The Daughter of Sandstone Manor it's out and it's free on Kindle

Well the blog is early this week, why? To celebrate the launch of the book “The Daughter of Sandstone Manor” here’s the description

'The Daughter of Sandstone Manor is set in the 1700’s where smuggling and lewd behaviour was common practice.

Lady Isobel was witness to her father’s murder and threatened by the culprit, an event which led her to leave her family home and take a post as a servant in a hostelry under the assumed name of Jess Newman. The story is a tale of events in her young life from when the she arrives at the Inn and her father’s murderer Edward Grant finds her. Edward Grant wants her for his mistress but the information she has gathered on his future plans, he decides to rape and kill her. Her one saviour is Charles Blake a senior figure in the Riding Officers (later to become Coast Guards) a mystery man to all who frequented the Inn. Charles was a handsome young man and at first she held him in suspicion until gradually he proved himself to be a friend.

The book gives some insight to the life, romance, rape, murder and smuggling that went on in the 1700’s.'

The people who have read the manuscript seem to be captivated by the story and you can now try it too as it’s FREE on Kindle 1-5 July

You were right, how about this for the cover?

Those people who wrote in to tell me the picture I’d chosen for the cover of my new book “The Daughter of Sandstone Manor” seen on last week’s blog was an American scene. You’re right of course but it just seemed to have the impact I was looking for however I guess for a book about a Lady living in the south of England in the 18^th century it was a bit misleading.

Now hopefully the one heading this week will prove more appropriate and just as appealing, it is certainly in line with the story. So hoping for your approval I intend to use it. Currently the book is in its final proof reading and should be published in the next ten days, because it is set in the 1700s it has taken a little longer than usual as the facts have to be right as well as everything else. It is surprising how much research I’ve had to do into customs, language, dress, life style and manners, I have now amassed so much information on these I’m thinking of writing more books set in the same period.

The Daughter of Sandstone Manor

Whilst Mike has been recalling our memories of Saudi I have been hard at work on a new book set in the South of England in the 1700s. It has been a fastinating challenge learning the speech and idioms of the age as well as the dress and habits that were current at that time. In the novel the heroine experiences life all levels from Lady to skivvy my researches have had to be widely spread, in fact I learned so much about the age that I am tempted to look to that era as the setting for my next book. But that is jumping ahead I have to publish this one first.

I found it very heartening that my beta reader became so involved in the story that she missed some areas of needed correction towards the end of the book, but I always read a new manuscript many times refining it so they did not escape the needed alterations. The story covers a lot of the trauma experienced by the heroine including rape, threats, kindness and finally love, she experienced life in exalted circles and at the lowest as a servant.

I really enjoyed writing this book which I feel is amongst my best, as a taster I am including the cover picture for your approval.

Mike's Saudi (45) The end

Life was pretty good now, the boss and I became friends and we seem to work well together for about a year then disaster came from an unexpected source. As part of my job I had had a telephone installed in the villa so that I was on call. Naturally we gave the number to our family in the UK. You may recall that Karen my daughter had been repatriated when she was 18 (Saudi law) and had settled down with Syb’s parents in Eastbourne.

However she was having a rough time so much so that I was afraid that she might take her own life. She would phone us maybe once a week in tears her troubles seemed to be growing, Syb and I believed she needed our support permanently. There was nothing to do but go home and help her, so with regret I handed my notice in. First I told my boss who came up with all sorts of alternatives including a 6 month sabbatical, very tempting but I knew if we were to support Karen it had to be permanent or we would be going through the same scenario on our return. So just before Christmas 1983 we came home to our little house in the Lake District. Now it is 2015 now and we still talk about our time in Saudi as though it was yesterday.

Mike's Saudi (44) My last job

My area of operation was the Base Training Office which had mainly offices, meeting rooms and a coffee bar. The other area I frequented was the Audio Visual Section a large building containing a TV studio, a photographic studio, darkrooms, digital manipulation facilities and offices. I also attended many meetings with the boss there was one I particularly remember at the conference room in the Maintance building. The boss like many service personnel in all countries was always planning for his release and retirement. At the meeting he was working out what his pension would be at various departure dates while the meeting was in progress; it had turned to a bid by the senior maintance officer for control of the AV Section. The boss was so busy with his pension that I said to him “Sir you’re about to lose the TV Studios if you’re not careful”. He lifted his head as though he’d been following the meeting “I’m sorry gentlemen but I’ll have to leave the meeting now as I have another appointment” Craftily he knew that without him nothing could be done and the maintenance case would fail. But it was why I went with him, we seem to work well together. It is doubtful that the AV Section would ever be controlled by maintenance as it was dedicated to producing training aids and therefore in the contract it was part of training.

