Mission: Falklands - Just Published!

Mission: Falklands is the fourth in the Tana Standish psychic spy thriller series. 

The Tana Standish missions are a mixture of fact and fiction but with ‘a nifty twist’, as one reviewer put it. The ‘smart, sexy female protagonist isn’t just a rare child survivor from Warsaw’s WWII ghetto. Nor is she merely a highly skilled covert operative, brought up by the British to be extremely effective against the KGB. Tana Standish has one more thing going for her: psychic talents. There’s nothing outlandish in the psi-spy’s capabilities – they’re neatly underplayed, a talent which isn’t understood or entirely controllable but which frequently tips the odds in her favour.’

Mission: Prague (Czechoslovakia, 1975).

Mission: Tehran (Iran, 1978).

Mission: Khyber (Afghanistan, 1979-1980).

Mission: Falklands (Argentina, the Falkland Islands, and South Georgia, 1982).

[All of the above are available on Amazon in paperback and e-book format]

It took thirty-four years for my original Tana Standish psychic spy novel The Ouija Message to grow and improve and eventually transmogrify into Mission: Prague. One of my first versions was rejected by Robert Hale with the comment that it was better than many books that were published but they ‘didn’t do fantasy’. (They accepted my first book sale in 2007, a western!). It came close a few times to being accepted but in retrospect I’m glad it didn’t get published earlier. The characters and the story required more depth, more time to evolve. Naturally, there has to be a willingness to suspend disbelief regarding psychic abilities! Then again, most fiction is fantasy anyway.

Prague garnered good reviews, such as ‘Interestingly, Morton sells it as a true story passed to him by an agent and published as fiction, a literary ploy often used by master thriller writer Jack Higgins. Let’s just say that it works better than Higgins.’ – Danny Collins, author of The Bloodiest Battles.

Each book begins with my first person narration. I receive a manuscript from a secret agent which recounts one of Tana’s missions. Here’s an excerpt of the Prologue from Mission: Falklands:

Beyond the headland the North Sea was grey and turbulent, white horses racing towards the shore. Leaden clouds swirled, harbingers of rain, threatening another bleak December day. I managed to find a parking space for my Dacia Sandero on the road opposite the Octagon Tower, built in 1720, in the Northumberland town of Seaton Sluice – known colloquially as ‘the Sluice’ – half-way between Whitley Bay and Blyth.

I walked the short distance past a dry-stone wall towards the King’s Arms, a large three-storey whitewashed sandstone pub. Almost everywhere you went in the north-east was steeped in history and this Grade II listed public house was no exception, built around 1764. Overlooking the small harbour and Seaton Burn with its smattering of small boats beached on mud, it had started out as an overseer’s house, and then became the King’s Arms Hotel and coach house. In the nineteenth century the coach house was used by HM Coastguard on the lookout for contraband smugglers.

On the left was a short bridge which crossed a manmade channel blasted out in the 1760s by Sir John Delaval and named ‘the cut’; the bridge linked the newly formed ‘Rocky Island’ to the mainland and is now adorned with love-padlocks.

Despite the slight chill in the air and the threat of rain, a handful of male and female regulars in shorts and T-shirts sat drinking at wooden tables outside in an area roped-off with beer-barrels: the usual tough north-easterners.

Keith Tyson, retired spy, stood waiting for me at the entrance porch, as punctual as ever. I was pleased to see under his arm he carried a familiar leather valise though it was now a little careworn – a bit like him.

The stories about her missions are told in multiple third person narrative, merging fact and fiction. Part of the inspiration for the series stems from my interest in history.

Wherever possible I have tried to write about places I’ve seen or visited, such as Gosport’s Fort Monkton, the Khyber Pass, Belize, Bahrein, the United States, the Falklands and South Georgia. Other places have required considerable research. In Mission: Tehran at a critical point there is an earthquake in Yazd; that actually happened on the date shown in the book. An episode in Mission: Falklands that involved two Soviets in Altun Ha is derived from my trek there. Another sequence describes a meal in the Pink House in Savannah, Georgia, which I’ve frequented. My memories of two days on South Georgia informed a section of the story too. And so on...

Tana has a few contacts in Argentina and several friends who suffer at the hands of the military regime. Tana is determined to help them. And of course betrayal lurks in the shadows... When she embarks on her rescue crusade she learns a devastating fact that changes everything and thrusts her towards the Falkland Islands and inhospitable South Georgia at the outset of the historic conflict...

Inevitably Argentina’s ‘disappeared’ and ‘death flights’ are relevant. As with all the books in the series, I’ve strived to inject realism even with the fantasy concept of psychics. As one reviewer has stated, ‘Such is the level of detail and ambition that Morton soon sweeps up the reader in the narrative and creates so convincing a canvas that we can easily accept the central conceit. Bouncing between different times and locations, he has created a book which feels big in scope, an adventure story with a supernaturally gifted protagonist that still feels absolutely real.’

