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I'll be keeping an update of the latest news about the book and me trying to shift some copies as well as other bits and pieces!

Nov 08 - Sent a press release to the national media about the book and it's findings - Daily Mail, BBC, The Sun etc. Got zero interest. Didn't take it too personally as I suppose they get press releases about books all the time, although the Daily Mail reporting Amy Winehouse was kitting out one of her bedrooms into a sweetshop did make me laugh out loud 'News' papers? Leo McKinstry of the Daily Express wrote a whole page about meeting a lady, who was a youngster during the Blitz, on the steps of the Imperial War Museum in South London. He reported that she said she wasn't happy about the country today and questioned why they had bothered fighting the war. After plucking up some courage I phoned the Express and told the newsdesk the lady was in company and that the book I had been compiling had found a similar theme. Never heard back after they asked me to email more info. The shy part of my character sighs with relief "Thank God they ignored you!" My more outgoing side is determined to get some publicity in the near future.

Dec 08 - Decided the hardback might be to pricey for many and that I wasn't going to put money matters in the way of people buying the book. So the paperback was promptly created. If you have a nice oak panelled library, buy the hardback. If you're looking for something to read on the bus to Aldi, the paperback is yours for a tenner. (and in case your wondering, I'm firmly in the bus to Aldi camp.)

I sold a grand total of 4 books over the internet before Christmas and another 6 to friends and family. So thats 10 so far. It's still very early days, the first copies only arrived the Friday before Christmas Day (following Thursday), only 999,990 to go!

I sent a copy to the editor of Army Wives website. She is going to review it over the Christmas period and do a write up on their site and give the copy away as a prize.

A forces discount has been arranged for serving and ex service personnel and a number of organisations notified. BFPO addresses in 'War Zones' are free postage, I was pleased to hear.

The last day of 2008, another announcement of a Royal Marine killed in Afghanistan. A terrible day for a family somewhere in the UK.

Jan 08 - Happy New Year to all visitors! Unfortunately, it's a gloomy start with dire predictions of job losses etc. I suppose like everything book sales will be affected, not exactly a vital purchase. However, I think The Unknown Warriors could be good reading in a recession. A lot of the contributors were born during WW1, all grew up in the depression, went through WW2 and then rationing. Plenty of Blitz and Dunkirk spirit from the men and women who were there! By the time you've finished you'll be thinking your problems aren't the end of the world, your top lip will feel a bit stiffer, and you'll start the morning by saying KBO! Which Churchill would often say, and in case you haven't heard of KBO, it stands for KEEP BUGGERING ON! Which I think is a great phrase for 2009!

3rd - Bill Stone (108) was a sailor and served in WW1 and WW2. He was right in the thick of things evacuating troops off the beach at Dunkirk. Harry Patch (110) is the ONLY surviving Tommy who was in the Trenches of the Western Front. Henry Allingham (112), a FOUNDING member of the RAF. All well over their centenary year (Henry is Europes oldest living man!) and yet in recent years have worked as hard as they could to promote the work of the Royal British Legion and inform the current generation of the First World War, appearing in documentaries, helping with books, talking to schoolchildren, laying wreaths at the Cenotaph on the 90th anniversary of the armistice. Mr Allingham and Mr Patch have both in recent years been awarded the Legion D'honneur, Frances highest award. In this country the biggest honour they have received is Freedom of their home towns, a horse named after Harry Patch, honorary degrees and memberships etc. As the last living representitives of the millions of men they served alongside it's a shame that on New Years Day we wern't informed that they were going to be knighted.

5th - Like the new photo on the homepage? I took it quite a few years ago now in about 1999, when I was working in London, after I finished uni in Manchester. The veterans marched past, proud as ever, and I think it was the first year the Bevin Boys had marched, with their unmistakable white pit helmets. There must have easily been a hundred of them, but I noticed at the most recent remembrance on the TV in Nov 2008, there was only about a quarter of this number to be seen. In case you're wondering what on earth the white things are popping up, they are the white horse hair helmet plumes of the Household Cavalry! Something happened at the end of the ceremony that I will always remember, but that's another story.

8th - Stumbled across the news today, that on a building site in Poland, they have discovered a mass WWII grave of at least 1,800 German civillians including children and some displayed signs of bullet wounds and posssible execution. More about this story here. The local museum puts forward the theory that they were caught up in the fighting as the Soviets advanced in the late stages of the war in 1945.

11th - The Times report that German children in Bavaria are to be 'forced' to visit concentration camps. Many schools already visit camps but the newspaper says the kids are left to walk around in groups by themselves and new visits will have more 'rigour'. This it seems is a result of a recent near fatal stabbing of a local police chief which is being blamed on Neo Nazis, although no one has been apprehended as yet, and what evidence there is I do not know, except for the claims of the stabbed police chief. The Times does explain that the police chief has took a hard line against far right groups in the area, and this could be the most likely motive behind the attack. Now what is strange is that the journalist has completely omitted the fact that the police chief in question ordered the digging up of a local Neo Nazi grave who died last year, after hearing that they might have been buried with a Nazi flag on the coffin. More info at Spiegel in English HERE. I don't know what to think about Germans reaction to WW2 and it's legacy, perhaps Basil Fawlty was right "DON'T MENTION THE WAR!" youtube

12th - News came through today that Bill Stone, the countries only man left to have served in WW1 AND WW2 has died at the grand old age of 108, making him the oldest of Churchill's 'Unknown Warriors'. As chief stoker on HMS Salamander at the age of 40, he was at the evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940 and helped many men aboard his ship, which returned five times, each journey worse than the next. Their sister ship, Skipjack, took a direct hit only 50 yards from them. All crew on board and over 200 rescued soldiers were killed. Following on from Dunkirk he was on the Arctic Convoys and at the Sicily landings in 1943, when he was Mentioned In Dispatches for bravery. After the war he ran his own barbers shop down in Devon for many years. He gave this tip on how to live a long life. " Clean living, a contented mind and trust in God." Only in November he managed to attend a national remembrance ceremony, laying a wreath of poppies at the cenotaph in London. After he had done this he was to be seen singing the hymn 'The Day Thou Lord Gavest Has Ended'
You can watch an interview with Bill Stone HERE & HERE

15th - A War memorial has been desecrated by someone pouring petrol oil into the stonework in Failsworth in Lancashire. Repairs could amount to £10,000, this follows on from the Portsmouth memorial having the metal name plates of the fallen removed for scrap in the middle of the night last year. No wonder so many veterans are disgusted with the UK today. The report can be read here

An 89 year old war veteran has been ZAPPED WITH 50,000 volts. The poor man has Alzheimers and had escaped from his care home. The police in North Wales used a Taser gun on him 'as they were worried about his safety' as he threatened to kill himself with a piece of broken glass. The family of the man are unsuprisingly very unhappy about what happened, saying it could have gave him a heart attack. (He could have also been badly injured falling as the volts make people fall to the floor). He was then apparently handcuffed behind his back and taken to hospital, where he is said to have been very traumatised about the incident. You have to wonder how an old fashioned bobby on the beat might have solved the problem, my guess is they would have softly spoken to the man, offered him comfort and an outstretched hand, and if this didn't work they would have used firm but controlled strength as a last result to stop the frail man from hurting himself? The report is here
And if you have not seen one of these vicious weapons in action, then watch a clip on youtube here and here.
After watching them does anyone agree that this is the sort of weapon that should be used on an 89 year old Alzheimers sufferer?

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