Good question when related to work in progress. I’m prompted to attempt an answer thanks to an email from a reader in Cambridge, one Meint (sic), who asks: ‘Any more updates on the new book? Do you already have a release date and any more hints on plot/characters? Have really enjoyed your first three efforts, hope there are many more to follow.’
On the last point, Meint, so do I but approaching 73 you can’t promise. To complete the current novel is the prime objective.
As to release date, late 2011 at the present rate of progress. I was chased by Headline Review, ‘my’ publisher within the Hachette empire, to deliver the already overdue MS by early December but I’ve only completed 65,000-words so far with a similar amount remaining. The only reassurance I could give my patient and supportive editor Martin Fletcher is that I believe the work is pretty good. The reasons for the delay: a period of ill-health and a projected house-move followed by a dispute with a neighbouring land-owner over boundaries and a right-of-way that may well end up in court; costly in time and money.
Hints on plot and characters? Well, its’ central figure is emerging as something of a monster, most interesting to write; perceived by the world in general as an aviation hero (as indeed he is) but gradually revealed as a predatory and unprincipled swine with unfortunate political ambitions. The effects of said swine on those around him, particularly a son, provide the motive power of the plot.
It’s been enjoyable to deal with real locations in Kent, Sussex and France, particularly Alfriston and Rye. I said jokingly to Martin that, on publication, I hoped signs would appear along the roads: You Are Now Entering Barnard Country. But weaving in historical fact as the fictional plot progresses is a fascinating exercise. This morning for example I’m focussing on the Flying Village that existed at Brooklands before the Great War, where my aviator is about to begin his flying career, in flashback I might add because the chapters not only develop the story from the perspective of different characters but also at different dates, back and forth in time.
I’m wary of revealing too much because this is new territory for me and I hope my readers will follow me there. Martin thought it might be ‘the
breakthrough novel’; the first three having sold very well but not up there with the mega best-sellers. Who knows? All you can do is plug on, write as carefully and as interestingly as you can and hope it meets, eventually, with approval and enjoyment.
Meanwhile, many thanks to Meint for getting in touch.
Now I have a vague idea of what being a celebrity entails, thanks to a incredibly busy visit to Malta promoting the island’s special edition of Band Of Eagles. I was invited there by Miller Distributors, the leading distributors of newspapers, magazines and books, along with much else ranging from press services to consumer electronics. In the space of two days I signed copies of Band Of Eagles Over Malta at no fewer than six Agenda bookshops, all owned by Miller, as well as meeting the press at a reception at the Phoenicia Hotel and being interviewed by journalists from Times of Malta, Malta Independent and Sunday Circle, required reading for anyone interested in what’s going on generally. Interest in the novel had also been boosted by the Times of Malta serialising it in three parts the previous week, another coup for Miller.
My PSA is still being checked on a three-monthly basis and I’m waiting to hear the results of the latest. And just to help matters, I fell out of a sailing dinghy a few weeks ago and got whacked across the side of the head by the boom as the boat turned over. At first the injury seemed restricted to a deep gash on my right ear, but then I began to experience black blobs floating across the vision of my right eye. This grew worse after a long drive, so now I’m having that investigated too. Something to do with vitreous gel, the jelly-like fluid that fills the inside of the eye, pulling away from the back wall of the eye and casting shadows, an age thing but possibly worsened by the thump to the nut. I keep thinking the blobs are flies. When some actually turn out to be flies it’s confusing. But perhaps the most worrying moment came when the specialist asked: ‘ Have you had a blow to the head recently?’ Christ, you, think, he’s taking this seriously.
Band of EaglesThe most recent example of what can happen came last week at the care home where my father now resides. One of the other residents is an ex-RAF man, Keith, and as Dad had a couple of my novels in his bookshelf I thought Keith might like a copy of Band Of Eagles as it deals with Malta, where he served during the war.
Ingorious Bastards. Now, although no-one has pointed it out so far, Quentin Tarantino’s World War 2 fantasy Inglorious Bastards, featuring a unit of Jewish fighters operating behind the lines in Europe with the objective of assassinating Hitler, has a distinct similarity to ‘my’ group of Palestinian volunteers in To Play The Fox, except that in Fox the action takes place in North Africa at the time of the Battle of El Alamein and is much closer to the truth.