TO HAVE AND TO HOLD - Book review

 

Mary Johnston’s classic novel To Have and To Hold about love and intrigue in seventeenth century Virginia was published in 1899.

Beginning in 1621, it’s a first-person narrative by Captain Ralph Percy; his cousin is the Lord of Northumberland (which happens to be my home county, where I now live!)

Johnston’s prose is of its time, naturally, but easy to read, and her descriptions are excellent, such as that for preacher, Jeremy Sparrow, a giant of a man: ‘his face, which was of a cast most martial, flashed into a smile, like sunshine on a scarred cliff’ (p16). Another example: ‘Each twig had its row of diamonds, and the wet leaves we pushed aside spilled gems upon us. The horses set their hoofs daintily upon fern and moss and lush grass. In the purple distances deer stood at gaze, the air rang with innumerable bird notes, clear and sweet, squirrels chattered, bees hummed, and through the thick leafy roof of the forest the sun showered gold dust’ (p48).

A ship from England has brought a number of women for betrothal to boost the numbers in Jamestown; the usual purchase price is a quantity of tobacco, to pay for the passage. Ralph Percy is not particularly keen but finds himself defending the honour of one of the women and then determines to wed her there and then. Her name is Jocelyn. Impulse purchase, perhaps.

Later he learns that she is Lady Jocelyn Leigh and was a ward of the King. But when she learned she was to be betrothed to Lord Carnal, the sovereign’s favourite, she fled the Court and embarked on the ship destined for Jamestown, one among the many women.

Nearby are friendly Indians, including the Powhatans and the Paspaheghs. ‘The Indian listened; then said, in that voice that always made me think of some cold, still, bottomless pool lying black beneath overhanging rocks...’ (p123). Yet the friendship is strained...

Yet Lord Carnal soon arrives in the settlement, hell-bent on taking Jocelyn back to England with him. He is a man who gets what he wants, even if it means killing.

There is suspense – when Lord Carnal attempts to drug Ralph – and humour with the irrepressible Preacher Sparrow. Johnston is sympathetic to the Indians, too: ‘Why did you come? Long ago, when there were none but dark men from the Chesapeake to the hunting grounds beneath the sunset, we were happy. Why did you leave your own land, in strange black ships with sails like the piled-up clouds of summer? Was it not a good land? Were not your forests broad and green, your fields fruitful, your rivers deep and filled with fish? Ill gifts have you brought us, evil have you wrought us’ (p336). And there is fighting and action aplenty, and a piratical interlude as well. Betrayal, love, humour and honour – all are here. And some of the action actually occurred – a slice of history.

Despite its age, To Have and To Hold this remarkable book of adventure is a page-turner and can rank up there with the novels of James Fennimore Cooper.

Johnston died in 1936, aged 65. The book has been adapted for film three times, most recently in 2014 featuring Aiden Turner.

DEEP DOWN IT MAKES SENSE

Looking back, it seems that although I never actually served in a submarine, my life has been connected to the Silent Service for quite a number of years, in the Senior Service and also civilian life. 

Leaving my parental home in Whitley Bay, I joined the Royal Navy on 18 October, 1965, after taking a long train journey (about 14 hours) from Newcastle upon Tyne mainline station via London to Torpoint, Cornwall. I was reading the science fiction novel Childhood’s End by Arthur C Clarke). I was inducted in HMS Raleigh, one of several RN training establishments, where I learned to march, tie knots, tackle obstacle courses, pass the swimming test wearing overalls, and many other nautical things that comprised Part I Training. From here the ratings were dispersed to a variety of establishments for specialist training, depending on their allocated branch. My branch was Supply and Secretariat (S&S): I was a Writer, which seemed appropriate since I’d written a novel when I was sixteen.

After specialist training in Chatham (Part II Training) I was drafted to the brick ship HMS St Vincent, Gosport, Hants, working in the Captain’s office. [This establishment has since been converted into a school]. My Service Certificate attests that I volunteered for the Submarine Service – though there were not many billets for writers; the branch only served on the larger submarines, not the conventional diesel vessels.

My first seagoing ship was the tribal-class frigate HMS Zulu (F124) which I joined on 27 April 1967 at Rosyth. Our office comprised a staff of two writers and a petty officer writer. Unfortunately in May, while the ship was exercising off Scotland, I developed a resistant cough which alarmed the Sick Berth medic so I had to be landed at HMS Neptune, Faslane – the Clyde Submarine Base. I was diagnosed with urti (upper respiratory tract infection). The shore-based sick bay was my first encounter with submariners.

