1st February: Dad's Army

On this date in 1939 A British White Paper proposing the formation of the Home Guard (which became better known as ‘Dad’s Army’ because of the average age of the volunteers) was published. In the late 1960s they made a TV series about a fictional unit, called Dad's Army. 10 things you might not know about the show, which ran for 80 episodes.

1. Dad's Army was created by Jimmy Perry and David Croft. Jimmy Perry was an actor who'd hoped that by writing his own show, he could create for himself the kind of part he wanted to play. He fancied the role of spiv Private Walker, until he was advised that both writing and performing might cause problems, so another actor, James Beck, was hired to play Walker.
2. The character Perry based most on himself, though, was Private Pike. Perry's mother used to worry about him catching cold just like Pike's did, although she stopped short of making him wear a scarf. Ian Lavender, the only surviving member of the main cast, still has the scarf he wore on the show.
3. The writers originally came up with the name "Fighting Tigers" for the show, and set it in Brightsea-on-Sea, but Michael Mills, head of comedy at the BBC at the time, didn't like the title or the name of the location - so came up with Dad's Army and Walmington-on-Sea instead. Mills also vetoed Croft's suggestion that actual newsreel footage of bombings and combat be used for the opening sequence. The BBC deemed that inappropriate for a comedy show.
4. The theme tune, Who do you think you are Kidding Mr. Hitler? wasn't an actual 1940s song but a pastiche of the music of the era, written by Jimmy Perry and David Taverner. The singer, Bud Flanagan, was a wartime entertainer and one of Perry's childhood idols. He was paid 100 guineas to record the song. Other songs heard during the episodes were genuine wartime recordings.
5. The actors playing the roles could have been very different, too. Captain Mainwaring could have been Jon Pertwee or Leonard Rossiter, and Corporal Jones could have been David Jason or Jack Haig (LeClerc in 'Allo 'Allo). The BBC weren't keen on casting Arthur Lowe, because he'd been in Coronation Street. Arthur Lowe only agreed to take the part on condition that he would never have to appear on screen without his Trousers.
6. The very first episode was called The Man and The Hour, and the first scene was set in 1968. In it, an even older Captain Mainwaring is giving a patriotic speech in which he recalls his time in the Home Guard, which means everything we see after that is technically a flashback.
7. Several of the cast were actual WWII veterans. Arthur Lowe had served as a Sergeant Major, John Le Mesurier as a Captain. The actor who played Private Godfrey, Arnold Ridley, had served in the first world war, and been a member of the Home Guard during the second.
8. The filming location for outdoor scenes was Thetford in Norfolk. Today, there is a statue there of Captain Mainwaring sitting on a bench.
9. A pre-screening to gauge audience reaction to the proposed new show didn't go well. The sample who saw it hated it and the comments were pretty negative. However, the comments were quietly filed away and the show broadcast anyway - and people loved it. Only months after the show became a hit were the initial comments made public. Initial concerns that WWII veterans would find it offensive were soon put to rest when some of the most positive letters came from those people. Another belief was that only people who remembered the war would appreciate the show, but it proved a hit with children, too. To this day, it is an episode of Dad's Army that waits in the wings in case something goes wrong and a show fails to broadcast. When a power cut made it impossible to broadcast the news in 2000, they showed Dad's Army instead.
10. It is often hinted at that Sergeant Wilson and Pike's mother are in a relationship. Pike calls Wilson "Uncle Arthur," but it was eventually confirmed by Jimmy Perry that Pike is actually Wilson's son.

NEW!

Settling the Score

Another collection of short stories, even more murder and mayhem with carol singers, an orchestra out for revenge, a sinister magic stone and a haunted mansion.

Available on Amazon:
Paperback            E-book


A Tale of Two Sisters

During a battle with supervillains, a horrific accident leaves the Warner family with no option but to believe their youngest daughter, Jessica, is dead. It doesn't occur to them that the bad guys could, or would, save her.

Jessica wakes up with no memory of who she is or how she came to be on a space station with two bionic legs, a bionic arm and a bionic eye. She is told her family abandoned her and is sent back to Earth with a mission - to kill them. While Jessica wants to kill her family, along with the twin boys who once rejected her, she knows what the Alliance of Supervillains are asking her to do is a suicide mission. She decides to get her revenge in her own way.

