Statistics of crime

It would be a crime to miss Spanish Eye, released by Crooked Cat Publishing, which is available as a paperback for £4.99 or $6.99 and much less for the e-book versions – UK or COM.

What are the statistics?

175 pages

22 cases ‘in Leon Cazador’s own words’

6 five-star reviews

1 four-star review

4 countries – source of reviews

1 extra Leon Cazador story, ‘Processionary Penitents’ available for free when you download the e-book Crooked Cats’ Tales (20 tales from Crooked Cat authors) here or here/COM

2 hand-guns of choice - Colt Officer’s ACP LW automatic and the Astra A-100.

1940 – a night of terror in ‘Grave Concerns’

1307 – when the Templars’ horde was hidden… - in ‘Relic Hunters’

1 pea in ‘Fair Cop’ where Nobody beats the shell man…

1989 – the repercussions of Tiananmen Square in Beijing in ‘Dragon Lady’

1988 – a favour to a Japanese Yakusa that implodes in the present – ‘Duty Bound’

1 pigeon – chased by about seventy – ‘Pigeon-Hearted’

1 inn – where old enmities may be interred – ‘Inn Time’

1 missing person in a city of over 100,000 in ‘Gone Missing’.

***

Here are sample reviews found on Amazon COM and Amazon UK for Spanish Eye.  
[The italics are mine].

E. B. Sullivan (California)
Spanish Eye is a fabulous read. In his crisp depiction of Leon Cazador, Nik Morton paints a portrait of everyone's hero. This cross-cultural character is dashing, daring, and delightful. He does whatever it takes to make good triumph over evil. While reading these twenty-one exciting stories I experienced myriad emotions. I laughed, cried, and became incensed. I cheered and clapped, but most of all I felt a confirmation of universal values.

D. Thorne (Bartlett, TN United States)
… His voice is so unique, and his stories are as thought provoking as they are entertaining. There are beautiful moments in the prose that never get purple or fluffy. He masters the art of taking an adventure and condensing it into short shots. If you enjoy short stories, you'll love this collection featuring the same character and exotic settings. I am a total Morton fan now and waiting anxiously for his next release!

Kay Lesley Reeves (Spain)
As an ex-pat living on the Costa Blanca, I found much that was familiar combined with an insight into a very different and darker side of Spanish life. The colourful characters and intriguing twists made these stories a really enjoyable read and one I would really recommend.

Laura Graham, actress, author (Sinalunga, Italy)

Spanish Eye is a collection of short stories set in the heat and the dust of Spain. Our courageous private eye, Leon Cazador, half-English, half-Spanish, and sometimes disguised as Carlos Ortiz Santos, guides us through the action. These stories are humorous, insightful and sometimes tragic. Leon Cazador is not afraid to bring the bad men to justice, and so help to restore the balance in this world. Beautifully written, with a simple and uncluttered style, which draws you in to the heart of the story. Highly recommended!

George R. Johnson (Eden, NC, USA)

This book comprise some of the cases of Leon Cazador, a half-Spanish, half-English private eye working in Spain. The tales run the gamut of the usual crime stories (con men, kidnappings, car theft ring, crooked politicians) and the odd stuff (smuggling, both exotic animals and illegal aliens, terrorists). All fun stories, a bit of humour here and there, others deadly serious. One story had me grinning at the beginning, but sobering quickly as the end approached. Worth a look if you like private eyes. Or if you don't. Leon Cazador is not your typical P.I.
 
Jane Bwye, UK
Stories to keep you wanting more ... and more. Tales of reminiscence by a sleuth in sunny Spain which ensure you keep your eyes open until you've reached the end of one in time to let your head fall on the pillow - until morning. Thank you, Nik, for making my nights unbroken and worth waiting for.

SPANISH EYE by Nik Morton

 

 

Through the eyes of Leon Cazador, half-English, half-Spanish private investigator, we experience the human condition in many guises.

This collection covers twenty two cases, some insightful, some humorous, and some tragic. The tales evoke tears and laughter, pleasure at the downfall of criminals, and anger at arrogant evil-doers.

Sometimes, Cazador operates in disguise under several aliases, among them Carlos Ortiz Santos, a modern day Simon Templar; he is wholly against the ungodly and tries to hold back the encroaching night of unreason. Cazador translated into English means hunter. In his adventurous life he has witnessed many travesties of justice; he is a man driven to hunt down felons of all kinds, to redress the balance of good against evil.

Leon Cazador fights injustice in all its forms and often metes out his own rough justice. It’s what he does.

A Leon Cazador novel is planned…

 

Coming on 20 May - Sudden Vengeance

 

 

'Vigilante justice is good justice!'

 

 

Three years gone

March 11 was the third anniversary of the 8.9 magnitude Great East Japan Earthquake that killed almost 16,000 people and devastated whole cities.