I was fortunate to have a room to myself – the coughing was quite horrendous and disturbing to anyone else in the vicinity; for me, it was just painful. On the left-hand side of the bed was a bookcase crammed with books. Hitherto, my reading material at the time was spy novels and thrillers, science fiction, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Conan Doyle and Wilbur Smith adventures. In the bookcase, however, I found a good number of books by Agatha Christie, Raymond Chandler, and Georges Simenon, which I read voraciously.

A couple of hospitalised old salts popped in to see me – they’d heard my coughing, no doubt, since it was quite alarming and pronounced – and introduced themselves and asked me if I was on a boat. I said, ‘Yes. HMS Zulu.’

‘That’s not a boat,’ I was told most firmly, ‘it’s a ship. A boat is a submarine.’

‘Oh.’ Well, you live and learn.

When I finished my first seagoing deployment on Zulu – flying from Singapore to UK – I was drafted to the brick ship HMS Dolphin on the staff of Flag Officer Submarines (FOSM) in Gosport on 1 December 1969. Dolphin was the base for the First SM Squadron, comprising conventional submarines and here also was sited the distinctive Tower for training submariners, the SETT – Submarine Escape Training Tank. The SETT was commissioned in 1954 and continued pressurised submarine escape training until 2009.

I worked in the Drafting Office for submariners, an office above Alecto Colonnade. The whole office was transferred to a new building, HMS Centurion, Gosport in May 1970; other drafting office personnel (responsible for surface ship postings) – Commodore Naval Drafting – joined us from Haslemere, Lythe Hill, Surrey. Centurion was ‘commissioned’ 16 October 1970 as the RN pay and records establishment; its computers then were ICL machines.

While there I drafted Supply & Secretariat and Medical personnel to Nuclear, Polaris and conventional submarines. At that time, the squadrons consisted of: First – conventional based at Dolphin; Second – conventional and also Valiant-class submarines based at Devonport; Third – conventional based at Faslane; Seventh – conventional, based at Singapore, though disbanded in 1971; Tenth – the Polaris ‘bombers’ also based at Faslane.

Better to appreciate the living conditions I was assigning the men to endure, I requested a trip on a submarine. Happily, I identified the conventional submarine HMS Artemis which was scheduled for exercise off the Bay of Biscay followed by a brief visit to Newcastle upon Tyne. I joined Artemis alongside at Dolphin and sailed with her for a week or so. As it was a conventional boat, space was limited, the crew hot-bunking – one man on duty, the off-duty man in his bunk, and then vice versa. My bunk was different; it was in the fore-ends, among the torpedoes, with a polythene sheet stretched above me to catch the odd drip from the pipes that snaked along the deck-head. Lying there, I could hear the water rushing against the boat’s hull. For a brief watch period I steered the craft, used the periscope, and later climbed up into the conning tower, where the fresh air was most welcome; while up there, I participated in the excitement of ‘dive, dive, dive’, shutting the hatch on the way down. Needless to say, the rough seas of Biscay did not bother us. At the end of the exercise I thanked the crew and disembarked when the boat moored at the Tyne quayside; and I went home to Whitley Bay to see my parents for the weekend! Then I rejoined the office, greatly appreciative of the confined conditions the submariners lived and worked in.

Out of this experience I wrote my first short story sale, ‘Hover-Jack’ for the weekly magazine, Parade published in 1971: a spy story featuring a Soviet submarine and the Isle of Wight hovercraft!

The Navy News published two of my articles on the mechanics of drafting to submarines: ‘Giving deep thought to submarines’ and ‘How they filled Cornucopia’.  I created the fictional HMS Cornucopia for illustration purposes. At the time – I cannot speak for the present – there were never enough volunteers for submarines. Naturally, drafting officers would accept those who volunteered – providing they passed what was termed Part III Training, which entailed classes in the Submarine School in Dolphin, which included safety procedures and undergoing the Escape Training in the SETT. To fill the SM quota, certain personnel would be drafted into submarines who had not volunteered; their initial draft was for five years, after which they would be returned to the surface fleet. However, when the five years were due to expire the vast majority of those non-volunteers elected to remain in boats – around 90% –  partly due to the additional pay but also by then they were well-versed in the ethos of the Silent Service, which was essentially a small navy within the Royal Navy.

Every RN rating completed a drafting preference card (DPC), asking for a preferred base – in those days there were a lot more bases than nowadays. Every individual’s personal card showing current draft and previous billets, together with his DPC and was held in a whirligig (see photo below; I'm at the end of the office, with beard).