As Jessica puts the first part of her revenge plan in motion, she finds herself with an agonising decision to make. Before she can decide, the Alliance come for her, determined to make her do their bidding. This time, it's the Alliance who leave her, crippled and at the mercy of the Warner family, who have no idea who the Alliance's Black Rose really is.

Jessica finds herself having to re-think her decisions in light of what she now learns about her family, the Alliance, the twins, and herself. It would appear the Alliance have left her with an unwanted and permanent reminder of her time with them. Or have they?

Jessica's older sister, Jill, knows her destiny is to be a doctor and specialise in bionics and genetic variant medicine. She is also hopelessly in love with Christopher, Crown Prince of Galorvia. Can their romance survive the lies Christopher told her when they were both at school, an unplanned pregnancy and Sophie, the wannabe princess who comes between them?

Available on Amazon
Paperback

E-book

January 31: International Zebra Day

Today is International Zebra Day. Zebras are members of the Horse family and there are three different species: The plains zebra (Equus quagga) the mountain zebra (Equus zebra) and Grevy's zebra (Equus greyvi). Here are 10 things you might not know about them.

1. A group of zebras is called a herd, a dazzle, or a zeal.
2. Every zebra has a unique pattern of stripes which can be used to identify individuals. The first people to realise this were Hans and Ute Kingel in the 1960s. They created a whole set of index cards based on photographs they'd taken of a herd of zebras. These days, there is special software which can scan them, like a Bar code. The software can take into account any changes in the zebra's body shape, for example, if a female is pregnant.
3. Scientists don't know for sure why zebras have stripes. An early theory was that the stripes confused predators, making it harder for them to pick out individuals in a herd, or spot them in long grass. Another theory is that the Black stripes absorb more sunlight than the dark ones, leading to movement of air which cools the zebra down. Still another is that biting insects have been found to avoid stripy patterns.
4. African folk tales tell a different story. In Namibia, the story goes that the zebra was once all white, but during a fight with a baboon over a waterhole, the zebra fell into a fire, and the burning sticks left scorch marks all over it.
5. Mountain and plains zebras tend to live in herds that consist of one male and a harem of females. Surplus young males go off and form bachelor herds. They may, from time to time, try to take over an existing harem but even if they can defeat the resident stallion, it can take up to three years for the females to accept him enough to mate with him. Grevy's zebras are a bit different. The males claim an area of land and then just wait for a female to wander by. Some males without territories may form bachelor herds too, and are tolerated by the males with territories, at least until a receptive female comes along and then all hell breaks loose!
6. Being members of the horse family, they can breed with other members of the horse family and create various sterile hybrids. The offspring of a zebra stallion and a mare is called a zorse; a male horse and a female zebra produce a hebra. A zebra stallion and a female donkey's offsping is called a zedonk. A female zebra and a male Donkey produce a zebret or a zebrinny. There are also zonies, which is what you get when a zebra breeds with a pony.
7. Unlike other members of the horse family, zebras have never been domesticated. While attempts have been made in the past to train them for riding because they are more resistant to some diseases than horses, they mostly failed because zebras have an unpredictable nature and tend to panic when under stress.
8. Plains zebras are good for making ungrazed areas habitable by other grazing animals. They can eat harder, older and lower quality foliage, digest it quickly and poop out fertilizer so plants more palatable to other animals can grow.
9. When chased by a predator, a zebra will zig zag as it runs away which makes it harder for the predator to attack. If it gets cornered, the zebra will rear up, kick and bite.
10. Their distinctive appearance makes them popular in art and symbolism. Botswana's coat of arms has two zebras on it, and they have been used as mascots for products such as fruit stripe gum, and Zebra Technologies, which develop bar codes. Sports teams whose colours are black and white are sometimes nicknamed "the zebras".

NEW!

Settling the Score

Another collection of short stories, even more murder and mayhem with carol singers, an orchestra out for revenge, a sinister magic stone and a haunted mansion.

