As we close out the second month of the 2022 Creative Writing Showcase, it is a pleasure to feature another extract from Tina Wagner Mattern's forthcoming memoir.

You can read Tina's latest contribution A Good Man, The Wrong Time here.

Today's contribution in the Memoir Showcase is a very special one from highly-regarded author Lally Brown.

You can read her story Tales my grandfather told me here.

Lally Brown
 
Born and bred in Yorkshire I migrated south to Surrey for my education and teenage years. Embracing the Swinging Sixties with naïve enthusiasm I left College and trekked, alone, overland to Israel. By driving a tractor and picking oranges I earned my keep working and living on a small kibbutz. I was fortunate and managed to hitch-hike around the country visiting Haifa, Jerusalem and Acre. This amazing experience was the spark that ignited my lifelong love of adventure and travel.

Later, a small village in West Sussex became the family ‘base camp’ for thirty years as my Engineer husband took our family around the globe on British Government contracts. I have lost count of the number of homes I have had over the years, but my most memorable are those on St. Helena Island in the South Atlantic, Montserrat, Turks and Caicos Islands, and the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean.

Now, in my twilight years, I am dry-docked on the Isle of Wight surrounded by a loving family and four lively grandsons and I have the time and inclination to launch a series of books about my adventurous life. They prove that truth can indeed be far stranger than fiction. Erupting volcanoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, evacuations, abduction, drug smugglers, people smugglers, armed robbery, hangings, stowaways, bribery, corruption, political intrigues, riots, and much more.
 
My books can be found on Amazon.

‘High and Dry in the BVI’ chronicles my life in the British Virgin Islands in the 1970’s before the arrival of cruise ships, when the islands were the recreational retreat of America’s rich and famous.

‘Treefrogs Can’t Sing’ is the light-hearted story of my return to the British Virgin Islands several years later with two small children.

‘The Volcano, Montserrat and Me’ is a nail-biting description of three years living with a violent and unpredictable erupting volcano on the little Caribbean island of Montserrat.

‘The Countess, Napoleon and St Helena’ is a combination memoir of my own life on remote St Helena in parallel with an accurate historical portrayal (in diary form) of that of Countess Fanny Bertrand 1815-21, in particular her relationship with the exiled Napoleon Bonaparte. Researched from primary source manuscripts on island and unpublished documents held in the British Library.    
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The latest contribution in our Memoir Showcase is the second part of Ronald Mackay's story of his and Viviana's time in Argentina.

You can read Confessions of an Accidental Wino - Episode 2 here.

Ronald Mackay

Ronald and Viviana established their small business Fincas CALEDONIA, the Scottish Tradition in Argentina, in 2003. Starting with a few hectares of Cabernet Sauvignon vines, they expanded to 15 hectares of fine wine grapes of several varietals. From scratch, they developed a modest domestic market for in Argentina and exported to Poland, the UK, and the US. Their primary enjoyment, however, was the vineyard where they worked hands-on as grape growers. In their separate nursery, they grew certified disease-free vine rootlings for sale to local vintners. They ran Fincas CALEDONIA near Rama Caída, a village in the Province of Mendoza, until 2012. Ronald is the author of “Fortunate Isle, a memoir of Tenerife” and “The Kilt Behind the Curtain”.

It is a pleasure today to feature a contribution from Sue Bavey in the Memoir section of our 2022 Creative Writing Showcase.

You can read her story Across the Pond here.

"One of the perils of being a sniper during the First World War was the likelihood of a grenade going off right next to you and burying you alive”.
 
Meet Jack Rogers. Born in 1894, he once locked eyes with Queen Victoria and was one of the first travellers on London’s ‘Tube’. An early car owner, he had many escapades on his days out to Brighton, including a time when his brakes failed and he had to drive through central London without them!
 
His skills as an entertainer earned him popularity throughout his life, and kept him out of the deadly mines while a prisoner during the First World War. At the tender age of 103 Jack earned the title of ‘The World’s Oldest Columnist’ as he began dictating his life’s exploits to a reporter from the local newspaper.
 
https://bit.ly/Lucky-Jack
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​Email: sue.bavey@gmail.com (Emails welcome).
​Twitter: @SueBavey
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The latest feature in our Memoir Showcase is another moving extract from Tina Wagner Mattern's forthcoming memoir.

You can read A Journey to the Past here.

It gives me great pleasure today to introduce Thomas Laver, a newcomer to the writing features here on Fred's Blog.

His contribution to the Memoir section of the 2022 Creative Writing Showcase is titled Joey, Harry, Lilly, and Me, and you can read it here.

Many thanks for getting involved Mr. Laver.

It is an honour to feature a contribution in the Memoir Showcase from well-known blogger and author Sue Bavey. It is an evocative piece written by her late father.

As Sue explains, "I'm currently putting together his memoirs and poems for a book hopefully to be published later this year. Working title "Verse and Worse".

You can read Memories of Scarborough here.

John Cornelius Rogers - Author Bio
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​Father of Susan Bavey and husband of Elizabeth Mary Rogers, John was a lifelong sufferer from narcolepsy and cataplexy which led to him taking early retirement in his late fifties.
A veteran of World War 2, John served his country with the RAF as a navigator onboard a Tiger Moth.
After the war he trained to be a schoolteacher in London. An unforgiving profession at the time, which got the better of him, and he gladly returned to accountancy after three years, eventually moving from Sussex to Lincoln in 1974 to work as a Lincolnshire County Council auditor of schools and nursing homes until his retirement.

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It is a pleasure today to feature another excellent contribution in the Fiction Showcase from Tina Wagner Mattern.

You can read Tina's latest story Negative Images here.

Our latest contribution in the Memoir Showcase is the second this year from Roger Knight, a regular contributor to the writing features here on Fred's Blog.

You can read his story ​My errant employment experience recalled here.

I am very pleased today to be able to feature the second story in this year's Memoir Showcase from Patsy Hirst.

You can read her latest contribution MOM’S BEST FRIEND here.

Patsy Hirst describes herself as an island girl, accidently born amidst the cornfields of Indiana.  After living in a few other states, she visited St. Croix, in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and knew that was where she belonged.  She moved there in 1976 with her two daughters, aged 8 & 10, and began looking for ways to support the three of them.  Working as a bartender was quite a challenge for a teetotaler who didn’t know a brandy from a Beaujolais, but the waitressing part was easier, with her natural hospitality instincts.  After several years in various hotel and accounting jobs, she started her own destination wedding business.  Acting as planner, florist, officiant, whatever was needed, she declared it the best job ever:  she could go to work barefooted on the beach.

Shortly after moving to St. Croix, Patsy met her future husband, Jack Hirst.  They both retired in 2005, declared themselves the ‘Gypsy Hirsts’, and began a delightful 14 years of housesitting.  They spent six months or so sitting in Europe or Canada, returning to St. Croix for the winters.  After 11 countries, 37 different locations, 61 cats, 24 dogs, 18 chickens, 10 cows, 5 tortoises, 2 horses, and assorted birds and fish, not to mention zero remaining funds and no chance of any inheritance for the girls, they had to call it quits.  Covid made the decision easier and final, though Patsy still drools reading the housesit listings.  She is, however, quite happy in her role as Beachbum Grandmum.