Like a number of writers, I wanted to do something to contribute to the aid, even if only in some small way. My publisher Solstice agreed to publish a book of my short stories, and all my royalties would go towards the survivors’ fund. The book of sixteen prize-winning stories was When the Flowers are in Bloom.  It was published on May 4 and gained a modicum of publicity, but the sales never really took off.

 

A mere week later, May 11, Lorca in Spain – not far from where I live – suffered an earthquake. The death and destruction were not on the same scale – nine dead, dozens injured.

I don’t know why the sales of the book have been low. It’s possible that in people’s minds the earthquake nearer to home overshadowed the Japanese event.

The beginning of 2011 was still deep in the recession; perhaps people were watching their pennies and cents.

I don’t think it can be the cost: on the UK Amazon site the paperback is only £3.75; on the Com site the paperback is $5.69 (e-book $3.67).

Perhaps people thought the book was an opportunist exercise and wanted no part of it. Fair enough. (On the back pages four other Solstice books by other authors were promoted, not just my work). This wasn’t the first or only book to come out to gain financial aid for charitable purposes; it won’t be the last, in all probability.

Maybe the sale of books of short stories doesn’t capture the public imagination? That may be true for print books, but sales of e-reader short stories tend to give the lie to that old chestnut.

***

As I stated in the front of the book:
‘This work is dedicated to the people of Japan, of all nationalities. Through their continued fortitude and hard work, may they overcome the horrendous tragedy and destruction thrust upon them by earthquake and tsunami March 11, 2011.

This collection © 2011 Nik Morton.

‘When the flowers are in bloom’ © 2007 published in Torrevieja, Another Look III.
‘The Busker of Torrevieja’ © 2007 published in Torrevieja, Another Look III.
‘Duty Bound’ © 2007 published in The Coastal Press.
‘Grave Concerns’ © 2007 published in The Coastal Press.
‘An Act of Witness’© 2009 published in The Costa TV Times.
‘Codename Gaby’ © 2010 published in the Bookawards website.
‘The Proper thing to do’ © 2010 published in The Costa TV Times.
‘One Day, We’ll Walk Through’ © 2004 published in The Costa Blanca News.
‘Always the innocent’ © 2010 published in The New Coastal Press.
‘Nourish a blind life’ © 2009 published in The New Coastal Press.
‘A Reed Shaken by the Wind’ © 2010 published in The New Coastal Press.
‘I Celebrate Myself’ © 2009 published in The Beat to a Pulp webzine.
‘A Gigantic Leap’ © 2009 published in Midnight Street.
‘The Geordie Flier’ © 2009 published in Costa TV Times
‘Hammer and Honey’ © 2007 published in The Coastal Press
‘The Trilby Hat’ © 2003 published in The Portsmouth Post
 
It’s quite rare for short stories to pick up any kind of review. The following appear to be exceptions:

Nik Morton is a pulp master of extraordinary originality.  – David Cranmer, Editor, Beat to a Pulp

 
An Act of Witness. It has character, action, and that extra dimension which brought a familiar theme up to date, showing what can be done within the limitations of a 1,000 word story. – David Campton, Playwright.
 
Nourish a blind life
I read a lot and like to think that I’m fairly hardened to the human experience. Your story, however, moved me enormously. With a powerful understanding you avoided any mawkish melodrama. The ending, although sad, gave satisfaction knowing the narrator was soon to be free! Thank you.' – Eve Blizzard, dramatist and author, competition judge
 
Codename Gaby
It is a tale of betrayal and extreme courage in the face of overwhelming adversity, written with great insight and sensitivity. The emotional conclusion is well crafted, leaving the reader bruised but relieved, just as it should for such an intense period of wartime history. – Award Organiser’s comments
 
This short story captures suspense, drama and wonderful character depiction. In less than 2,500 words, we know and relate to our heroine, the period and her situation. The story is complete and compelling. It is a remarkable achievement and demonstrates this author’s outstanding writing skills. – Kate Cavendish, Book Awards reviewer
 
Foreword
Reading about the cataclysmic devastation that hit Japan in March, I was greatly moved by the attitude of the survivors. People of all ages went out of their way to help each other. Looting seemed a rare event. There was a determination to overcome this terrible adversity. Lives and towns would be rebuilt, eventually, even if it would take years. The people would endure.

It is this theme, the strength of the human spirit that I have attempted to capture over the years in many of my short stories. Some of these tales may seem sad or traumatic but, despite that, I trust that hope, love, honour and integrity shine through, transcending the blight of evildoers, disability and natural disaster.

 
As writers, we strive to walk in the shoes of our characters. Fiction writers lie in order to grasp the truth. In some small way, I hope these stories reveal truths about the human condition.

Thank you for purchasing this book.’

 

***

The contract for When the Flowers are in Bloom expires on 4 May 2014. It will then be out of print; maybe it will become a collectors’ item, maybe not.

Anyway, this was a final push in the hope of accruing further sales. In May I shall then pass on the royalties, as promised.