Available on Amazon:
Paperback            E-book


A Tale of Two Sisters

During a battle with supervillains, a horrific accident leaves the Warner family with no option but to believe their youngest daughter, Jessica, is dead. It doesn't occur to them that the bad guys could, or would, save her.

Jessica wakes up with no memory of who she is or how she came to be on a space station with two bionic legs, a bionic arm and a bionic eye. She is told her family abandoned her and is sent back to Earth with a mission - to kill them. While Jessica wants to kill her family, along with the twin boys who once rejected her, she knows what the Alliance of Supervillains are asking her to do is a suicide mission. She decides to get her revenge in her own way.

As Jessica puts the first part of her revenge plan in motion, she finds herself with an agonising decision to make. Before she can decide, the Alliance come for her, determined to make her do their bidding. This time, it's the Alliance who leave her, crippled and at the mercy of the Warner family, who have no idea who the Alliance's Black Rose really is.

Jessica finds herself having to re-think her decisions in light of what she now learns about her family, the Alliance, the twins, and herself. It would appear the Alliance have left her with an unwanted and permanent reminder of her time with them. Or have they?

Jessica's older sister, Jill, knows her destiny is to be a doctor and specialise in bionics and genetic variant medicine. She is also hopelessly in love with Christopher, Crown Prince of Galorvia. Can their romance survive the lies Christopher told her when they were both at school, an unplanned pregnancy and Sophie, the wannabe princess who comes between them?

Available on Amazon
Paperback

E-book

30 January: The River Severn

On this date in 1607 The River Severn flooded, inundating Barnstaple, Gloucester and everything in between. The flood reached as far as Cardiganshire, Bristol, the Gwent Levels and Glastonbury Tor, 14 miles away. It was estimated that 2,000 people were killed. Ten things you might not know about the River Severn.

1. It's Britain's longest river at 220 miles/354km long, flowing from Plynlimon, the highest point in the Cambrian Mountains in Wales to the Bristol Channel. For much of its length it provides a physical boundary between England and Wales although it also meanders into England at times, into Gloucestershire, Worcestershire and Shropshire.
2. Its estuary, which is said to begin at the Prince of Wales Bridge, which carries the M4 between England and Wales, is between two and nine miles wide and 4,409 square miles/11,419 square kilometers in area. The tides in the estuary are the second highest in the world.
3. It is these tides which give rise to the Severn Bore, a wave which can travel up the river for over 25 miles. The bores occur about 260 times a year, twice daily on the days immediately following the new moon and the full moon. The largest ones, the ones which get the media coverage, happen around the equinoxes. The highest recorded Severn bore was on 15 October 1966 when it reached a height of 2.8m/9.2 feet at Stonebench.
4. The tides here are being considered as a means of generating electricity in the UK. A feasibility study was launched in 2008. The UK government decided not to invest in such a scheme, but a privately funded project wouldn't be ruled out.
5. The name is thought to have derived from a Celtic word, samarina, which means "land of summer fallow". In Roman times the name evolved to become Sabrina. A folk tale grew up about a nymph named Sabrina who drowned in the river. Sabrina is also the name of the Celtic goddess of the river, at least up to the point where it becomes tidal. At that point Sabrina hands over deityship to Nodens, a sea god who is said to ride the Severn Bore mounted on a seahorse.
6. In Welsh, the river is known as Hafren.
7. In Tudor times the estuary was known as the Severn Sea.
8. Tributaries of the Severn include the rivers Stour, Vyrnwy, Worfe, Teme, Avon Wye and Usk.
9. Some of the towns it flows through are Welshpool, Shrewsbury, Ironbridge, Bridgnorth, Stourport-on-Severn, Worcester and Gloucester.
10. Writers and composers who have mentioned or been inspired by the Severn include William Shakespeare, A.E. Houseman, Ellis Peters, Julian Barnes and Edward Elgar.

NEW!

Settling the Score

Another collection of short stories, even more murder and mayhem with carol singers, an orchestra out for revenge, a sinister magic stone and a haunted mansion.