  

The idea was to balance sea-time with a certain amount of shore-time; this would vary depending on the particular branch. Submarine squadrons also had a ‘spare crew’, men drafted here who still might have more sea-time to clock up before being sent for a longer stay in a shore base. This spare crew was available at short notice to plug gaps due to illnesses and other absences; it was popular for some who preferred going to sea, but not for everyone, as they found it unsettling.

Several of the FOSM staff visited Barrow-in-Furness to give talks about the process of determining who to draft. While there we descended into the dry dock of HMS Conqueror. The words iceberg and surface sprang to mind; the screws were huge, gleaming, almost like gold, like something out of science fiction.

My time with submarine drafting ended in 1974 when I was drafted to RNH Mtarfa, a RN hospital in Malta near Rabat three months after marriage. On return in 1975 I underwent the Leadership Course at HMS Royal Arthur, Wiltshire, and then joined HMS Mermaid (F76) in March 1976, a few days after our daughter was born.  

In June 1977 I was reacquainted with submariners, being drafted to HMS Neptune, the Clyde Submarine Base; it was the day before my birthday, great timing! This was the home of four Resolution-class Ballistic missile Polaris submarines – below is a photo of one in the 1970s.

I was in charge of the Central Records Office, staff comprising seven naval personnel (male and female) and I also had the responsibility for several civilians, such as messengers, the typing pool, and the print room. The Head Messenger was a mine of information, since he’d been there a long time; he was due to retire and join his family in Canada so was not averse to apprising me of certain civil service goings-on.

For example: Every civilian was entitled to a certain number of days per year sick leave without the requirement of a doctor’s note; they made sure they took their ‘sickies’ – effectively looking on them as additional leave entitlement.

Before my time there, during a mail strike, two Glaswegian messengers were tasked with taking the RN van into the nearby town of Helensburgh and picking up the mail – and regularly popping into the local hostelry for a couple of bevvies before returning to the base with the mail sacks. No problem. However, after the strike ended, they continued doing this for well over a year.

Thus apprised, I pointed out to the pair that there was no longer any need for them to make the journey and taxpayers’ money was being wasted. They objected and brought in their union representative. The Commodore was not best pleased as this business was about to be blown out of all proportion, with a strike being threatened. I was told to sort it out, and arranged for a meeting with the union representative and the two messengers. That weekend at home I didn’t sleep too well. Fortunately, on the Monday, after I put my reasoned argument, the union man admitted that the two guys in question had enjoyed a good run but it must come to an end; we agreed on a compromise, giving them until the end of the month to desist.    

I left Neptune 9 October 1979, and returned to HMS Centurion until my draft to the Leander-class frigate HMS Diomede (F16) and had no further involvement with submarines whilst serving in the RN.

During our fifteen years living in Spain, Jen and I visited Cartagena a few times and saw the submarine Peral on display in the harbour. The craft was the first successful full electric battery-powered submarine. It was built by the Spanish engineer Isaac Peral for the Spanish Navy and launched in 1888. She was armed with two torpedoes. Yet, after two years of successful tests, the project was terminated.

Near our home in Spain is the town of Torrevieja. Here, in the harbour, is a submarine tourist attraction – S61 Delfín – Spanish for Dolphin.

Returning from our family’s lengthy sojourn in Spain, we moved to Blyth, Northumberland, which had been a submarine training base over many years.  During the First World War Blyth was the base for the depot ship Titania and submarines of the Eleventh Flotilla that were to support the Grand Fleet. Apparently, at the battle of Jutland, a Blyth-based submarine took part in the engagement and was credited with sinking a German warship.

At the time of the Second World War the Blyth base was named HMS Elfin and became a training base for about 200 officers. There is now a blue plaque signifying the position of the submarine base (see photo below); near the Blyth Boathouse and Caboose restaurant.

The S-class submarine HMS Seahorse was a member of the 2nd Submarine Flotilla whose wartime base was Dundee. After a number of unsuccessful patrols in the north-sea, the boat would often stop at Blyth, as the base was nearer its patrol area. On the night of 25 December 1939, before Seahorse would depart for her sixth war patrol off Heligoland Bight, seven submariners visited the Astley Arms, Seaton Sluice. Tickets for a raffle were being sold for a bottle of Johnny Walker Whisky. By the time of the draw, the submarine was at sea. As luck would have it, the submariners had won the bottle, but it was not collected. Seahorse’s orders were to initially patrol off Heligoland and then move to the mouth of the Elbe on 30 December. She was expected to return to Blyth on 9 January 1940. It was assumed that she was struck by a mine but after examining German records at the end of hostilities it was considered possible that she could have been sunk by the German First Minesweeper Flotilla which reported carrying out a prolonged depth charge attack on an unknown submarine on 7 January. Another possibility is that she was rammed and sunk by the German Sperrbrecher IV/Oakland southeast of Heligoland on 29 December. Seahorse was the first British submarine lost to enemy action. The whisky bottle remained untouched at the Astley Arms for many years until it was eventually transferred for display at the RN Submarine Museum in Gosport, Hants.

