Old Church Cemetery, Cobh, Ireland

June 3, 2012 Leave a comment

The Lusitania
On 7th May 1915 RMS Lusitania, inbound from New York, was nearing the end of its voyage. Aboard were 1,959 passengers and crew. Although Germany had declared the waters within the ‘War Zone’ it was understood that civilian shipping was not to be attacked.

Nonetheless, off the Old Head of Kinsale, one – perhaps two – torpedoes struck. Over 1,100 people, including over 100 children, went down with the ship. Most of the 764 survivors were landed and processed through Cobh (then Queenstown) where Cunard’s White Star Line offices were.

The incident was a contributing factor in the United States entering the war.

Jack Doyle
Doyle was born in Cobh in 1913, two years before the Lusitania went down. He joined the British Army and was soon excelling in boxing. He turned pro and won his first ten fights inside two rounds. He fought for the British heavyweight title but lost, allegedly having done his warming up in a nearby bar.

He discovered he had a further talent and his rich singing voice brought him stardom on stage and screen. He toured America, singing, boxing and living the high life. He returned to Ireland but descended into a circle of alcoholism and poverty, his friends by now deserting him. He died in London, penniless, in 1978.

If you trudge uphill past Cobh Cathedral you’ll find, a mile or so out, on the left, a quiet cemetery. It’s well-maintained for the most part, but the older section has been left to grow somewhat wild. There are few visitors – the occasional small group of tourists or maybe a school party.

Now, follow the path over to the left, the west. There you’ll find several grassy mounds beneath which lie the remains of 193 of the Lusitania victims. Downhill, and in a neat but ordinary plot lies Jack Doyle, the charismatic Cobh lad eventually brought down by alcohol.

Lusitania Memorial

Lusitania Memorial

Jack Doyle's grave

Jack Doyle’s grave

Filed under Ireland

Preview of ‘A Jersey Midsummer Tale’

June 2, 2012 Leave a comment

The final copy is with the printers and publication is imminent. You can now read the first chapter for free by simply clicking on the tab above ^^^.

Launch details follow, but contact me if you require further information.

Filed under Writing

An Instinct For Kindness – Chris Larner

May 26, 2012 Leave a comment

It’s difficult to know where to start reviewing Chris Larner and his one-man show. Even if it was crap (it wasn’t) how on earth can you type bad stuff about a bloke who has assisted his missus, Alison, to die? And in addition, puts it out there on stage, laid bare, for the public to see? So at least my honesty isn’t being tested.

Another sparse Arts Centre Friday evening audience. A chair the one and only prop. And you could hear a pin drop for 90 minutes as Larner told – no, acted – his story. And a gulp-inducing, tear-wrenching story it is. But, and astonishingly, it is mostly an easy watch as Larner finds, and mixes in, the comical and the absurd within the tragic storyline.

Larner’s wife contracts MS which eventually leaves her in constant pain and distress. All treatments and drugs, conventional and otherwise, have no lasting effect. She feels that she no longer wishes to continue and the couple contact the Swiss organisation Dignitas. For a price (and the price is within the reach of most) they will legally assist you to die.

Perhaps. It’s like snakes and ladders. If you’re just a bit fed up and depressed you don’t get to square one. Only if you’re really really sick do you get to advance a few squares to the first ladder. (Interestingly we hear that, in the UK anyway, suicide has been decriminalised but aiding and abetting suicide is still an offence. So try getting a notary public to give you an affidavit of domicile!) Only if you’re kosher and have exhausted all other avenues might you get to take that final journey to Zurich. Once there you undergo further assessments before you can proceed. The process itself is by lethal dose. Even as you approach this stage there are snakes to slide down, often through choice.

It is all handled with remarkable frankness by Larner. And he is not only a narrator but he acts out the part of his suffering wife with the conviction of having lived with her as she suffered. He also gives us a sense of the other characters involved. Of particular poignancy is the scene in which he comes across, near Dignitas HQ, a shed full of walking sticks, Zimmer frames etc. But on the other hand the humour continues to the end. As she awaits the final act Alison requests that Larner read her the end of a book she has been reading. He inadvertently reads the preview from the author’s next book to Alison’s bemusement who recognises none of the characters.

A straightforward portrayal of a difficult subject, born of experience. The pro-lifers and others will hate it but this play doesn’t preach, it just tells it as it was.