Available on Amazon:
Paperback            E-book


A Tale of Two Sisters

During a battle with supervillains, a horrific accident leaves the Warner family with no option but to believe their youngest daughter, Jessica, is dead. It doesn't occur to them that the bad guys could, or would, save her.

Jessica wakes up with no memory of who she is or how she came to be on a space station with two bionic legs, a bionic arm and a bionic eye. She is told her family abandoned her and is sent back to Earth with a mission - to kill them. While Jessica wants to kill her family, along with the twin boys who once rejected her, she knows what the Alliance of Supervillains are asking her to do is a suicide mission. She decides to get her revenge in her own way.

As Jessica puts the first part of her revenge plan in motion, she finds herself with an agonising decision to make. Before she can decide, the Alliance come for her, determined to make her do their bidding. This time, it's the Alliance who leave her, crippled and at the mercy of the Warner family, who have no idea who the Alliance's Black Rose really is.

Jessica finds herself having to re-think her decisions in light of what she now learns about her family, the Alliance, the twins, and herself. It would appear the Alliance have left her with an unwanted and permanent reminder of her time with them. Or have they?

Jessica's older sister, Jill, knows her destiny is to be a doctor and specialise in bionics and genetic variant medicine. She is also hopelessly in love with Christopher, Crown Prince of Galorvia. Can their romance survive the lies Christopher told her when they were both at school, an unplanned pregnancy and Sophie, the wannabe princess who comes between them?

Available on Amazon
Paperback

E-book

29 January: Frederick Delius

Frederick Delius, English composer whose works include A Mass of Life, On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring and A Village Romeo and Juliet, was born on this date in 1862. Some things you might not know about him.

1. He may have been born in England (Bradford in Yorkshire, to be exact), but he lived and worked in many other places including Germany, France, Norway and the USA. His musical influences included Norwegian folklore and African American spirituals.
2. He had three brothers and ten sisters. The family were fond of music and Frederick learned the Violin and Piano as a child, but his parents didn't envisage Frederick having a career in Music. They wanted him to follow his father into the family wool business.
3. When sent on trips connected to the family business, Frederick would spend more time visiting the musical centres of the place than doing business until his father despaired of him and sent him to America to manage an Orange plantation in Jacksonville, Florida. Here, too, Delius found he was much more interested in learning, and in due course composing music than in any kind of business.
4. He published his first musical composition while in Florida - Zum Carnival, a Polka for the piano.
5. There's also a legend that, while in Florida, he had an affair with an African American woman called Chloe, and got her pregnant. Then, when Delius returned to Florida to sell the plantation, Chloe feared he'd come to take their son away and fled, taking the boy with her. There's not much hard evidence for this story. An attempt to find some descendants of the boy in the 1990s was unsuccessful. However, this experience is said to have influenced the tone of Delius's music thereafter.
6. He later married a German artist called Jelka Rosen. Delius wasn't especially successful as a composer at that time, so she was the main breadwinner. She remained devoted to him despite the fact he wasn't faithful to her.
7. He wasn't a fan of concert programme notes. When asked for one he said that he much preferred that people just listened to his music and not be distracted by such things.
8. A piece in his Village Romeo and Juliet, Walk to the Paradise Garden, isn't about a garden at all - The Paradise Garden is the name of a pub.
9. By 1928, his health had failed to the extent that he could no longer compose - he was paralysed and blind. He tried composing by dictating to his wife, but later a young admirer named Eric Fenby offered to help. This allowed Delius to carry on composing for a few more years. Fenby later wrote a book about his experience in which he revealed that Delius was a big cricket fan and that they'd followed the 1930 Test series together.
10. Delius died in 1933, aged 72. He'd wanted to be buried in his garden, but the French authorities wouldn't allow it. His plan B was to be buried in a country churchyard in England. His wife Jelka was very ill, too, at the time and wasn't well enough to sail to England to bury him there, so Delius was temporarily buried in a nearby cemetery until she felt strong enough to make the trip. However, she became ill on the way and ended up being taken to hospital in Dover and missing the service at St Peter's Church at Limpsfield in Surrey, which was held at midnight, by lamplight, with 60 people in attendance. Jelka didn't recover from her illness - she died two days later, and was buried in the same grave.

