Category: 633 SQUADRON

Trump to encourage N. Korea, not stop them!

First of all, let me send out my heartfelt thoughts for the families of those lost in the Orlando, Florida bombing, and the singer killed last week. That said, America faces deep questions about weapons control, and not just the small arms variety.

With the outcome of the Briexit ‘in or out’ Referendum looking so close, that the result will probably be stalemate, eyes (especially mine) are looking to the USA for lively and meaningful debate. With Hillary’s nomination in the bag at the end of last week, Donald Trump issued a warming that he would dish the dirt on the Clintons early this week. He should be careful. The Clintons probably are spectacularly rich, but Bill Clinton has earned more money for charity (The Clinton Foundation ) that any individual in history. Apart from calling the kettle black, can Trump say the same? Or anything like it? Any hint of corruption in his life (and I bet there is much of it) and he will be hoisted by his own petard, as we say in the UK.

But the issue of the week is weapons. America must get its own gun-control laws in order, and quickly. Hillary has vowed to do it, if she wins. Trump just seems to be interested in making political capital out of any and all situations. He will try to make capital out of the Florida bombing and shooting if he can, but it doesn’t stop there. He is also interested in making friends of violent regimes around the world. Continue reading “Trump to encourage N. Korea, not stop them!” →

North Korea – The Korean War

Kim Jong-un - Supreme Leader of North Korea — Kim Jong-un – Supreme Leader of North Korea

First of all, because this is a post which includes information about air warfare, I would like to extend my heartfelt sympathies to the families of victims from the terrible Shoreham Air Show crash on Saturday.

I am working hard on a new book. I don’t want to reveal the plot but I will give you a clue:

With all the tension between North Korea and South Korea at the moment, it’s sad for me to think that my father fought for the United Nations trying to push back the oppressive North Korean regime when it invaded the South in 1950. Lim Jong-un has taken over from his father now but sadly, the regime still starves its citizens and shakes its fist at other countries. Of course the conflict has a complex history and if you don’t know much about it, here is what wikipedia says about the Korean War: Continue reading “North Korea – The Korean War” →

East Sussex Lay Subsidy Rolls: 1550 – Rotherfield, Cuckfield, Horsham, Lewes and others.

There is a permanent page for this post here . Update: I recently attempted an analysis of what the cow hides actually list, which you can view at your own risk on the permanent page.

In 2009 I paid for the National Archives to copy these Lay Subsidy Rolls (tax payments collected on cow hides), because nobody has previously requested this be done, so they were not available. These rolls (rots) may also be relevant to other genealogists, so I am sharing high resolution images of them here. I still have a record of the receipts.

Key
Amounts are usually given in Pounds, Shillings and Pennies
The ‘j’ indicates the last penny of each amount

Note
It would take me far too long to order these rolls (rots) according to their Borough, village or district and I could easily make a mistake, because they are so hard to read. Thus I will simply list them with their Roll file index name and leave it to others to dig further! Continue reading “East Sussex Lay Subsidy Rolls: 1550 – Rotherfield, Cuckfield, Horsham, Lewes and others.” →

Memories of the 1960s – Toys

I was born in 1962. The first 1960s toys I remember are a fluffy ball with a bell inside, a red, plastic train and a ‘musical box’, about the size of a food can, with a crank on top. As you turned the crank, metal tongues were flicked inside, much like an African lamellaphone. It had pictures of the royal guards and Buckingham Palace painted on its sides. I don’t remember what the tune was. The plastic train was from a Playcraft train set (see image below). All these toys seemed to be around since a time before I could remember anything clearly.

The first 1960s toy I remember actually receiving was a motorised Centurion tank (possibly Scalecraft). My dad came home late one night (it was always late when a father came home for any kid that was at nursery school!) and presented me with this thing that drove up and down a pile of books on its own! My dad showed me how to open a book and turn it upside down so that its spine formed the ridge of a hill. The tank could go over this too. Continue reading “Memories of the 1960s – Toys” →

Cliff Robertson Honorary Documentary

My all-time favourite film, set during wartime, is 633 Squadron (1964), starring Academy Award Winner Cliff Robertson. You may know him better as Peter Parker’s uncle in Spider Man.

