If you bought it, thanks - If you read it, what's your reaction?

Well the first few copies are off the shelves and before I thought folks had time to read it I’m getting some favourable comments which is all very encouraging. It’s always difficult for an author for the first few weeks of a new publication knowing readers reaction to your new book.  Especially as I always try to find a different setting to my stories and indeed explore different situations giving as much  variety as possible. As my readers will know I always try to have a happy ending ‘Inshallah’ is perhaps the exception where you are to decide on the hero and heroine fate, depending on your own way of thinking. ‘Both Sides’ is much more straightforward it does lead you a dance through the book but happiness reins in the end. 

At last the new book!

Goodness what a long time it’s been since I did a blog, I hadn’t realised I’ve been so busy finishing off my new book and that took a lot longer than I expected. I wanted it right of course so there was a lot of checking facts, I can remember some of it but most of my readers would not have been born when it all happened so in a way it’s a bit of history for them. It was interesting studying how it was for both sides especially those German who were against the Nazi element and the dreaded SS. Now a days it seems so unlikely that a nation would treat its own citizens so but then one has only to think of IS and the Middle East to realise that it’s still happening. When will we learn to all get along together?

Here’s a copy of the preface to whet you appetite:- This is a story with many tales within it all based in the Second World War. A story that deals with the trials and tribulations of two families one German and one English on each side of the divide. The English family from father down engaged in and about the RAF and eager to support their country. The German family farmers who do not like the autocratic and authoritarian rule of the Nazi party and all it stood for, are suddenly presented with the opportunity of saving and hiding an English pilot who has parachuted on their land.

The story covers both sides and all family members, the Oakley’s are father, mother, son and two daughters whilst the Gunther’s have only one daughter. Each character is treated in full and shows the development of their separate and communal lives. It is a tale to show the possibilities of an approach to life on both sides of a major war.

Mike another look at Syb's new book

I really enjoyed reading Syb’s new book, it doesn’t have a title yet and is just about to go out to the beta readers. As usual it’s unlike any of the other books she’s written, she always seems to have a reason for writing a book and if you’ve read any of them you’d recognise the purpose of each. Inshallah was an attempt to explain Saudi family life at the time we were there written for expatriates putting forward the reason for their religious beliefs and they’re acceptance of them, Seducing Judy was to give an explanation of war damaged servicemen and so on.

The new book is an explanation of the domestic life of two families one English and one German and how World War 2 affected them. It includes service and family life during the conflict and their reaction to it. It does not take sides it has been carefully researched and as readers of this blog will know both Syb and myself experienced the war first hand though we were too young to appreciate its worse effects. It is set in a novel form; of love interests and in one case set across the divide of the warring parties how it happens would spoil the tale if I told you but it is quite plausible and held my interest. It is a book I will recommend when it has a name and is published an event which is not too far off.

Mike's view of the new book so far

Sybil’s new book about a family in the Second World War is coming on a treat. As is her usual way she portrays the good and bad in both sides in the establishment and the domestic strata. We found when we lived in Germany and it was not long after the war had finished that some of the German citizens feared their own establishment more than the official enemy. We also knew that in England that during the air raid when we were in shelters there were those who would burgle the empty houses.

There were rules that prevented married couples in the forces living together, in certain circumstances understandable (as in the new book) but never the less difficult. It really makes you wonder how divided couples succeeded when the war was over and they were reunited, maybe some of them never understood each other again. A life apart allows the opportunity to form new relationships and  endure different life changing experiences that makes a formally happy relationship impossible.

Pigs of World War 2

This was the official way to feed a pig!!

Rationing was pretty dire during  and for a time after the war, as a youngster I was unaware of a lot of it. Though I do remember that 64 Smarties was a weeks sweet ration but Horlicks and Ovaltine tablets weren’t subject to rationing so I always had a packet handy. The amount of butter I put on a slice of toast now a days would have been a weeks ration back then but I believe it is a fact that we were a lot healthier in those days.

Naturally as a family we had to eeck out our rations in any way we could and there was a strong black market for ration coupons for everything. One of the legal ways neighbours could help out the meat ration was to club together and buy a pig give it to a friendly farmer to look after and send all the scraps of food you had to feed it. Then in due course it would be slaughtered and divided up amongest all the contributors.

One of the good things about the war was it brought communities together, people were less selfish and helped each other. Sadly that state of affairs only lasted until Margret Thatcher brought in the monetarism.

Mike's wartime shelters

Apart from the strengthened cellar I mentioned earlier there were three other shelters I got to know well during and after the war.

The first was an Anderson shelter made out of corrugated iron and buried in the garden to about half its depth with an open doorway and a blast wall in front of it. As a young boy it was a great thing to play round, we made cardboard wings which strapped to our arms and tried to fly from the top of it. The only other thing I remember of it is that on the first raid we had after it was built my mother refused to enter it as there was a frog in it. While we kept the frog company Mum sat outside the entrance for the whole of the raid.

The second shelter was at Granny’s in Hastings it was known as a Morrison shelter and was inside the house consisting for all the world like a sheet steel dining table with strong wire netting on three sides. When the siren went off the family would climb into it. Granny’s maid and I would go up to a observation area she had on her roof and watch the flying bombs coming over mainly they flew past us on their way to London but occasionally when we heard a motor stop we would dash down stairs and dive in on top of the family.

Just after the war a few public shelters remained one I remember was in a park on my way home from school a heavy brick built affair that would have only protected you from a light attack. However it was open and it is where I learnt to smoke and at 9 years old I told my Mum I’d given up smoking!

Air Raid Precautions

 This week we bought four DVD’s of World War Two not news reels or documentaries  but film for the theatre made just after the war and based on war books written by or about RAF personnel to give me a flavour of the times. The films were the Battle of Britain, Dam Busters, 633 Squadron and Reach for the Sky. Together they give a very favourable picture of the war if you’re British however we know from our time in Germany the general population there had their troubles too. I hope to pick this up in the chapter I’m researching now as one of my characters has the miss fortune to be shot down. But I want to try to give both sides a fair showing, it wasn’t particularly easy for the average man and woman in the street to avoid being caught up in some of the desperate plans of the Nazi party not as participants but even as bystanders.

The research I have done so far has been fascinating in itself, war is a terrible thing for the people of all the involved countries and the way they faced it, to the solutions they found. The other night we watched Battle of Britain and in it the air raid siren gave the warning of attack, both Mike and I felt a cold deep disturbance in our stomachs it’s amazing after so many years it still haunts you.