NEW!

Settling the Score

Another collection of short stories, even more murder and mayhem with carol singers, an orchestra out for revenge, a sinister magic stone and a haunted mansion.

Available on Amazon:
Paperback            E-book


A Tale of Two Sisters

During a battle with supervillains, a horrific accident leaves the Warner family with no option but to believe their youngest daughter, Jessica, is dead. It doesn't occur to them that the bad guys could, or would, save her.

Jessica wakes up with no memory of who she is or how she came to be on a space station with two bionic legs, a bionic arm and a bionic eye. She is told her family abandoned her and is sent back to Earth with a mission - to kill them. While Jessica wants to kill her family, along with the twin boys who once rejected her, she knows what the Alliance of Supervillains are asking her to do is a suicide mission. She decides to get her revenge in her own way.

As Jessica puts the first part of her revenge plan in motion, she finds herself with an agonising decision to make. Before she can decide, the Alliance come for her, determined to make her do their bidding. This time, it's the Alliance who leave her, crippled and at the mercy of the Warner family, who have no idea who the Alliance's Black Rose really is.

Jessica finds herself having to re-think her decisions in light of what she now learns about her family, the Alliance, the twins, and herself. It would appear the Alliance have left her with an unwanted and permanent reminder of her time with them. Or have they?

Jessica's older sister, Jill, knows her destiny is to be a doctor and specialise in bionics and genetic variant medicine. She is also hopelessly in love with Christopher, Crown Prince of Galorvia. Can their romance survive the lies Christopher told her when they were both at school, an unplanned pregnancy and Sophie, the wannabe princess who comes between them?

Available on Amazon
Paperback

E-book

28 January: Rattlesnake Round Up

Rattlesnake round up - 10 things you might not know about rattlesnakes.

1. There are about 36 species of rattlesnake. They are native to the Americas and are found in a variety of habitats from Canada to Argentina, although they are most common in the south west of the USA and northern Mexico.
2. They belong to two genera - Crotalus and Sistrusus. Both of the genus names derive from musical instruments - the first for the Greek word for a castanet and the latter from an ancient Egyptian musical instrument called a sistrum.
3. Just because a rattlesnake has had its head cut off doesn't mean it won't bite. The biting reflex often remains active after the snake is dead.
4. Rattlesnakes don't lay eggs. Their eggs hatch inside them so their babies are born fully formed. There can be as many as 25 of them in one litter.
5. Newborn rattlesnakes don't have rattles. It does have a specialised scale at the end of its tail called a pre-button. After it sheds its skin for the first time, the pre-button becomes a button, an hourglass shaped scale. In subsequent sheds, segments of keratin get added until it has a complete rattle. It is a myth, however, that you can tell a rattlesnake's age by the number of keratin segments it has.
6. There is one species of rattlesnake that doesn't have a rattle at all. It's the Santa Catalina rattlesnake which lives on a small island in the Gulf of California. Scientists think they lost their rattles because there aren't many predators or large animals on the island so they don't need the warning system.
7. A study in 2018 found that rattlesnakes help distribute seeds. When they eat a rodent with seeds stashed in its cheek pouches, the snake doesn't digest the seeds, but poops them out later in a new location.
8. Benjamin Franklin held that rattlesnakes embodied diplomacy, because they give a warning before they attack, and were also a symbol of vigilance, because they have no eyelids.
9. The largest rattlesnake is the eastern diamondback which can grow to 8 feet/2.4 metres in length, and the smallest is the ridge-nosed rattlesnake which is 30-60cm/1-2 feet long.
10. They don't eat very often. A young rattlesnake will eat once a week, while an adult can go two weeks between meals.

NEW!

Settling the Score

Another collection of short stories, even more murder and mayhem with carol singers, an orchestra out for revenge, a sinister magic stone and a haunted mansion.

Available on Amazon:
Paperback            E-book


A Tale of Two Sisters

During a battle with supervillains, a horrific accident leaves the Warner family with no option but to believe their youngest daughter, Jessica, is dead. It doesn't occur to them that the bad guys could, or would, save her.

