Today I want to give a mention to Story of Mum a wonderful website which is the brain child of Pippa and Penny Best and many mothers. This is a place for mothers to be creative (even if you only have five minutes) and to share their stories, support each other and to have fun.…
What I live for – poetry
Today I’m taking part in ‘What I Live For’, an online event organised by author Satya Robyn. People like me all over the world will be sharing what gives their lives meaning. In Satya Robyn’s novel ‘Thaw’, Ruth gives herself three months to decide whether she can find a reason to carry on living. There’s…
Lieutenant Commander Roger Percival Hill, DSO, DSC – 22 June 1910 – 5 May 2001
I could simply suggest that in order to find out about Roger Hill you go away and read Destroyer Captain: memoirs of the war at sea 1942-45. This covers his time in command of the destroyers Ledbury, Greville and Jervis and he says in the introduction “As far as I know, and memory can play…
Convoy
Officially today was the day of publication for Convoy and so the book is going out into the world on a tide of good will. It and I have our supporters and cheerleaders and I’m particularly grateful to Jan Fortune of Cinnamon Press who believed in the book from its earliest stages I am mindful…
Thomas Francis Neil, DFC*, AFC, AE
Tom Neil had already fought in the Battle of Britain when he was posted to Malta in the summer of 1941. He is well known for his books on his wartime experiences; Gun Button to Fire, Onward to Malta, Questions of Guilt (short stories), Flight into Darkness (short stories). His most recent book is Silver…
Poetry and Perfume
I thought I’d give a mention to the series of posts on Jehanne Dubrow’s blog about poems and fragrance. Each one is a meditation on scent accompanied by an appropriate poem. You can almost smell the perfume – a kind of scratch and sniff effect and the poems have included one of my favourite’s – Mark…
Captain Thomas Sydney Horn, Merchant Seaman, OBE, 5 May 1899 – June 1971
A brief word of explanation about these biographical sketches. These will mostly be about the things I found out about these men for which there wasn’t room in Convoy. They do all feature in the poems but there is so much more to tell about their lives. Each one of them could do with a…
World Poetry Giveaway
Well as it turns out that today is World Water Day I’m going to continue accepting entries for the giveaway for A Handful of Water for a little longer. You have until midnight on Sunday (UK Time) to leave a comment saying why you’d like to read it.
World Poetry Day Giveaway
I’m giving away a copy of Rebecca Gethin’s A Handful of Water in celebration of today. Just leave a comment saying why you’d like to read it.
Percy Belgrave “Laddie” Lucas, RAF Pilot, CBE, DSO and Bar, DFC, (2 September 1915 – 20 March 1998)
Laddie Lucas lived a full life, as a champion golfer, an MP, a businessman and a writer as his volumes of autobiography attest. However I am principally concerned in this post with the time he spent on Malta during 1942 as an RAF pilot and from June as squadron leader with 249 squadron. Laddie arrived…