’s birthday, proved to be a most eventful day. The mucker and I were lying in the hay on our bed place just under the window musing on the lousiness of life – in fact everything was as usual. A few Thunderbolts were hovering around, but then they had been doing that most of the day. Suddenly we heard the roar of a plane dive which brought us both to our feet at the window. A plane was diving straight for us – Ray yelled to Harry Huntley who was lying on his overcoat opposite us & who immediately dashed toward us. Suddenly the plane opened up with machine guns and canons – the roof was riddled with bullets – instinctively we crashed to the floor with pieces of roofing tile spattering on our heads and backs. The machine-gunning ceased and was immediately followed by two dull thumps like the banging of a door – they were the light bombs.