5 May 2014 - Sorry, these stories are no longer available in this format.

 

Not lost in translation – 2 – other languages

An earlier FaceBook discussion about the paucity of foreign language books translated into English prompted me to check out my own library.  Below are two images of a quarter of the library. The other shelves are elsewhere… These books here are in the main fiction, with some reference and art books and Jen’s Spanish tomes. I must admit that the majority of translated works on the shelves are not modern authors, after all, and some I have yet to read (among several hundred others!)

Previously, I looked at the German and French translations on my shelves. Here, there’s the Spanish, Russian, Czech, Chinese, Norwegian, Swedish, Egyptian and Japanese!

Here you’ll find Chekhov (his short stories fill several volumes), Kafka – perhaps the most popular non-English, non-German or non-French novelists translated. Also, Lampedusa's The Leopard and Kazantzakis’ Zorba the Greek.

Others are, in no particular order:

The classic Tirant Lo Blanc by Martorell and de Galba was originally published in Catalan in 1490. Begun by a Valencian knight, Joanot Martorell, it was completed after his death by another knight, Marti Joan  de Galba. Cervantes called the book ‘the best book of its kind in the world’ and was naturally influenced by it for his ‘knight of the woeful countenance, Quixote’ in 1605. My copy is dated 1984, the first non-Hispanic translation. Its 600+ pages mixes genres, reveals chivalric encounters and erotic dalliance in an admittedly dated style. If you enjoyed Don Quixote, you’ll love Tirant Lo Blanc.

I bought La Regenta by Leopoldo Alas for Jen just after it first came out in translation in 1984. First published in 1885, it was attacked by critics as an ‘obscene religious monstrosity.’ Its subject is a shabby provincial Spanish town and a woman’s unsuccessful, even disastrous quest for fulfilment through marriage, adultery and religion. Over 700 pages. Alas, Alas gained little success with his writing in his short lifetime; he died aged 49, though his book The Judge’s Wife (La Regenta) is now considered one of the outstanding works of Spanish literature.

The Swede, Steig Larsson’s Millenium Trilogy which has had phenomenal success, even though the beginning of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is not promising ‘tell’ rather than ‘show’.

Nobel Prize winner Colombian Gabriel García Márquez’ One Hundred Years of Solitude is his most famous – I highlighted the number of times ‘solitude’ figured in the text, and it was a lot. His novel Autumn of the Patriarch consisted of three paragraphs! His collection of short stories, Strange Pilgrims features ‘The Saint’ which was movingly filmed by him as The Miracle in Rome.

Sticking with Nobel prize-winners in a foreign language, there’s Norwegian Knut Hamsun – Picador published many of his books, including Hunger, Growth of the Soil and Victoria. He employs humour and irony and reveals everyday life, often using flashbacks and stream of consciousness. Isaac Beshevis Singer says that the whole modern school of fiction in the twentieth century stems from Hamsun. Ernest Hemingway stated that “Hamsun taught me to write.”

And there’s the Egyptian Naguib Mahfouz, whose Cairo Trilogy is beautifully rendered – Palace Walk, Palace of Desire and Sugar Street; revealing a Cairo unrecognisable today.

 

Pushkin’s verse novel Eugene Onegin was published in 1831, six years before he received a mortal wound in a duel, aged 37. The translation of poetry is fraught with problems, particularly if there is any rhyme in the original. My 1977 translation by Sir Charles Johnson owes a debt to the Vladamir Nabokov translation and commentary ‘to produce a reasonably accurate rhyming version.’

‘She’s in the wood, the bear still trails her.

There’s powdery snow up to her knees;
now a protruding branch assails her
and clasps her neck; and now she sees…’ – Chapter 5, verse XIV
 
Arturo Pérez-Reverte hit it big with his first novel The Fencing Master and has become one of Spain’s best-selling authors. His book The Seville Communion is about a hacker who gets into the Pope’s personal computer to leave a warning about mysterious deaths in Seville… His other books include The Flanders Panel, The Ninth Gate and The Dumas Club.

Another modern Spaniard is Ildefonso Falcones. His book The Hand of Fatima (2010) is a 960 page epic set in the Kingdom of Granada in the 1500s, blood-letting between Christian and Moor.

And one of the biggest sellers recently is Carlos Ruiz Zafón with his The Shadow of the Wind. What a concept, the ‘Cemetery of Forgotten Books’, a labyrinthine library of obscure and forgotten titles. Young Daniel chooses the book of the title and his future life is influenced by his obsession with its author; magic, murder and madness in Barcelona.

 
Isabel Allende is quite prolific, delving into magic realism and Young Adult fiction. My copy of Zorro is an excellent story of adventure that honours the original by Johnston McCulley. She came to prominence with The House of the Spirits.

The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu, is an 11^th century Japanese romance in 1090 pages, describing the court of Heian Japan. Some mystery surrounds the original author, though scholars believe it to be Murasaki; this is not helped by the fact that in Heian Japan it was bad manners to record the names of wellborn ladies, except, oddly, imperial consorts and princesses of the blood. Her sobriquet Shikibu stems from an office held by her father. My paperback edition is adorned with illustrations from woodcuts taken from a 1650 Japanese edition.