An emotional but excellent performance. Larner’s tour of the show continues and the website can be found at http://www.aifk.co.uk/

Filed under Theatre

Book update

May 23, 2012 Leave a comment

The last bits seem to take forever! I’ve just finished the very last proof read of A Jersey Midsummer Tale. I started writing this over two years ago now and the process of finishing the first draft and getting to this stage has taken far longer than I could have imagined.

It’s not as if there have been any major re-writes either. I’m not (yet) hooked to a publisher who will demand rewrites, and I think I’d hate that process. Anyway, there are parts that, in retrospect, I might have written differently – or not at all – but I suspect that few authors are 100% happy with their books. Just as every artist will be less than satisfied with every aspect of a portrait or landscape.

Anyway, I’m now thinking that book delivery will be nicely timed for Midsummer! Unlike Barry I’m going to try and flog a few of these. Waterstone’s will be stocking it for a start and I’ll actually try a bit of marketing.

You can find further details and the great cover image by clicking on the relevant tab above ^^^.

Barry is now available to download on the web, and I’ve still got a few traditional copies left. I’m pleased to say no one has pronounced it crap yet. There again people are very kind and may be sparing my feelings :-) Go to the tab above ^^^ to get a copy.

And Tess of Portelet Manor is taking shape nicely. Again this is a Jersey historical novel which follows the main female character from Part 1 of Midsummer through the pre-War years, the German Occupation and beyond. I love it so far, but finding time to devote to it is impossible. Roll on the two public holidays next month!

Filed under Writing

Hilsea (Portsmouth) bars – the definitive guide

May 14, 2012 1 Comment

I’ve not been to the Mountbatten Stadium in Portsmouth for the county athletics championships in some years now. What I do recall on each of these May occasions is inevitable drizzle and a wind whipping off the nearby tidal Fareham Lake. We used to huddle as a team up in the bowels of the stand until forced to descend to the track.

Not this year. The whole of the substantial group of athletes, coaches, parents and spectators were sprawled around the grass and the cycle track – proper athletics weather. You can read the athletics report here. But by the end of Day 1 I was sunburnt and as thirsty as a sponge. Having no manager or coach duties I was blissfully free to do as I wished. And what I wished was a decent pint.

It’s about a 25-minute walk from the stadium to Hilsea station and my train back to the hotel. Eight hours previously I’d taken note of The Green Posts, an establishment that promised good things within. There’s been a pub here for a couple of hundred years I believe and the ‘green posts’ in question are supposedly those things you tie your boat up against. Possibly, way back, this was coastal land. Whatever, I didn’t care about that. I looked for the Real Ale pumps – disaster! There was one but it was not in use – not a good sign. So a cold pint of Guinness and up onto a barstool.

A lively but good-humoured crowd were in, a few pints to the good most of them at this stage. Then it kicked off! Two combatants lurched my way bawling and shouting, fists flailing inaccurately. The man on the defence picked up a chair and tried to fend off the aggressor, lion-tamer style, all the while protesting his innocence. The combatants were separated at last, and led outside. Peace reigned. For a minute or two. Like extras in a Wild West saloon brawl they came roaring and hitting back in the door. I drank up, made my excuses and left. 

The Green Posts – Marks out of 10
Ambience 3
Décor 5
Beer selection 1
Service 4
Would you take your Mum 3
Total = 16/50

I thought that was it, Hilsea’s only bar. But happily, as my thirst still raged, I espied the Coach and Horses (rebuilt 1931) lurking just off my route. I looked in warily and, amazingly, it was nearly empty. It is something called a ‘flaming grill’ pub. Now I hate pubs that are restaurants in all but name. (The previous night was a perfect example – The Fleming Arms near Southampton Airport is almost overtly hostile to non-diners despite having a good range of ales.) At this early time in the evening though the place was quiet and, alleluia, they had Bombardier and Directors on tap. Very nice it was too. Without fear of getting a chair in my earhole I lingered over a couple before making my way happily back to the station.

The Coach & Horses
Ambience 6
Décor 7
Beer selection 6
Service 8
Would you take your Mum 10
Total = 37/50

Is that it for Hilsea? Let me know if I missed one.

