Mightier yet

Mike and I were fortunate during the war as our fathers were at home with us. As we lived on the South Coast my Dad was in the Civil Defence preparing the coast for the expected invasion which caused much concern at the beginning of the war. Later on he had the joyous job of undoing it all after we won the Battle of Britain and the enemy threat was reduced. Mikes Dad was rejected for the services as he had very poor eyesight so joined the Home Guard were he eventually became a Captain in charge of armaments. Naturally both Dads had duties when we had air raids and were away from home during and after the raid.

But for many the family was broken up the men, and sometimes the women, were in the forces away from home, coming home occasionally on leave and in some places giving a hand with the devastation caused by enemy action while they were there. Of course many went off to war and those left behind never saw them again. It was a sad fact but for those in the forces there was an excitement which could never be experienced in civilian life.

Such is the background to the book I am currently writing.

Let us go forward together

Sybil - carrying on from the last blog and about the Second World War. Born in 1940 I had little knowledge of the war but my mother told me of my first war time experience. I was about two or so. It was a fine day and Mum sat me outside on the lawn at the back of our house. A little while later a German fighter started to strafe the gardens of the houses were we lived. Mum panicked picked me up and rushed into the house, a bullet crashed through the kitchen window and lodged deeply in the opposite wall. It was a near thing but that was about my only real wartime experience, Mike had one or two.

Mike – we lived in a semidetached house, at the start of the war Mum and Dad strengthened the cellar where, when the air raid siren went we used to go, in fact I had a bed and slept down there with my cousins most nights. During the Manchester blitz a bomb fell at the end of our road which prompted my parents to move to a house at the edge of and outlying town. We had just moved there and had not yet built a shelter when a single German bomber (lost we presumed) dropped a bomb. I was in bed with my mother as we heard the whistle of it dropping. I was terrified and was sure it was going to land on us. When it hit the ground the house rocked all the windows blew in but apart from the blast we were safe. The following morning I with one or two local kids went over to the crater it caused hunting for shrapnel. We all came away with a souvenir funny how resilient kids are. I was older than Sybil so had more experiences later in the war but these memories are all useful for her to draw on for her new book.

Evacuate your children

I intend to write ten books, at the moment I have just started number nine. All are different except the Evergreen Series and this one will be different again. It concerns a service family in the Second World War and the predicaments faced because of the war. During the war itself I was too young to know what was going on but within twenty years of it I was married to a serviceman and living in Germany. We loved it and found that the ordinary German people friendly, welcoming not as we were led to believe during the hostilities.

 In fact we made many friends by the simple expedient of walking into a shop and asking in our English German what an item was called. If they replied in English and lots of them spoke it we would say “How about coming round to our house and teach us German?” This way we found out a lot about how they suffered from their own side and what it was like to live under Hitler’s regime.  Of course it helps enormously in writing this book as I am able to give life to both sides of the war. I have only just started and have much research to do to get it right but I will keep you posted as it develops.

A dog's plea

The other day while searching for a lost receipt I came across this and I thought I would share it with you.

A Dogs Plea

Treat me kindly dear friend for no heart in all the world is more grateful for kindness than the loving heart of mine. Do not break my spirit with a stick, for though I should lick you between blows, your patience and understanding will more quickly teach me the things you would have me learn. Speak to me often for your voice is the world’s sweetest music, as you know by the fierce wagging of my tail when your foot steps fall upon my waiting ears.

Please take me inside when it is wet for I am a domesticated animal, no longer accustomed to the bitter elements. I ask no greater glory than the privilege of sitting at your feet beside the hearth. Keep my dish filled with fresh water, for I cannot tell you when I suffer thirst. Feed me with fresh food that I may stay well to romp and play and do your bidding, to walk by your side and stand ready to protect you with my life should your life be in danger. When I am old and no longer enjoy good health, hearing and sight, do not make heroic efforts to keep me going, I shall not enjoy myself. Please see that my life is taken gently.

I shall leave this earth knowing with the last breath, that my life was safest in your hands.

We're out (and down)

So we’ve had our referendum and voted to come out. Not by a convincing majority to my mind, in fact expressed as percentages too close to make that sort of decision, a simple majority is not always the wisest choice. Especially as the arguments for Brexit were rather nebulas and dubious but we're out now and have to work with it, at least our new Prime Minister seems the best person selected from the poor quality of stock we had. I have every confidence she will prove to be a great one at least she is leading; “come the hour” they say.

On the other hand our opposition party is tearing itself to pieces, it seems the ones in parliament don’t represent the people they serve, if serve is the right word. It seems that they serve themselves first, then the New Labour line, then their party members if they don’t have any divergent views.

It would appear that there only purpose in life is to unseat the Conservatives not the good of the country. A country that at this moment in time, that could well do with us pulling together for our future. We’ve made a collective mistake now it is time to make the best of what we’ve got, but then we are Brits and history is not on our side.

Inshallah the book - free copies from Kindle 1-5th July 2016

The story - Jinnya a wilful but otherwise a conventional Saudi girl had her life turned upside down at Abba airport when she admired an English expatriate, Mark Maxwell. Through a series of fateful situations they meet and fall in love, breaking the civil and religious laws of the country.  Fighting against all the difficulties they plan their future together, only to be discovered by her brother. He has the agonising task of choosing between his religion and his sister and to a faceoff with Mark his English friend eventually deciding for his sister, saving her life. He is now set against his father who is of an older generation with strongly held religious views.

Originally written in 1978 it is of that time when Saudi Arabia had recently become a united country but a country of contrasts, between the more and less religious elements, between the rich and the poor, between a desire to modernise and a desire to maintain the discipline of the old. This forms the background to the novel and highlights the challenges facing the young couple.

The end leaves the reader to make up their own mind as to rights and wrongs of the tale.

 amazon.com/dp/B007OIX3XM   

Post referendum

A picture from South Sudan

Well now it’s over and we have to pick up the pieces, we voted to leave the EU on a pack of I won’t say lies but distortions and the people who sold us them are back tracking. I heard the theory that the out campaign wanted a tight vote in favor of remain so the Prime Minister would have to resign and Boris would achieve his ambition of taking his place but it didn’t work like that.

The TV shows little old ladies saying “It’ll be like the old days”, really don’t they remember the rationing and strikes, the three day week the lousy cars we used to make. The youngster’s saying “They’ve taken our future away” for heaven’s sake get a grip, you’re too used to being spoon fed do something for yourself. We talk about immigrants coming and taking our jobs, well it’s a good job they do because we have forgotten how to work. There is a lot of good in this country and a lot of bad and I don’t think the referendum aftermath will put it right though the opportunity is there.