 

Professor Josef Skvorecky emigrated to Canada after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. His book The Bass Saxophone is two novellas about life under totalitarian rule, evoking jazz as a voice of freedom and individuality. His magnum Opus is The Engineer of Human Souls (1977, translated 1985), relating youthful romance, attempted sabotage of a German-run factory, the underground literary life under Communism, not forgetting the saxophone and jazz… In some ways it is reminiscent of Jaroslav Hasek’s The Good Soldier Svejk, the annoying little sergeant who bucked authority and was a role model for many Czechs who hated their Soviet oppressors. I read Svejk for research for my (now out of print) book The Prague Manuscript:

As he stood watching them vanish into the forest, Janek was torn in two. He ached to go with them ... He wanted to escape ... But he must think of Janna. She was so close to her parents, she wouldn’t want to jeopardize their lives by running off. So he had lied: he would not go out the next time; in fact, never as long as Janna’s ailing parents lived, never as long as the possibilities of reprisals existed. They all remembered the massacre at Lidice too well.

            In May 1942 Hitler’s butcher, Reinhard Heydrich, was assassinated by the Czech patriots Jan Kubis and Josef Gabchik near Prague. In what seemed like a random reprisal, the village of Lidice, some eighteen kilometers northwest of Prague, was chosen and, on a day in June, all its men were shot, all the women and older children shipped to the Ravensbrück concentration camp, while the younger children were farmed out to German foster homes. The village was burned and bulldozed so that no trace remained. The arrogant SS filmed all of it.

            Janek’s rage turned in on itself. He had to direct it at something, someone. He checked his machine carbine and deliberately strode over to the cellar door.

            He stood there, his legs unsteady, as if he was on the edge of a precipice. An inner part of his mind warned him. Killing in cold blood was not their way. They weren’t butchers like Heydrich; they must fight repression with non-violence. They must create confusion and strife amongst the Soviet occupying forces. In the true Svejkian manner!

            The Czech writer Jaroslav Hasek’s character, The Good Soldier Svejk had been adopted during the war – and again at the time of the Soviet invasion. Svejk, the little fellow, fighting authority, by following orders verbatim, reducing bureaucrats and politicians to absurdity. “Svejkovina,” Janek whispered to himself: the way Svejk does it.

*

Chinese author Ye Zhaoyan wrote Nanjing 1937 in 1996 and it was translated in 2002. It’s a love story overshadowed by the infamous Japanese invasion. An epic of modern Chinese literature. This terrible event will have some pertinence in one of my upcoming novels.

 

Alexander Zinoviev’s Yawning Heights (1976) is a satire on Soviet Russia. The translator’s comments suggest I should cut down on my puns if I ever want to be translated: ‘To render a pun from one language to another in such a way that both the meaning and the joke are conveyed is one of the hardest tasks an author can set his translator.’ The book’s title is a pun against the Soviet jargon – the Russian ‘yawning’ as in boring, rather than ‘radiant’ as used by Soviet speechmakers. Zinoviev uses a fictitious place, Ibansk. ‘The Ibanskians do not live, but carry out epoch-making experiments.’

So, even taking a look at my limited book collection, there is a wide variety and richness of fiction being translated into English. Admittedly, there are probably never enough of the new authors, though best-sellers in any country do tend to get translated.

Another later blog will look at Modern World Literature.

Noises off!

Spanish Eye contains 22 cases from Leon Cazador, half-English, half-Spanish private eye.  It was released on 29 November, from Crooked Cat Publishing.

The vast majority of these cases are based on true events…  The short story ‘Big Noise’ was first published in magazine format in 2008: here is a very brief excerpt:

 

Big Noise

“What kind of surprise have you got for me?”

 

“You’ve come to the right person, Mr. Santos!” Darren Atkins said, speaking louder than was necessary in the tapas bar that overlooked the Plaza Mayor. “My product is the best on Spain’s south coast, take my word for it! I’m the big noise around here!”

Every sentence tended to end with an exclamation. This self-styled important person was big in other respects as well. Even when I use my real name, Leon Cazador, rather than my undercover alias of Carlos Santos, I stand six feet high in my open-toed sandals; yet Atkins was a couple of inches taller than me. His Hawaiian-style short-sleeved shirt bulged due to his big muscles and shoulders. Because he had shaved his head, his big ears appeared more prominent and tended to press forward like little radar. I wondered if that feature prompted him to go into the acoustics business.

Well, I said it was brief…

From time to time news reports echo the Cazador tales, and this is but one of them, from the Costa Blanca News of August 30, 2013:

 

To find out why Cazador is undercover and what happens next, please read the book.