Filed under Uncategorized

Clear the dance floor

April 28, 2012 Leave a comment

Gonna hear me some good music this year! A great start on 30th June/31stJuly with the Jersey Folklore Festival featuring Van Morrison, Joan Armatrading and Ray Davies. An eye-watering £105 for both days but you’d kick yourself were you to miss these legends.

Van the Man

I’ve just booked to see Ian Hunter and his Rant Band in Birmingham in October. Hunter was of course the front man for Mott The Hoople and he’s done some fabulous work in a long, solo career since.

Ian Hunter

I’m going to try and catch Carol Decker (T’Pau) and Richard Digance in the UK somewhere along the way this year as well. I’ve a fancy to attend the Cropredy Festival in August, the Fairport Convention celebration of folk music where Digance always has a spot. Trouble is I’m hardly festival material, preferring my comforts. We’ll see.

Richard Digance

You don’t get major bands in Jersey – the economics don’t permit it. One of the benefits of living in Dublin for a while was to be able to see The Eagles and Fleetwood Mac at a venue within walking distance.

But Jersey have hosted some good bands in the past. I suppose my favourite gig was Marillion at the Fort, performing their Misplaced Childhood album. The Dubliners, Steeleye Span, Tom Paxton. But generally promotors have caught too many colds by mis-reading the fast-changing trends in modern music and booking popular acts too late, once their star has fallen. 

You’ll never lose money promoting the legends though and the Warrens are doing brilliantly in presenting top acts at Jersey Live and now the Folklore.

Where are my beads and kaftan?

Filed under Music

Plus ca change

April 18, 2012 5 Comments

As I’ve mentioned more than once before Jersey seems to have acquired more than its fair share of grumblers. You hear them in the street, in the shops in the pubs. You read them in the JEP letters column, on online forums and in blogs. They moan about anything and everything and never care to consider that, for every negative there surely has to be a positive.

Red Cross Ship Vega

I’ve just discovered that this isn’t a new phenomenon. It’s taken me some time to read the extraordinary Jersey Occupation Diary by Nan Le Ruez but it contains some golden nuggets. Consider this one, for example. By the end of 1944 both occupied and occupiers were on the real verge of starvation, the food supply lines from France having been severed by the Allied forces in June of that year. Complete disaster was avoided when the Red Cross Ship Vega arrived from Lisbon. It contained a cardboard box full of goodies for each and every Islander with stuff like – soap, tea, chocolate, sugar, raisins, prunes, cheese, pepper & salt, Kam, corned beef, marmalade, Klim, sardines and salmon. Great, wasn’t it, for a population reduced to a diet of next to nothing? But what did some, at least, of the Jerseymen do? That’s right; they inspected each others boxes and grumbled that  their own box had no tea, for example :-) Maybe that’s where it all started.

Tin of Klim

Perhaps they were entitled to grumble a little later when another Red Cross ship brought much-needed medical supplies. The hungry Islanders watched slimming pills being unloaded (amongst other stuff, to be entirely fair).

Filed under Jersey local history

One Hundred Years Was Not That Long Ago

April 13, 2012 Leave a comment

Reblogged from Mae East:

Click to visit the original post
  • Click to visit the original post

As we approach the on 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, I think to myself how recent it was, but just how different life was; or was it?

My great-Grandmom was born in 1912, one month after the sinking and she only passed away two years ago.  Her little sister is still kickin’ at ninety-eight and there are several people alive today that are well over one hundred now. 

Read more… 724 more words

Here is a rare 're-blog' from a fellow blogger reflecting on the anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic - great stuff.

Filed under Uncategorized

Railway Plod

April 8, 2012 3 Comments

One of Jersey’s best and free amenities is the Railway Walk, which follows (strangely enough) the old line from St Aubin to Corbière. On high days and holidays it can be very busy with walkers, joggers and bikers, but not so much on a drizzly Sunday morning.

St Brelade's Parish Hall, formerly Terminus Hotel, St Aubin's Station

 

There’s always plenty of interest along its 3½ mile length, starting at St Aubin with the railway tunnel, now a home to a bike hire company. This was not a part of the original plan but it was decided to iron out the dodgy kink at the bottom of the hill by blasting a tunnel; those Victorian engineers just threw men and machinery at it and the tunnel was completed in 1898. Next to the tunnel entrance are the German tunnels where the bobsleigh team have a track to practise their push starts. 