633 Squadron is also one of my favourite movies of all time. The editing is tight and the action is the edge-of-your-seat stuff of legend. Here’s some trivia for you: did you know 633 Squadron was George Lucas’s inspiration for the Death Star attack in Star Wars IV – A New Hope? A great deal of the credit for the film’s taught style and human depth can be attributed to Cliff Robertson, who had enough influence in Hollywood at this time to ask for rewrites of film scripts. Cliff was at the very pinnacle of Hollywood’s acting elite and is still, to my knowledge the only actor to win a Grammy each for film, theatre and advertising. His Oscar for Charly was well-deserved and if you haven’t seen that, PT 109 (where Cliff played John F Kennedy) or 633 Squadron, see them.

Cliff was one of my childhood heroes and I was lucky enough to correspond with with Cliff at the end of his life. Along with many other fans, I always wondered what happened to his character, Roy Grant, at the end of the film. He is badly wounded but we can’t be sure whether he survives or not. After a heated discussion on youtube, I decided to try and contact Cliff to find out. With the help of Stephen Thompson, Cliff’s Press Agent, I was able to write a letter with a set of questions and get these to Cliff. Continue reading “Cliff Robertson Honorary Documentary” →

Cliff Robertson Biographical film

Just a quick post:

I had a very short correspondence with Cliff at the end of his life, because I was a huge fan of his since I was a child, and I wanted to ask him some questions about my favourite film, 633 Squadron. He was mad about aircraft himself. I found Cliff to be incredibly warm and friendly, and he tried to answer most of my questions. He even asked me over to do a ‘mano a mano’ interview. I would have loved to have gone, but I couldn’t really find the time. I regret this now, because I didn’t know how ill he was. Please help raise some money, so we can honour this outstanding and inspirational man. Click on the link below and find out more:

https://www.thomcomm.com

Facebook page no longer exists.

But you can comment on the blog:

https://cliffrobertsonhonorarydocumentary.blogspot.com/

I have asked Steve Thompson who is guiding this project to post about this project on this blog in the next few weeks.

Creation

Full marks if you knew the title film

This week’s excerpt
Since I am back on the story with a working title of Lotus, we do have an excerpt this week. Here it is, from a section entitled Painter.

Lotus
Copyright © 2013 by Lazlo Ferran

All Rights Reserved“I’m sorry, darling,” I explained as I sat down to my cornflakes and honey in our sunny, pine-furnished kitchenette.
But suddenly she wasn’t speaking to me. Typical! I don’t know whether to be grateful when she doesn’t pity me or angry because maybe she doesn’t care. On this occasion I was angry. As any man who has been in a long-term relationship with a woman will know, it’s the woman who decides where and when battles will be fought. The only choices I now had were what weapons to use. Righteousness? Jeez, no! Never to be used unless you are absolutely in the sight of God, correct. How about abject repentance. Perhaps worth a try. The old faithful; ignoring her too. Can work but tends to lend righteousness to her argument and prolong the battle. Time is the one thing I don’t have. Okay let’s try this one; the peace-offering from a friend combined with an explanation. Should at least win some Brownie points.
“Had a bad dream this morning. Only, not sure if it was a dream at all!” No response. She is still tidying away her own breakfast. Continue reading “Creation” →

20 April Updates – Preview of Iron 3

Here is this week’s sneak preview: it’s from the forthcoming sci-fi Iron: Volume III, provisionally entitled Worlds Like Dust. As usual I make no apologies for typos.