Another snippet from the same story, about noise:

Spain is the second noisiest country in the world and Madrid has been branded the most noise-polluted city in Europe. It’s a pity, as our capital is an attractive thriving city, a place where I enjoy staying, even if it has to suffer all those politicians, many of whom haven’t yet quite grasped the concept of democracy. Like all the great cities, Madrid has its parks, places to walk and take in the fresh air and get de-stressed. William Pitt the Elder said of London’s parks that they were ‘the lungs of London’ and I believe that’s true of all city parks, which enable us to breathe fresh air, isolating us from the stress and noise of the street and office.

Paperback post-free worldwide from here

UK Kindle from here

Kindle via Amazon com from here

 

Torn from today’s newspapers – the scum of the earth (1)

There are several groups of individuals who deserve the epithet ‘the scum of the earth’, but today we’ll look at those termed ivory poachers. ‘Poacher’ seems too tame a word for these people. Slaughterers, murderers, maybe?

A few days ago it was reported that these scum have reached a new low, by poisoning with cyanide vital drinking and bathing pools, killing more than eighty elephants. (BBC, Daily Mail et al). This happened in Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park in July. Police say the poachers mixed a cocktail of cyanide and salt and water and poured it on to a number of salt licks – exposed deposits of minerals that the elephants use to get essential nutrients. Police found the mutilated bodies of elephants strewn around; some of the smaller elephants still had tusks, their size doubtless not worth taking. Poachers may get about £50 for each large tusk. Since discovering the carcasses, the police and rangers have searched nearby villages and recovered about twenty tusks, cyanide and wire snares. Nine alleged poachers were arrested and a South African businessman has been accused of being behind the poisonings.

Zimbabwe’s environment minister says ‘We are declaring war on the poachers… because our wildlife, including the elephants they are killing, are part of the natural resources and wealth that we want to benefit the people of Zimbabwe.’ (Here is not the place to examine where all the country’s riches have gone, Zimbabwe once being the continent’s bread basket and now just a basket case...)

Needless to say, a wide range of other animal carcasses were found near the contaminated watering holes – buffalo, lions, vultures, antelopes and jackals. Doubtless these despicable people are responsible for killing many more, since birds and animals will have fed on the poisoned carcasses.

In January 2012 a hundred raiders on horseback charged out of Chad into Cameroon’s national park and, carrying AK47s and rocket-propelled grenades, slaughtered hundreds of elephants in one of the worst acts since a global ivory trade ban was adopted in 1989. Twenty-five thousand elephants were killed illegally in 2011.  Ten Asian countries with the most ivory seized: India, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand and China. Seizure of tusks is too late, of course: the animals are dead. Action is needed at the sharp end. And, to be fair, it is robust, but the numbers of poachers are great. In the first half of 2012, for example, six park rangers died protecting Kenya’s elephants, while the rangers killed 23 poachers.

China accounts for 4o% of the world’s trade in elephant tusks.

Some official ivory carvers in China tender the lie that they only use tusks from elephants that died of natural causes, or those acquired before the ban.  Swindlers use tea or Coca-Cola to stain ivory to give it an antique appearance.

CITES – the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species – has its work cut out, not only with regard to elephants, but also the rhino and tigers, among other at risk species.

For our ivory wedding anniversary, I drew this picture. The ivory looks best decorating the elephant.

At least in fiction, some of the bad guys can get their comeuppance!

BLOOD OF THE DRAGON TREES

Amazon.co.uk - http://goo.gl/fsLk3X

Amazon.com - http://goo.gl/wHQpQp

Laura Reid likes her new job on Tenerife, teaching the Spanish twins Maria and Ricardo Chávez. She certainly doesn’t want to get involved with Andrew Kirby and his pal, Jalbala Emcheta, who work for CITES, tracking down illegal traders in endangered species. Yet she’s undeniably drawn to Andrew, which is complicated, as she’s also attracted to Felipe, the brother of her widower host, Don Alonso.

            Felipe’s girlfriend Lola is jealous and Laura is forced to take sides – risking her own life – as she and Andrew uncover the criminal network that not only deals in the products from endangered species, but also thrives on people trafficking. The pair are aided by two Spanish lawmen, Lieutenant Vargas of the Guardia Civil and Ruben Salazar, Inspector Jefe del Grupo de Homicidios de las Canarias.
            Very soon betrayal and mortal danger lurk in the shadows, along with the dark deeds of kidnapping and clandestine scuba diving…

Make a Date

Some time ago I published a regular monthly column linking a set selection of dates in history. The series was popular. I'm busy coordinating the articles into book form. As today is 24 September, here are a number of linked events for that date plus three other September dates. To avoid repetition, I've simply indicated the relevant date in brackets. The four dates for this article are:

 

2, 13, 24 and 28 September

Being late to adopt fresh ideas isn’t new for the UK. Long before the Euro there was the Gregorian Calendar, which we adopted in 1752, nearly two hundred years later than most of western Europe (2).

That great European and Roman, Pompey the Great was assassinated in 48BC on the orders of King Ptolemy of Egypt (28). In 1898 British and Egyptian troops led by Kitchener defeated Khalifa Abdulla al-Taashi’s Sudanese tribesmen (2), which resulted in British dominance in the Sudan for many years. Twenty-six days later in 1396 the Ottoman Emperor Byazid I defeated a Christian army at Nicopolis (28). And on the same day in 1970 Egypt’s first president Gamal Abdal Nasser died, thirty years and fifteen days after Italy’s Mussolini invaded Egypt.