Jessica wakes up with no memory of who she is or how she came to be on a space station with two bionic legs, a bionic arm and a bionic eye. She is told her family abandoned her and is sent back to Earth with a mission - to kill them. While Jessica wants to kill her family, along with the twin boys who once rejected her, she knows what the Alliance of Supervillains are asking her to do is a suicide mission. She decides to get her revenge in her own way.

As Jessica puts the first part of her revenge plan in motion, she finds herself with an agonising decision to make. Before she can decide, the Alliance come for her, determined to make her do their bidding. This time, it's the Alliance who leave her, crippled and at the mercy of the Warner family, who have no idea who the Alliance's Black Rose really is.

Jessica finds herself having to re-think her decisions in light of what she now learns about her family, the Alliance, the twins, and herself. It would appear the Alliance have left her with an unwanted and permanent reminder of her time with them. Or have they?

Jessica's older sister, Jill, knows her destiny is to be a doctor and specialise in bionics and genetic variant medicine. She is also hopelessly in love with Christopher, Crown Prince of Galorvia. Can their romance survive the lies Christopher told her when they were both at school, an unplanned pregnancy and Sophie, the wannabe princess who comes between them?

Available on Amazon
Paperback

E-book

27 January: Castor and Pollux

This date in the year 484 saw the dedication of the temple of Castor and Pollux,  in Ancient Rome. Here are ten things you might not know about Castor and Pollux.

1. Castor and Pollux were the twin sons of Leda, although who their father, or fathers, was is a matter of debate. Some say they are both the sons of Tyndareus, King of Sparta, others that they are both sons of the god Zeus. Still others maintain that Castor was the son of Tyndareus and Pollux was the son of Zeus.
2. Some accounts say they were born from an egg, as a result of Leda being seduced by Zeus in the form of a Swan.
3. Another name for them is the Discouri, which means Youths of Zeus.
4. They were both skilled horsemen and hunters. Pollux, in addition, was a skilled boxer.
5. They are described as being well-built with blond hair and large eyes. They're usually pictured riding Horses, wearing skull caps and carrying spears, sometimes with the shell of the egg they were born from around them.
6. They are also associated with sailors and the sea, having travelled with Jason and the Argonauts. St Elmo's fire was said to be the twins coming to rescue sailors in danger.
7. Some of the quests they took part in were helping Jason retrieve the golden fleece, hunting the Calydonian boar and rescuing their sister Helen when she was abducted by Theseus.
8. They stole their cousins' girlfriends. Phoebe and Hilaeria, also known as the Leucippedes, were consorts of Their cousins Lynceus and Idas when Castor and Pollux fell in love with them. The twins abducted the women, starting a family feud which ended with Castor being mortally wounded and Pollux killing Lynceus.
9. The immortal Pollux asks Zeus for immortality for his brother Castor. Zeus grants them a form of immortality by transforming them into the constellation of Gemini.
10. Even after the rise of Christianity, the Discouri were still venerated by many. The church rejected any idea that they were immortal, and tried to replace them with pairs of saints with similar attributes. Some scholars believe that James and John were modelled on them, and that their nickname, "Sons of Thunder" was a reference to them being sons of Zeus.

NEW!

Settling the Score

Another collection of short stories, even more murder and mayhem with carol singers, an orchestra out for revenge, a sinister magic stone and a haunted mansion.

Available on Amazon:
Paperback            E-book


A Tale of Two Sisters

During a battle with supervillains, a horrific accident leaves the Warner family with no option but to believe their youngest daughter, Jessica, is dead. It doesn't occur to them that the bad guys could, or would, save her.

Jessica wakes up with no memory of who she is or how she came to be on a space station with two bionic legs, a bionic arm and a bionic eye. She is told her family abandoned her and is sent back to Earth with a mission - to kill them. While Jessica wants to kill her family, along with the twin boys who once rejected her, she knows what the Alliance of Supervillains are asking her to do is a suicide mission. She decides to get her revenge in her own way.

