27th June 2021

One more week to go to the release of The Meleke Stone...

Someone once said to me that truth often takes a back seat for those with subliminal, obsessional, lifelong-held racist views. It seemed to me, therefore, that in these days of free access to social media, which unfortunately gives a voice to many ill- educated, racist viewpoints, it was time to put the record straight. So, my new novel is the culmination of a project I’ve been working towards all my life. I wanted to write an enthralling, engrossing narrative but with a serious moral behind it. I built on the knowledge I learned at first hand when living in Toulouse, France, over 12 years. In so doing I was able to give my characters a shared, common background in being expelled from their original homelands and struggling to establish a new life in a different country.  I’ve attempted to draw on man’s similarities rather than perceived differences. Let’s hope it does some good in the world so that, whatever colour, faith or creed people espouse, we can all live in peace and brotherhood with each other.

.....are you ready to follow the 4000 year journey of The Meleke Stone?

20th June 2021

 Last night I watched  a 50s film called Flame in the Streets, starring John Mills and Sylvia Syms. Had to keep reminding myself this wasn’t a retro film where you check to see if the cars are accurate. It was made at the time, reflecting 50s attitudes on racism. Accurate? Yes. I remembered that time. Must have been terrible for Windrush people struggling to make a living in this country. On Friday I saw the build up to Eng v Scotland, a different kind of tribal warfare. It was clear: the Scots hate the English to an extraordinary degree, which doesn’t appear to be reciprocated at the same level by the English. I see it on social media a lot, yet we’re all the same nation. United? Don’t think so. It’s not a case of cutting it out by the roots. Such hatred towards those from other ‘tribes’ must be prevented from building up in the first place. How? Education.  Make sure that faith schools aren’t hiding overtly racist books under the guise of a foreign language, and teach all children to love each other. Let’s hope there’s no racist flames in the streets after the next ‘friendly’ Euro match.

13th June 2021

 Human greatness does not lie in wealth and power, but in character and goodness. Ann Frank, aged 13.

I wonder whether Angela Merkel, on arrival at the G7 in Cornwall this weekend, congratulated the Queen on her birthday? Probably. But, did Angela commemorate the birthday of one of her own citizens 92 years ago - Ann Frank, a young girl from Frankfurt brutally murdered by her own country? Probably not. I wonder also whether Angela will be applauding her team at the Euros as they ‘take the knee’? Probably. Yet, will she understand that it’s not just one group of people who are being subjected to global racism but many others too, some who have been persecuted for 3000 years? As a writer, I kept waiting for someone to highlight the unfairness suffered massively by the latter group. Eventually I thought, well, if no-one else, maybe I should do it myself.  So, my newly-completed novel - set in historic Israel from the year 1500 BCE through to the present day - is now finished. Irrespective of any future success, I doubt if Merkel or anyone else will be taking the knee on my behalf somehow! 

6th June 2021

 Yesterday was the anniversary of the 6 day war, which leads me to a question. Do writers have a duty to showcase things that are wrong with the world?  Or should we simply write superficial historical romances, which seem so popular today? You know the kind - those with covers featuring young, beautiful women with modern faces and make-up, white teeth and looking far too clean and well-groomed to ever have lived in the era depicted. My next book will attempt to show the world how unfair they’ve been to the Jewish people for thousands of years, forcing them out of their ancient tiny homeland again and again by successive waves of tribe after tribe. In Hitler’s Germany, millions walked meekly to their deaths, yet today when they at last defend themselves against yet another tribe vowing their extermination, it’s the Jewish people who are again derided rather than their aggressors. It’s clear enough: if Hamas et al lay down their weapons there’ll be peace; conversely, if Israel lays down its weapons, both Israel and its people will be wiped off the face of the earth. But, should I publish such a book when antisemitism is unbelievably rising yet again? Or do I have a duty as a writer to correct a terrible wrong? The jury’s out.