 

Another notable invasion was William the Conqueror’s, in 1066 and all that (28). Since then the British Isles haven’t been successfully invaded, though a few battles have inevitably been lost – such as the airborne’s defeat at Arnhem in 1944 which happened to be on the same day too.

As the Second World War lasted six years, it’s logical there’ll be many note-worthy days in that conflict. Last month Anne Frank’s final diary entry was commemorated; in 1944 she and her family were put on the last transport train to Auschwitz (2) in 1941...

German bombs damaged (13) Buckingham Palace in 1940 but this was nothing compared to the ten thousand buildings destroyed during the Great Fire of London of 1666 which started at a baker’s in Pudding Lane (2).

The Second World War ended officially with the surrender of Japan in 1945, accepted by General MacArthur and Admiral Nimitz (2). Twenty-two days later in 1564 English navigator and Japanese samurai William Adams was born. And in 1988 the cartoonist Charles Addams died (28) but will forever be known as the creator of the Addams Family.

Coincidences between names or events crop up from time to time, such as the battle of Marathon which supposedly began in 490 BC and on the same day a mere 2,460 years later the first New York City Marathon took place (13). Interestingly, this month in 1937 saw the death (2) of Pierre de Coubertin, the French founder of the modern Olympic Games.

While discussing New York, the Netherlands surrendered New Amsterdam to England (24) in 1664; and on the same day (24) in 1493 Columbus set out on his second expedition to the New World.

It’s doubtful if anyone involved in the first airplane flight in Europe (13) in 1906 would have realised how advanced and commonplace flight between countries would become. A year earlier aviator, inventor, film producer and eccentric millionaire Howard Hughes was born (24). Indeed, this was only fifty-five years after the first airship was displayed (24), and on the same day in 1908 the first Ford Model-T was built. Forty years later, the Honda Motor Company was founded (24). Forty-six years after that, the Ulysses spacecraft passed the sun’s south-pole (13). Such is progress.

Advances in technology haven’t always gone hand-in-hand with advances in human relationships. In 1871 Brazil passed a law freeing future children of slaves (28), yet there are thousands of children used as slave labour round the globe, not only in South America. Children’s author Dr Seuss died in 1991 (24) a year before Roald Dahl - who was born (13) in 1916 – the author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which has just been released starring Johnny Depp; in 1857 Milton S Hershey was born and became a chocolate entrepreneur and founded the Hershey Chocolate Company (13). In 1936 children’s entertainer Jim Henson was born; he was the creator of The Muppets (24) – a surreal menagerie of creatures!

 

Author of the famous novel about whales and whaling, Moby Dick, Herman Melville died (28) in 1891; and on the same day animal-rights activist and one-time sex-goddess actress Brigitte Bardot was born in 1934, ten years later to the day as that heart-throb Marcello Mastroianni.

As mentioned before, history is riddled with battles. The Battle of Actium during the Roman Civil War in 31 BC saw the defeat by Octavian of Mark Antony and Cleopatra (2). Eleven days later in 1759 British General James Wolfe beat the French on the Plains of Abraham and died the same day (13). Amazingly, some modern-day schoolchildren thought the Battle of Britain referred to the fight of Helm’s Deep from The Lord of the Rings. In 1973 that book’s author, J.R.R. Tolkien died (2).

History and Time are fascinating subjects. Two favourite plays by J B Priestley are Time and the Conways and An Inspector Calls. Both shift time for the audience to reveal inner truths and strong messages. Priestley was born (13) in 1894 and his output was varied and prodigious.

Heroes of Fukushima get Award

Those brave heroes of Fukushima who risked high radiation to battle the nuclear disaster in Japan have won Spain’s prestigious Prince of Asturias Concord prize this month.

On 11 March this year, the towering wall of water from the tsunami battered the cooling systems at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, triggering reactor meltdown and leakage of radiation into the environment. Tens of thousands of people within a 20km radius were evacuated, but selfless workers endured high doses of radiation to combat the crisis.

The Prince of Asturias Award jury stated, ‘This group of people represent the highest values of the human condition by trying to prevent, through their sacrifice, a nuclear disaster… disregarding the grave consequences that this decision would have on their lives.’

As a result, many workers developed chronic pathologies such as arrhythmia and hyperventilation. The jury identified three groups of heroes of Fukushima: the 50 volunteer employees of the plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company; the firefighters who worked to cool the reactors; and the Japanese armed forces who dumped water on the reactors from the air.

In conclusion, the jury said, ‘The behavior of these people has also embodied the values most deeply rooted in Japanese society, such as the sense of duty, personal and family sacrifice for the greater good and dignity in the face of adversity, humility, generosity and courage.’

The original fifty who stayed on at the plant swelled by a few hundred as time passed.