She heard heavy footsteps approaching. She took two grenades and pressed the sequence. Two red lights flashed at her. She waited until the counter said ‘1 second’, peered around the corner and threw them. The Ischians seemed surprised. Four of them stopped in their tracks, the rearmost already holding a wounded arm. They were all stooping to stop the top of their helmets scraping the ceiling. One of them dropped to his knees, as if praying. Then they were gone, in a mist of biomium spacesuit and fur-covered flesh.
Davidos had a momentary feeling of enuit. She shook her head, and ran past the body parts and bloody walls, towards the battle. She drew her laser and let the barrel lead her down the corridor. When she arrived, Dittmer and one other grunt were battling the last Ischian. It was kneeling in a pile of gore. Its normally grey suit was bright orange.
‘Sixteen grenades to a box – that’s twelve grenades. They can’t have used them all!’ Davidos thought. Dittmer and the grunt ignored her and pumped endless bursts of laser-fire into the suit of the alien, but the suit absorbed it all. They would be dead but for the alien having a blocked breach on his laser. ‘Probably overheated,’ Davidos thought. It heard her footsteps and heard her coming. It looked almost pitiable as she pressed the sequence and threw the last grenade. It raised its arms in surrender just before it disappeared into alien oblivion.
“What the fuck happened to the crate of grenades!” she said over the intercom.
“We were overwhelmed. There was at least twenty of them!” Dittmer retorted.
“Okay. Okay. Back to Dock 3.”
At the dock the two soldiers left guarding the hatch, were leaning against the wall. “They’re not coming out! Either they can’t. Or won’t!”
“Alright. What now Lieutenant Davidos?” asked Dittmer.

Other News
I have been very busy this week, editing a fantasy novel for another writer; The Journals of Raymond Brooks. It’s the first paid editing I have done. If anybody wants my editings skills on their own novel, my rates are on the page with a link to the right. I am making good progress on Iron III and work has also started on designing the cover for my forthcoming WWII action novel, called Attack Hitler’s Bunker!

Weekly Updates – Sneak Preview of Iron III

Each week I am going to be posting updates on my current projects. I am also going to try to post a sneak preview of one of the projects here. Copyright and IPR these days is complex so I will only be posting very short sections and I may have to delete them when the work is published. I make no mistake for any errors or typos: these are going to be first drafts. Below you will find the first sneak preview – from Iron III, provisionally entitled Worlds Like Dust.

Don’t forget the Ordo Lupus and the Temple Gate puzzle competition in the post below.

Sneak Preview of Iron III: Worlds Like Dust

If you have read Iron II: Unknown Place, Unknown Universe, you will know the character of A-schian’bakî as the Captain of the Ischian space-battleship Lu-kshîa.

Commander of the Fleet and Commander of Earth, A-schian’bakî was not in a good mood. She left the bridge and as she stepped out of the lift onto the 53rd deck, she kicked a lowly corporal in the hind-legs, sending him sprawling across the biomium floor. This was one of the privileges of rank that she had rarely exercised, but now she found the sadistic pleasure somewhat made up for the loss in battle of her favourite sexual toy. Continue reading “Weekly Updates – Sneak Preview of Iron III” →

Just a short update – Aviation Novel WIP

Just a short update as I haven’t posted for a while.

My WWII drama/adventure is going well. Inspired by 633 Squadron it aims to make stars out of Short Stirlings and Hurricanes – quite a tall order. I am approaching the climax and so will have a draft manuscript in the early new year.

I have an erotic psycho-drama which I work on at odd moments and that is really only about a quarter completed as a first draft.

The sci-fi sequel to Iron II: Unknown Place, Unknown Universe is on hold at the moment so that I can complete the WWII story. I only wrote about one chapter early this year. Not sure when I will return to it.

Lastly there is a book on Busking which I am attempting. It’s autobiographical but not meant to be about me really. Its more of a documentary about busking in London in the late 80s and early 90s. I have finished a draft of Chapter One and have rewritten it a number of times. I think I am getting close to the sort of feel I want.