On display in the Blyth Community Hospital is the name-plate of HMS Onslaught. (I used to draft personnel to this Oberon-class boat). On the boat’s visit to Blyth in 1979 the officers and crew were given the Freedom of the Borough of Blyth. Onslaught was decommissioned in 1990, having served for twenty-eight years, and eventually scrapped at Aliga, Turkey in 1991.

Not far from the hospital, outside St Mary’s Church alongside Blyth’s regenerated town square, is a memorial and an anchor. The anchor (seen below through the silhouette) belonged to the T-class submarine HMS Tiptoe. She was named by Winston Churchill, implying that the boat could approach the enemy silently as if on tiptoe. The Royal Navy naming committee was against the name, arguing that ‘it was derogatory to one of His Majesty's ships’, but the Prime Minister had his way. The vessel had links with the Royal Ballet and Moira Shearer; its crest features a ballet dancer.

So far, that seems to be my involvement with submarines and submariners. I think it is quite apt that I should settle in a town that honours the Silent Service.

***

Jargon:

Boat: Submarine

Branch: Specialisation, such as Seaman, Communications, Medical, S&S, and Weapons.

Draft: Soldiers and airmen are posted but naval personnel are drafted.

Deck-head: ceiling in a ship or submarine

Fore-ends: the front of a submarine

Target: any enemy surface vessel

THE LINDISFARNE GOSPELS - Book review

 Jen and I went to the exhibition of The Lindisfarne Gospels at the Laing Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne. Its usual home is the British Library, London; however it has been on loan for display in Durham in 1987 and 2013 and in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1996, 2000 and this year.

This book about the ancient tome was published 2022 by the British Library, written by Eleanor Jackson, Curator of Illuminated Manuscripts, and comprises 96 full-colour pages, relating the history of The Lindisfarne Gospels, and, for any book-lover, is a minor treasure in itself.

The Lindisfarne Gospels was hand-written and decorated over 1,300 years ago. Considering its age, it is in remarkably good condition.

As you’d expect it comprises the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, inscribed in Latin. In the tenth century an Old English translation was added between the lines, which is in fact the earliest surviving translation of the Gospels into the English language.

After the fall of the Roman Empire in the fifth century, the lands formerly under Roman control fragmented into a series of kingdoms. Although there were small groups of Christian Romano-British people in the far reaches of the north of the British Isles, they were mostly displaced by Germanic-speaking settlers who brought with them their pantheon of pagan gods – among them, Tiw, Woden, Thunor and Frig, from which we derived certain days of the week.

In Northumberland – the lands north of the River Humber – the pagan people here did not possess books. The arrival of Christianity – a religion of the book – stimulated book production, ‘culminating in the period of heightened artistic and literary achievement sometimes known as the Golden Age of Northumbria’ (p16).

In the British Isles there were several centres where books were produced, and the monastery of Lindisfarne was but one. Others were in Durham and Ireland. The monastery’s first bishop was Aidan (died: 651AD), who effectively established Christianity in Northumbria with the help of his missionaries. However, it was not until the new bishop of Lindisfarne, Eadfrith (died: 722) took up the post that The Lindisfarne Gospels were written (taking him from five to ten years). It has 518 pages each measuring 34x25cm; the parchment pages are probably calfskin (velum). ‘All inks were handmade from natural sources – animal, vegetable or mineral. Some of the pigments include red lead (orange), indigo or woad (blue), orpiment (yellow), verdigris (green), carbon (black), white lead (white), and chalk (beige)’ (p35). And, noticeable in small quantities, gold was also used. There are also highly decorated pages of the evangelists, and so-called carpet pages – exquisite full-colour block patterns in the Islamic style, though creatures are inserted in amidst the tangle of interlaced designs. Then there are the incipit pages, opposite the carpet pages, which are effectively the opening words of the text, beautifully illuminated.

The early months of 793 featured a series of alarming omens: lightning, whirlwinds and fiery dragons flying in the air. Famine followed and then, on 8 June, heathen men landed their ships on Lindisfarne and raided the monastery. They destroyed the church, stole many treasures and killed many of the island’s inhabitants. This was only the beginning of the invasion of the Northmen. Remarkably, certain artefacts escaped the marauders’ notice – including the body of St Cuthbert, the revered remains of others, and The Lindisfarne Gospels. The surviving monks fled inland with whatever they could carry. And, amazingly, The Lindisfarne Gospels have endured to this day – though its original binding was lost and only replaced through the efforts of the Bishop of Durham in the 1800s.