Winners of the Prince of Asturias Award are endowed with 50,000 euros, a sculpture and a diploma. The actual presentation will be made by Crown Prince Felipe, the prince of Asturias, later this year.

54 nuclear reactors speckling the coast

Contamination 6 months after the double whammy that hit Japan. It won't go away.


Food contamination from the nuclear plant is a big worry, besides affecting a lot of farmers’ businesses. Yet perhaps there’s good news too. Rice harvested this year in the Fukushima Prefecture went on sale this month, with farmers reassuring customers that it’s free from contamination...

I've been in contact with Yuri, an AP journalist and she has produced a very thoughtful and interesting despatch on this subject. There's no real alternative to nuclear energy for Japan. Here's the link to Yuri’s story:

http://m.yahoo.com/w/news_america/post-tsunami-japan-sticking-nuclear-power-012524603.html?back=%2Fworld%2F%3Fpage%3D3&.ts=1315621902&.intl=us&.lang=en&.ysid=2zRmu_94Ws0bsfRnRhDdZUnz

You can also gain further insight by reading Charlie Whipple's blog at
http://chucktyrell-outlawjournal.blogspot.com/

Hubris or political expediency?

The future has arrived. Threat of nuclear meltdown was all too real in the last six months...

Japan’s heavy reliance on nuclear power is now seen as a serious mistake. Naturally, it’s easy to be wise after the event. And, to be fair, the damage sustained by the Fukushima nuclear plant was not in the Chernobyl league, serious though it is. Considering the tremendous forces that the plant withstood, the engineering safeguards seem to have worked – if only just. Hubris prompted siting many nuclear power stations on the cusp of the quake-prone archipelago. Maybe financial and political expediency had something to do with it.


Near the Fukishima Daiichi plant is the ghost town of Minamisoma, which suffered the loss of several hundred residents during the disaster. Then the remaining thousands were evacuated. Their lives and livelihoods are on hold until something can be resolved. How many more lives are in stasis – perhaps due to government intransigence?

See Charlie Whipple's website http://chucktyrell-outlawjournal.blogspot.com/ for a lot of detailed background and even moving images.

Japan's tragedy six months on

September 9 is remembered for many deaths


9/11 is significant as the tenth anniversary of the mass murders of almost 3,000 people from many nations and religions perpetrated by Islamic fundamentalists. This terrible loss of life was due to man’s inhumanity to man.

As there are plenty of natural disasters that cut a swathe through countless innocent lives, it seems deplorable that anyone could contemplate killing innocent people simply because of a different value system. The terrorists’ twisted logic probably argues that no westerner is innocent, since they don’t follow a certain strict code of behaviour. Wars and conflicts happen for a variety of reasons, too complex to go into here; whether a quest for power or resources, or the imposition of ideals and beliefs. But there's another conflict - against nature...

9/11 also marks the six-month point of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, a devastating double whammy from Nature against the islands of Japan that claimed over 20,000 missing or dead. In those months, like many, I’ve been moved by the resilience of the Japanese, particularly the many orphaned children, who strive against formidable odds to rebuild not only their lives but their nation.

I thought that in the lead up to this six-month marker, I’d open up some discussion on the effects and consequences of this natural catastrophe.

All author and publisher royalties go toward aid of the Japanese earthquake/tsunami survivors for these 2 e-books: WHEN THE FLOWERS ARE IN BLOOM by Nik Morton and A MATTER OF TEA and other stories by Charles T Whipple.

A Matter of Tea and other stories

An e-book in aid of the Earthquake victims.

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/52655

"Delicate as bisque china, dangerous as a snake den, Charles T. Whipple's writing resonates across the seven seas. Tales of sacrifice and honor that flick at the heart and encircle the soul." – Marsha Ward. Stories include: A Matter of Tea, The Dragon of Torigoe, The Floating World, Kamo Ike, From Chojagasaki Bay, Masakado's Revenge, and Bonus Sections.

Royalties are for relief efforts in Japan.

Charlie says:

"The title story of this collection is the same story that won the 2010 Oaxaca International Literature Competition. This is the first time the story has ever been published. And with it, other stories I have written that are set in Japan, plus a look at a brand new series called Chronicles of the Dark Mirror. A full chapter of the first book, The Seeker.

The only thing I do well is write. When the earthquake hit Kobe in 1995, friends and I hauled food and necessities from Tokyo to Kobe. But this time, the damage and the suffering makes Kobe look like a picnic. (I apologize to the people in Kobe for that simile but the destruction and the death toll and the homelessness in Tohoku is so vast, it defies description.) Aerial comparisons of before and after are shocking to say the least. And the only thing I can do is write.

So I decided to let you read these stories and help the people in Tohoku at the same time. Buy this book for a buck -- well, for 99 cents -- and I and my publisher will give all the income we receive from your purchases to worthy charities that are helping in Tohoku. I will personally pick the charities and I will personally report to you about what has been or is being done.