It’s a steady climb from St Aubin to Les Quennevais. The first station on the line was originally Greenville, just past where the line passes over Mont Nicolle. That station was soon abandoned as it was little used, but also because of the time lost in getting up to speed again up the significant slope. Still plodding upwards, just across the main road was Pont Marquet station, with the station buildings where the little car park now is. Through Pont Marquet Country Park, excellently managed and the venue for the recent inter-insular cross country.

Site of Pont Marquet Station

 

General Don was better known as a road builder, transforming Jersey’s muddy lanes into proper tarmaced roads, the better to aid troop movements. He lived at Don Farm and soon we reach Don Bridge station which served the racecourse until the late 1950s. The course has since been replaced by Les Qunnevais Playing Fields. This morning there was a bike race in progress around the perimeter cycle track, the cyclists travelling anti-clockwise, the opposite direction to the horses of yesteryear.

Don Bridge

 

To the relief of the runner this marks the high point of the track. Now it’s down past Blanches Banques station (the platform remains clearly visible) which serviced the golf club but also the POW camp down on the dunes.

To the right there are a few morning golfers and the view opens up over the links to the misty dunes which sweep down to St Ouen’s Bay. Over a couple of roads to the penultimate station La Moye.  A little further onwards you’ll notice a fork off to the left. This was in fact the route of the original line, running off over to the quarries (which was the principle reason for the extension from St Aubin). For a while, until the quarry ceased operations, there was a junction here with a halt named Temporary.

At last one reaches Corbière, the end of the line. Here the platform and station building are still intact. The latter has been modernised at great expense and, the last I heard, it was still on the market, probably at a slightly less outrageous price than that first demanded.

Corbiere Station 1924

 

This renovation hasn’t gone down well with the locals and railway history buffs, but I think it’s a great example of preserving history within a modern framework.

Here as well is the ancient Table des Marthes and yet another German bunker right at the end of the line.

Former Corbiere Station 2012

 

Then the slog back up to Quennevais and I bravely resisted the temptation to stop for coffee as I picked up the pace (everything’s relative) on the drop back down to St Aubin. 7.36 miles and very enjoyable.

Filed under Jersey local history, Running

Novel Progressions

April 2, 2012 2 Comments

Well, my first novel Barry has had rave reviews – thank you Mum. No, but people have been very kind about it really. I got to work on it in earnest as a personal goal when I was going through tough times there in the early part of 2010. I’m pleased that I finished what I set out to accomplish.

When it came to putting the final product together I learnt that presentation has much to do with how a book is perceived. Chris Lake – who’s doing a lot of editing for me – pointed out (for example) that people don’t want to read paragraphs that are two pages long :-) Also, a well-designed cover and the professional impression that it gives are well worth having. You can still grab your free copy, just click on the Barry, the Novel tab above ^^^.

So what now? Well the next one’s due out very shortly! It’s entitled A Jersey Midsummer Tale . Part 1 is set in 1935 and Part 2 in the modern day, with little threads and arcs playing between the two parts. It took a bit of researching but I thoroughly enjoyed the writing process with this one. I think it’s good though I’m frustrated that I could have done better.

I should be looking at images for the cover rather than blogging, but really that will be it done and dusted. And this time I’ll try to sell a few though I’m still flying very much solo.

And there’s more! I’m 31,000 words – about 1/3 – through Tess of Portelet Manor. This is a sequel to Part 1 of Midsummer, picking up my main female character and following her through the thirties, the German occupation of Jersey and beyond. I’m already liking it a lot.

It’s a problem though finding time to write whilst holding down a 9 – 5.30 job. By the evening you’re mentally tired. I took a block of holiday recently to concentrate on it, and I’ll get a bit more done over Easter and the May public holidays. I’m really looking at the end of the year for a finish though.

And neither can I afford to go on self-publishing. I’m absolutely aware that few writers make money. You need to be both good and lucky, with lucky being the main ingredient. I’ve read stuff by well-known authors that I think anyone could knock out. But I think I should try to explore what possibilities there are.

So, what path do I take? Do I hawk my stuff around literary agents? I guess I could get steady sales in the local market for Midsummer and Tess but it is a small market.

Anyone out there in the blogosphere with any thoughts on this please comment away!

Filed under Writing

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