Barney was the head of training on one of the American contracts and had an office in the Section, he was an Irish American and used to wear a bright green suit on St. Patrick’s Day. He was a big guy very friendly in a brash sort of way he was a keen amateur photographer so we got along fine. It was one of my duties to write the minutes of the weekly training meeting and to help I used to record the meeting as so much was said in a short space of time and I have no shorthand. Also there were one or two section heads who used to attend the meetings who used to say things to impress without thinking about the implications. I would write their comments in the minutes verbatim and read them out at the next meeting, they of course would swear they had never said it and that’s where the tape recorder came in. Soon we had a more truthful report and I used the tape recorder less. Sometimes I would have a word with Barney to save some ones face, in the end it all worked pretty well.

Mike's Saudi (43) Back to work in Saudi

Our holiday over it was back to work and get to know my new boss. In my new post I had a new large office and two Pakistanis to work with, they were great lads once we got to know each other we worked well as a team. In fact at one time three of us talked about setting up a secretarial agency in Karachi when we left Saudi. Apparently much of the official documentation in Pakistan was in English and most of the population needed well written letters in English, we thought it would be quite a good market and pretty close to what we were doing for the boss. The way things have worked out over there I’m pleased it got no further than talking about it.

Our job was to support the boss in whatever way he wanted, his written English wasn’t so good at the time so I would compose his letters for him and the boys would type them. Then I’d explain the content to him and he would alter it to say precisely what he wanted to say as time went by I got to know him so well that there were fewer and fewer alterations but I always checked with him. This new job of mine was not a BAC contractually recognized position but we called me an advisor which in fact I was and the actual work developed as his trust grew.

One day quite unannounced a couple of large cabinets with keyboards and TV screens built into them. These were word processors of a very early type. Soon we got down to learning how to use them, they were ingenious contraptions that would work in English or Arabic which when you think about it is very clever as English reads left to right and Arabic right to left. Of course they did not translate it was one or the other at the flick of a switch. One day two Saudi girls showed up and offered the boss 10,000 riyals for one of the machines to help them with their school homework. However they believed that the word processors translated, but it just shows what country of contrasts Saudi was at the time when school girls could stump up 10,000 riyal for a machine to help them with their schooling. (Riyals were 7=£1 or $2)

Mike's Saudi (42) The end of the holiday

We took Mansour and Fateeha up on the South Downs, a rolling set of hill ending in cliffs falling to the sea. It is common land covered with short grass and now a national park popular with holiday makers and locals alike. Naturally there was the ice cream van selling that soft ice cream they squeeze out of a machine and stick a chocolate flake bar into it. Fateeha had never come across this sort before and fell in love with it, this entailed us visiting the area on several more occasions. Mansour asked if there were any pubs like the one we visited in the Lakes, there was one we knew of in a little village at the back of the downs. It had a history of smugglers and ship wreckers and was off the beaten track. We were mistaken it might have been off the beaten track but it was heaving with people Mansour and I went in to get the drinks while Syb ad Fateeha sat outside where it was still crowded but less so. In side we had to fight to get to the bar with the crowd unavoidably pushing us from all sides, Mansour looked distressed and I can’t say I was particularly happy, we looked at each other and left. It was not what we had in mind and in marked contrast to that wonderful evening in the Lakes.

Syb’s Mum lived in a semidetached house in a typical suburban street. It had a long narrow garden as had the neighbours with low fences and plants of various sorts dividing them. The sun was shining so we went out on to the lawn at the back, as soon as the neighbours saw Mansour and Fateeha they lifted their noses and went inside. It was an unfriendly action typical of suburban families at that time, it was also something that Syb’s Mum was to berate them for later. She had really fallen for these gentle Arabs on their side neither Mansour nor Fateeha could reconcile the way Syb’s Mum and elderly people in general lived on their own, it was totally against their belief. The elderly members of the family should be looked after and their experiences learned from, they were treasures to be valued. We could only say that she liked her independence and we could not be in Saudi if we had to stay in England to look after her. Fortunately Karen called in to see her nearly every day now she as she lived close by. It did however trouble us for some time and Mansour often referred to it when we were back in Saudi.

As I remember it we seem to spend our time with Karen, visiting cafes, walking on the Downs, generally relaxing and avoiding her boyfriend. But soon the time had come for our friends to move on to France so we took them to Heathrow and wished them a safe holiday, saying we would see them back a Dahran. The rest of our holiday we spent with our daughter.