Help me out. Buy this book of stories about Japan. Get your friends to buy a copy, too. Spread the word. Help me help the victims of Japan's horrendous earthquake and tsunami."

You can also access it on Amazon, of course.

Dateline Sendai, Japan

This is a letter of thanks and rather uplifting news from a friend of a friend, which deserves a wider readership. The writer teaches English in Sendai.

Things here in Sendai have been rather surreal. But I am very blessed to have wonderful friends who are helping me a lot. Since my shack is even more worthy of that name, I am now staying at a friend's home. We share supplies like water, food and a kerosene heater. We sleep lined up in one room, eat by candlelight, and share stories. It is warm, friendly, and beautiful.

During the day we help each other clean up the mess in our homes. People sit in their cars, looking at news on their navigation screens, or line up to get drinking water when a source is open. If someone has water running in their home, they put out a sign so people can come to fill up their jugs and buckets.

Utterly amazingly, where I am there has been no looting, no pushing in lines. People leave their front door open, as it is safer when an earthquake strikes. People keep saying, "Oh, this is how it used to be in the old days when everyone helped one another."

Quakes keep coming. Last night they struck about every 15 minutes. Sirens are constant and helicopters pass overhead often.

We got water for a few hours in our homes last night, and now it is for half a day. Electricity came on this afternoon. Gas has not yet come on. But all of this is by area. Some people have these things, others do not.

No one has washed for several days. We feel grubby, but there are so much more important concerns than that for us now. I love this peeling away of non-essentials. Living fully on the level of instinct, of intuition, of caring, of what is needed for survival, not just of me, but of the entire group.

There are strange parallel universes happening. Houses are a mess in some places, yet then there’s a house with futons or laundry out drying in the sun. People lining up for water and food, and yet a few people out walking their dogs. And all happening at the same time.

Other unexpected touches of beauty: the silence at night. No cars. No one out on the streets. And the heavens at night are scattered with stars. I usually can see about two, but now the whole sky is filled.

The mountains at Sendai are solid and with the crisp air we can see them magnificently silhouetted against the sky. And the Japanese themselves are so wonderful. I come back to my shack to check on it each day, now to send this e-mail since the electricity is on, and I find food and water left in my entrance-way. I have no idea from whom, but it is there. Old men in green hats go from door to door, checking to see if everyone is OK. People talk to complete strangers, asking if they need help. I see no signs of fear. Resignation, yes, but fear or panic, no.

They tell us we can expect aftershocks, and even other major quakes, for another month or more. And we are getting constant tremors, rolls, shaking, rumbling. I am blessed in that I live in a part of Sendai that is a bit elevated, a bit more solid than other parts. So, up to now, this area is better off than others. Last night, my friend's husband came in from the country, bringing food and water. Blessed again.

Somehow at this time I realize from direct experience that there is indeed an enormous Cosmic evolutionary step that is occurring all over the world right at this moment. And as I experience the events happening now in Japan, I can feel my heart opening very wide. My brother asked me if I felt so small because of all that is happening. I don't. Rather, I feel as part of something happening that much larger than myself. This wave of birthing (worldwide) is hard, and yet magnificent.

Thank you again for your care and Love of me, with Love in return, to you all...

Friday’s Forgotten Book: The Phoenix Tree by Jon Cleary

This was published in 1984. Cleary was a successful Australian author, his most famous book being The Sundowners, which is excellent. According to the blurb, seven of his books have been filmed, no mean achievement. And his Peter’s Pence was awarded the Edgar Allen Poe prize for the best crime novel of 1974. Despite the crime novel award, he wasn’t pigeonholed as a genre writer: he was a novelist and could write about anything. Not so easy, these days – publishers look for ‘brands’…

In the closing days of the Second World War, two friends, Kenji Minato and Tom Okada – the blurb mistakenly calls him Akada! – are working for the US Navy and become undercover agents in Japan, intent on identifying the members of the secret Peace Faction. Tom’s contact is Natasha Cairns, the widow of an English agent and radio-operator. They fall in love, but are constantly at risk from exposure, the Allied bombing raids and the kampei, the Japanese military police. An added complication is the unexpected appearance of Natasha’s concubine mother, a marvelous creation.

The Phoenix Tree is mainly written in the omniscient POV, and suffers from that by frequently jumping from one character’s thoughts to another’s in the same scene. It’s doubtful if the novel would find a publisher these days, judging by the masses of advice out there concerning POV etc. Yet the scope of the novel demands this approach, because Cleary is not only writing about individuals, he’s conveying the massive and horrendous cataclysm of the two A-bombs, which, naturally, could not be related from a single character’s viewpoint.

Cleary depicts the subtleties of Japanese customs and sense of honor and has a good novelist’s turn of phrase: ‘The trees and shrubs were loaded with the slow green bullets of spring; but there was still the dead perfume of ash in the air.’ There’s also humor: ‘She was an ideal wife for a general; she would have driven a pacifist off to war.’

A love story and a page-turning novel about spies and the dying days of an empire.