You can visit The Lindisfarne Gospels online at:

www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Cotton_MS_Nero_D_IV

(An explanation for this numbering is contained in the book). 

Hannah Robson - book review

Brenda McBryde’s novel was published in 1991.

Set in the 1680s in Northumberland, Hannah Robson evokes the period well from the traumatic beginning where twelve-year-old Hannah witnesses the painful and bloody birth of her baby brother, to the satisfying end several years later.

Witnessing that birthing event, Hannah swore she would never marry or have children. She was a hard worker on the family’s bleak hill farm and suffered more than her fair share of lashings from her father’s belt. She is protective of her younger sister Joan who was born with a deformity: ‘It was unfair of God to disable thee when the rest of us are all well-made,’ Hannah says. Apparently, hers was a difficult birth and the father would not spare the fee of a midwife. ‘It is not God I blame,’ says Joan (p71).  Hannah has an older brother, Tom who leaves home to be apprenticed to a local potter. Her mother Mary offers little comfort or kindness, more noticeable when Hannah briefly stays with the potter’s family where the matriarch Emma is warm and sensitive: ‘It was a cold welcome back. No smile. No embrace. Not the smallest hint of affection. That part of Hannah which had flowered in the warmth of Emma’s kindness curled up close like a bud caught by the frost.’ (p69)

Hannah is bright and was a good student and learned to read and write; so she is taken on by the local lord’s wife to work in the laundry. In no time at all she progresses from that drudgery to assist in the kitchen and thence as a lady’s maid to Ursula, the lord’s daughter. The unlikely pair are soon firm friends, and it seems Hannah’s on her way up in society. Then tragedy strikes and Hannah is cast out and decides she will not be a servant again so instead takes on the role of a fisher-woman. Yet Hannah is indomitable and will rise above all setbacks, of which there are plenty: the affairs of the heart press strongly but she resists; and there is danger and attempted rape.

Throughout, resilient Hannah is true to herself. The privations of the period are leavened with poignant moments and the generosity of spirit of many characters, both male and female.

The Geordie vernacular is used on occasion but is almost always comprehensible; there’s also a glossary on p351.

The author wrote a sequel, Hannah’s Daughter, but I have not read that yet. Her writing style is excellent and she has a deft way with describing nature as well as individuals.

Interestingly, the author hailed from Whitley Bay, my home town in Northumberland (now Tyne & Wear). That fact drew me, as did the title character, Hannah, which happens to be the name of our daughter; additionally, the character’s surname belongs to a lifelong friend: Robson is quite common in the region. There is mention of many places familiar to me – Beamish, Druridge Bay, Newcastle, and Tynemouth.

 If you enjoy stories with strong female characters, then this is right for you. Recommended.

Weeping Window - remembrance

While recently visiting the north-east of England, Jen and I were taken by our friends to Woodhorn Museum near Ashington, Northumberland. Much of it is an outdoor museum on the site of the old colliery.

Last year, some five million people visited the poppy memorial to the fallen at the Tower of London – Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red, involving a vast field of ceramic poppies, each one planted by a volunteer in memory of the life of a British and Colonial soldier lost during the First World War.

While the original installation was designed to be transitory, many of the poppies have been preserved for posterity for subsequent sculpture effects. They have been split into two sculpture offerings by artist Paul Cummins and designer Tom Piper: Weeping Window is a cascade of several thousand handmade ceramic poppies seen pouring from a high structure to the ground; Wave is a sweeping arch of bright red poppy heads suspended on towering stalks; both will appear at venues around the country until being handed over to the Imperial War Museums in 2018..

Woodhorn Weeping Window

 

Woodhorn Museum is the first venue to present Weeping Window, which cascades 55ft from the winding wheel of the No.1 Heapstead (built in 1897). This remarkable sculpture is truly photogenic (viewable here from 12 September to 1 November 2015).

 

 

Woodhorn Weeping Window, 2015

The colliery played a major part in the war effort, not only for coal production but also supplying skilled miners for the front; some 2,500 miners from the workforce of 9,000 served within the armed forces and by the beginning of 1917 about 250 had lost their lives.

The Weeping Window at Woodhorn serves not only to embody remembrance of those lives lost in the conflict but also those who died in the mines.

The Weeping Window has since moved on to a new venue, Liverpool’s St George’s Hall (from 7 November until 17 January 2016); however, if you are in the Ashington area, Woodhorn museum is definitely worth a visit, providing a fascinating and often moving glimpse into the lives of the miners and their families, remembering their hardship and community spirit.

There is a shop that sells a great assortment of items, from histories to fridge magnets; a cafeteria – ‘the cutter’ – sells locally produced food, from cooked meals to fine cakes and pastries.