As Jessica puts the first part of her revenge plan in motion, she finds herself with an agonising decision to make. Before she can decide, the Alliance come for her, determined to make her do their bidding. This time, it's the Alliance who leave her, crippled and at the mercy of the Warner family, who have no idea who the Alliance's Black Rose really is.

Jessica finds herself having to re-think her decisions in light of what she now learns about her family, the Alliance, the twins, and herself. It would appear the Alliance have left her with an unwanted and permanent reminder of her time with them. Or have they?

Jessica's older sister, Jill, knows her destiny is to be a doctor and specialise in bionics and genetic variant medicine. She is also hopelessly in love with Christopher, Crown Prince of Galorvia. Can their romance survive the lies Christopher told her when they were both at school, an unplanned pregnancy and Sophie, the wannabe princess who comes between them?

Available on Amazon
Paperback

E-book

26 January: Bessie Coleman

Born on this date in 1892 was Bessie Coleman, the first African-American to hold a pilot's licence. She was also the first person of Native American descent to do so. Here are ten facts about her.

1. She was born in Texas and was the tenth of thirteen children. Four of her father's grandparents were Cherokee.
2. As a child, she had to walk four miles to school each day. She was a good student who loved reading and excelled at maths. However, at Cotton harvest time she had to skip school to help with the harvest. At 12, she won a scholarship to the Missionary Baptist Church School. At 18, she enrolled in university, but only had enough savings to complete one term before being forced to drop out.
3. At 24, she was working as a manicurist in a Chicago barber's shop. Some of the customers there had been pilots during World War I and Bessie was fascinated by their stories. They inspired her to become a pilot herself. She took a second job in order to save money for pilot training.
4. Getting the money together was the least of her obstacles, however. At the time, flight schools in America did not admit either African Americans or women. Her situation came to the notice of the publisher of the Chicago Defender, a newspaper for African Americans. He suggested that she should go abroad to learn to fly and published a story about her in his paper, which led to banker Jesse Binga agreeing to sponsor her.
5. She learned to fly in Paris, having learned to speak French in a Chicago language school. The plane she learned to fly in was a Nieuport 82 biplane. She earned an international pilot's licence. Bessie didn't stop there - before returning to the USA, she took some extra lessons from a French flying ace to develop her skills even more.
6. On returning home, Bessie soon worked out that the only way to make a living from flying back then was to perform stunts at airshows. For this, she would need even more training, but the flight schools in America still wouldn't teach her. She returned to France to complete more training there, and then travelled to the Netherlands and Germany for even more.
7. Now she was ready to perform at airshows and became a media sensation and a draw to airshows, known as "Queen Bess". She was known for her courage and determination as well as her skill. In 1923 her plane stalled and crashed during a stunt and she ended up with a broken leg and three broken ribs.
8. Her ambitions went beyond merely being a performer, though. She still worked in a beauty shop (although now she owned the shop) in order to save money to not only buy her own plane but to start her own flying school for black aviators. She was committed to promoting opportunities and equality for African American people and became a popular public speaker on the subject. She would refuse to perform at any event where African Americans were refused admission, and once turned down a role in a film, even though the fee would go a long way towards her flying school, because the producers wanted to portray black people in a derogatory way.
9. She died aged 34, in a plane crash. It was her own plane, which she'd recently bought, but she wasn't flying it herself. Her agent and mechanic, William Wills, was at the controls. The previous owner hadn't maintained the plane very well and Wills had to land three times on a flight from Dallas to Florida because of technical problems. Bessie's family and friends warned her against flying this plane for this reason. On the fateful flight, she wan't wearing a seat-belt, because she wanted to look out of the window to study the terrain for a parachute jump the following day. The plane went out of control and she was thrown from it at 2,000 feet. Wills tried to regain control but failed and also died when the plane hit the ground. The reason for the crash was later determined to be a wrench left in the engine by a service engineer, which had jammed the controls.
10. Numerous schools, scholarships and streets have been named in her honour, including several roads in and around international airports. She has been inducted into the National Women's, The National Aviation and the International Air and Space Halls of Fame. Mae Jemison, the first African American woman to go into space, carried a picture of Bessie Coleman with her on her first mission.

NEW!