 

The Cutter - café & shop

 

Obtain more information about Woodhorn Museum from www.experiencewoodhorn.com

***

 
A coal mine – with its iconic towering winding wheel – figures in my e-book The Prague Papers, set primarily in Czechoslovakia in 1975.
 

 

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Blog guest - B.A. Morton - horror, crime and historical author

Continuing my infrequent blog guests of my namesake writers, today I’m pleased to welcome Babs Morton.  Babs lives in UK’s Northumberland National Park, an inspirational place indeed. She writes a crime series (Mrs Jones, Molly Brown), a historical series (Wildewood Chronicles), and standalone horror, Bedlam.

NM - Welcome, Babs. Glad you could drop by. I’ve just finished your thriller Mrs Jones and enjoyed it. I found the characters very engaging. The pace you set forced me to keep turning the pages.

I believe that a sense of place is important in fiction. To date, you have two detective books featuring Connolly, both set in New York; the characterisation, and the setting seem believable. Yet you’re British and live in the north-east of England. How did you achieve that semblance of reality?

B - Gosh, a vivid imagination, I guess. I’ve never been to the US, but I do watch a lot of movies ;)

NM - Are you drawn equally to crime, horror and historical novels, or do you have a preference?

B - I enjoy all genres. It really depends on where my head is when I’m in the mood for writing. I suppose if I was forced to choose, I’d say crime, psychological crime. I do love a twisted plot and a twisted character doesn’t go amiss either.

NM - As you’ve got two ongoing series at present, you’re obviously drawn to find out what happens next to your characters. Who is your favourite character from one of your books and why?

B - That’s difficult. I love them all for different reasons. Tommy Connell from Mrs Jones is a loveable rogue. He’s always going to do what’s right, but he’ll generally go about it the wrong way. If you met him, you’d likely want to knock some sense into him, but you’d like him and you’d trust him. He does have darker moments and things he’s not proud of, but by and large he’s a good guy. Probably my favourite character to create was Joe McNeil from Bedlam (which is also destined for a 3-book series). Joe has big issues, emotional and psychological, and the task was to get right in there with this totally messed up guy and create a situation where readers would root for a drunken, drug addled copper, and where they would care about what happened to him. Tommy Connell made me smile, Joe McNeil made me cry. Aw, bless them both.

NM - Where do you find inspiration?

B - Almost everywhere. An image, a snatch of conversation, anything really. I listen to music a lot when I’m writing. Mrs Jones popped into my head after listening to the song of the same name. Wildewood is more personal as the story is loosely based on the history of the valley where I live. My home was built on the foundations of a medieval chapel, and I have a great interest in medieval history. The theme music to that series would be Sting’s A Winter’s Tale.

 

Bedlam grew from a short story competition entry. I wrote it the night before my daughter left for Australia. I was very emotional and I think it flavoured the writing in a unique way. Soundtrack – Stereophonics, Graffiti on a train, the whole album is Bedlam to a tee.

NM - How long have you been writing? 

B - Probably since childhood in some shape or form, but seriously since 2010.

NM - What influenced you to start?

B - When we ‘escaped to the country’ I had more time. The family bought me a laptop and that was it. I posted some work on the Harper Collins site Authonomy and was introduced to some fellow writers who have become very good friends. Through them, I was persuaded to enter Mrs Jones in the Yeovil Literary Prize, and was flabbergasted to come second in the novel category. That led to publication.

NM - How do your family/friends feel about your writing?

B - They’re very supportive. Friends in the village particularly like the Wildewood series. Some of them maybe wonder where all the dark stuff, like Bedlam comes from, but they’re very polite and don’t cross the street when they see me coming.

NM - What are you working on now?

B - Currently I’m having fun with some Wildewood novellas. They’re prequels to the main series and detail the hero Miles’ adventures in The Holy Land, prior to returning to Northumberland. I then have the second book in the main series to finish. Once that’s done I’ll be donning my psychological crime hat for a while.

NM - What is your biggest distraction when it comes to writing?

B - Thinking about the plot rather than just getting it written.

 
NM - A tall order, I know, but what is your favourite book? And why?

B - I have so many books that I love, but if I had to pick one I guess it would be Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. I told you I’m a medieval history nerd and that is such a wonderful story. By contrast my favourite writer is crime writer John Connolly, I love his Charlie Parker character and the subtle blend of supernatural in his psychological crime series.

NM - I’d agree with you regarding Follett’s work; his follow-up World Without End is superb too; in fact there’s a life-sized statue of him in Vittoria, Spain, outside the cathedral that inspired the latter book. Yes, when it first came out, I was hooked on Connolly’s first book, Every Dead Thing. Is it possible for a writer to be an objective reader? 

B - I find I’m a critical reader and also an impatient reader. Time is very important to me, so I tend to make up my mind about a book within the first few pages. It’s hard to switch off that little editing light in my head and put away my virtual red pen. But when I pick up something truly wonderful it doesn’t matter whether I’m a writer or simply a reader, I recognise it immediately.

NM - That goes for me too, Babs. If I’ve sucked into the writer’s invented world, then the occasional glitch is barely noticed. How much research goes into each book?

B - It depends on the book. I spend a tremendous amount of time researching my historical series and ultimately might only use a notion here and there to add authenticity. I do get carried away, because it’s interesting, and I have to remember why I’m there, digging about in medieval weaponry or thirteenth century curse words. With the crime fiction, I research technical details, i.e. scene of crime information, weapons and procedures, but I don’t get bogged down in it.

NM - If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be and why?

B - Where I am now. My little cottage in Northumberland is just perfect for me.

NM - How useful or important are social media for you as a writer?

B - It connects me to the wider world, fellow writers and readers. This is particularly important as I live in a rural location. It’s good to network, to share experience and work. I wouldn’t say I was particularly adept at it though. Technology is not one of my strengths.

NM - Congratulations on getting a contract with the publisher Caffeine Nights, who will be releasing Twisted. Can you tell us more about that book?

B - Thanks. I’m really pleased to be working with Caffeine. They’re also re-releasing Bedlam in 2015, which I’m excited about. You probably guessed by now - I have a soft spot for Bedlam. Twisted is a dark and tangled crime thriller set in Newcastle. We have a dangerous, escaped bank robber, a kooky hostage who turns out to be a bit of a psycho, good cops, bad cops, gangsters, a one eyed dog, and a good measure of black humour thrown in. It was fun to set some scenes in and around my old stomping ground of Jesmond Dene and Paddy Freemans.

NM - Fascinating mix, Babs, and I’m familiar with Jesmond Dene. I used to work in Newcastle, in the 1960s! Okay, where do you hope to be in 5 years?

B - I would love to be writing full time. I currently work part time in the village GP surgery. I do love my job, but I’d rather be writing.

NM - Now please tell us about one of your books.

B - I’d like to tell you a little about my new series of novellas that introduce the story of Miles of Wildewood prior to his return to Northumberland. Tasters for the main Wildewood Chronicles series, they begin in The Holy Land in 1272 A.D. and follow Miles and his cohorts through various adventures. There are four planned. Bad Blood and Assassin’s Curse are available now, I’m currently working on A Fallen Man and Winter’s Child will follow shortly.

Bad Blood – Blurb

Miles of Wildewood discovers the boy Edmund at the mercy of his sworn enemy, Guy de Marchant. The feud between the two men has dark roots in an incident shrouded in secrecy and protected by a Templar oath. The boy’s plight provides the catalyst for an escalation of hostilities. As a trial by combat is hastily arranged to settle the dispute, Miles’ benefactor Hugh de Reynard seeks a favour from the future king and the Templars prepare for the inevitable backlash.

Miles must save the boy, but at what cost?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00OCEVPF4?*Version*=1&*entries*=0

Assassin’s Curse – Blurb

Royal birthday celebrations fill Acre’s crowded streets. The enchanter Maleficius and his bizarre cavalcade distract those sworn to protect the prince and the rivalry between Templar and Hospitaller knights reaches boiling point. Amidst the jesters, jugglers and fantastical beasts a lone assassin threatens the heir to the throne. It falls to Miles of Wildewood and Jesmina, the sultry daughter of Saladin the snake trader, to save the day and the life of the future king. But can Jesmina be trusted?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Assassins-Curse-Wildewood-Chronicles-Novellas-ebook/dp/B00QB6FA84/ref=pd_sim_kinc_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=08T1FJQCFXAHZ87VK8PM

Thank you, Babs. I certainly like those covers for Bad Blood and Assassin’s Curse. Here's hoping they pull in more fans!

B.A. Morton - Bio

Born in the North East of England, B.A. Morton writes across a number of genres including crime, romance, horror and historical fiction. After a twenty year civil service career, she and her family escaped the rat race and relocated to the remote beauty of the Northumberland National Park. She now lives in a cottage built on the remains of a medieval chapel.

A member of the Crime Writer’s Association, she is a self confessed crime fiction addict. In 2011, her debut novel Mrs Jones a crime thriller set in New York, took second place in the international literary competition, The Yeovil Prize, and launched her writing career.

Website:  http://bamorton.weebly.com/

https://www.facebook.com/TheWildewoodChronicles

Nik, thank you so much for inviting me along to talk about my favourite subject...books! Best wishes and good luck in all you do. Babs x