Settling the Score

Another collection of short stories, even more murder and mayhem with carol singers, an orchestra out for revenge, a sinister magic stone and a haunted mansion.

Available on Amazon:
Paperback            E-book


A Tale of Two Sisters

During a battle with supervillains, a horrific accident leaves the Warner family with no option but to believe their youngest daughter, Jessica, is dead. It doesn't occur to them that the bad guys could, or would, save her.

Jessica wakes up with no memory of who she is or how she came to be on a space station with two bionic legs, a bionic arm and a bionic eye. She is told her family abandoned her and is sent back to Earth with a mission - to kill them. While Jessica wants to kill her family, along with the twin boys who once rejected her, she knows what the Alliance of Supervillains are asking her to do is a suicide mission. She decides to get her revenge in her own way.

As Jessica puts the first part of her revenge plan in motion, she finds herself with an agonising decision to make. Before she can decide, the Alliance come for her, determined to make her do their bidding. This time, it's the Alliance who leave her, crippled and at the mercy of the Warner family, who have no idea who the Alliance's Black Rose really is.

Jessica finds herself having to re-think her decisions in light of what she now learns about her family, the Alliance, the twins, and herself. It would appear the Alliance have left her with an unwanted and permanent reminder of her time with them. Or have they?

Jessica's older sister, Jill, knows her destiny is to be a doctor and specialise in bionics and genetic variant medicine. She is also hopelessly in love with Christopher, Crown Prince of Galorvia. Can their romance survive the lies Christopher told her when they were both at school, an unplanned pregnancy and Sophie, the wannabe princess who comes between them?

Available on Amazon
Paperback

E-book

25 January: Robert Burns Quotes

To celebrate Burns Night, here are ten quotes by Robert Burns.

1. Suspense is worse than disappointment.
2. A woman can make an average man great, and a great man average.
3. The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.
4. There is no such uncertainty as a sure thing.
5. The heart that is generous and kind most resembles God.
6. My love is like a red, red rose That's newly sprung in June: My love is like the melody That's sweetly played in tune. How fair art thou, my bonnie lass, So deep in love am I; And I will love thee still, my dear, Till all the seas gang dry.
7. Some hae meat and canna eat, And some wad eat that want it, But we hae meat and we can eat, And sae the Lord be thankit.
8. Suspicion is a heavy armour and with its weight it impedes more than it protects.
9. The voice of Nature loudly cries, And many a message from the skies, That something in us never dies.
10. And let us mind, faint heart ne'er wan A lady fair.

NEW!

Settling the Score

Another collection of short stories, even more murder and mayhem with carol singers, an orchestra out for revenge, a sinister magic stone and a haunted mansion.

Available on Amazon:
Paperback            E-book


A Tale of Two Sisters

During a battle with supervillains, a horrific accident leaves the Warner family with no option but to believe their youngest daughter, Jessica, is dead. It doesn't occur to them that the bad guys could, or would, save her.

Jessica wakes up with no memory of who she is or how she came to be on a space station with two bionic legs, a bionic arm and a bionic eye. She is told her family abandoned her and is sent back to Earth with a mission - to kill them. While Jessica wants to kill her family, along with the twin boys who once rejected her, she knows what the Alliance of Supervillains are asking her to do is a suicide mission. She decides to get her revenge in her own way.

As Jessica puts the first part of her revenge plan in motion, she finds herself with an agonising decision to make. Before she can decide, the Alliance come for her, determined to make her do their bidding. This time, it's the Alliance who leave her, crippled and at the mercy of the Warner family, who have no idea who the Alliance's Black Rose really is.

Jessica finds herself having to re-think her decisions in light of what she now learns about her family, the Alliance, the twins, and herself. It would appear the Alliance have left her with an unwanted and permanent reminder of her time with them. Or have they?

Jessica's older sister, Jill, knows her destiny is to be a doctor and specialise in bionics and genetic variant medicine. She is also hopelessly in love with Christopher, Crown Prince of Galorvia. Can their romance survive the lies Christopher told her when they were both at school, an unplanned pregnancy and Sophie, the wannabe princess who comes between them?

Available on Amazon
Paperback

E-book