Musing In Morecambe

Wednesday 1 June 2016. We decide the day is too nice to stay in and drive up to Lancaster first for a look round the antiques warehouse. I come away with a plastic bag full of postcards, mainly from the 1990s but a full bag for a couple of pounds still seems like a bargain!

There are one or two interesting ones amongst them and there was also a few bits of ephemera - newspaper cuttings, bags from foreign postcard shops and an old paper bag from a Ministry of Public Buildings and Works souvenir shop. It carried an advert for a season ticket to ancient monuments for just fifteen shillings (75p) - sounds a bargain to me!

Then we went on to Morecambe where, bless them, there is still free parking to be found on the Promenade. It was a busy old day though - we didn't find our space on the first pass, but spotted it on the other side of the road and had to turn to come back to it.

Morecambe always got the brunt of the variety comedians even during the heyday of seaside resort holidays. It doesn't deserve it really, because here you will find much less of the dilapidation and neglect that is all too horribly visible in other resorts. Morecambe have worked extremely hard over the last decade or two. Whilst many Promenade properties are now shops with no connection to the holiday or tourist trade, they have saved the seafront from degrading to a peeling-paint shabby look.

This bit of land is what is left after the tidy up following the closure of the open air swimming pool. It's perhaps not ideal, but it's far from hideous. A spot of landscaping and the additions of some flower beds and seating in the concrete space in the middle distance would make it a very nice space.

The War Memorial is unusual in that it dates the First World War to 1914-1919. Most memorials date it as 1914-1918. Built in 1921, it commemorates 216 men from Morecambe and Heysham who died in World War One; 180 from World War Two and one more who died during the Korean War.

The Midland Hotel is Morecambe's Art Deco masterpiece. Designed by architect Oliver Hill, it was built in 1933 on the site of a previous hotel, the North Western Hotel of 1848 which had changed its name to The Midland in 1871. It has two three-storey curved wings off a central circular tower which contains the entrance and a spiral staircase.

Two Art Deco sculptures of seahorses sit at the top of the circular tower. These, a round plaster relief of Neptune and Triton on the ceiling of the spiral staircase, a map of the north west coast from Whitehaven to Birkenhead and a bas-relief mural of Odysseus welcomed from the sea by Nausicaa which formed a backdrop to the Reception desk, were all designed by Eric Gill. As a nice aside, he is the one whose name is remembered in the name of the font he designed: Gill Sans.

Birds play a significant role in the decoration of Morecambe's Promenade. You will find many examples of bird sculptures along the Promenade paths, in seafront gardens and in railings and stand alone sculptures. This cormorant is one of many, sitting atop the finials of bollards.

Trains still run to Morecambe, but these days they stop some 400 metres from this station building whose platforms have been demolished and whose ticket hall and waiting rooms now house a pub and restaurant and where today we found sequence dancing offered as a diversion to the seafront attractions. Where the platforms used to be is a new market hall and a cinema.

Brucciani's famous ice cream parlour opened its doors in 1939 and four generations of the family have managed it since then. It is another example of Art Deco - all geometric wooden panels, formica tables which evoke memories of the Forties and Fifties and with a traditional menu including knickerbocker glory - the monster ice cream dish of the connoisseur (and large appetite...)

We had a lovely lunch here just off the seafront at The Grove cafe bar and restaurant. The food was good as was the service and I imagine that we shall enter their door again at some time in the future.

Having fed the inner man, my appetite was for having a good rummage and just north of the restaurant and back on the seafront we found one of my favourite places in Morecambe. A bookshop where browsers are requested to switch off their mobile phones and where there are many alcoves just like this one, each containing just as many or more books with each alcove holding a different genre. Bliss - call for me in an hour or two...

When I came out, wincing slightly at the brightness of the sunlight and with my purchases clutched lovingly to my chest, we crossed the road and walked back slowly along the seafront towards the car. We paused halfway back to buy ice creams and sat on a bench to enjoy them.

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Books and Knickerbockers...

I took Miss Franny to Morecambe for the day today. We had a coffee at the next table to two ladies who I would guess at being in their late seventies or possibly early eighties and who had just been served with huge Knickerbocker Glories (ice cream, jelly and fruit to the uninitiated).

"Can I be cheeky and ask you a question?" asked one.
"Go on then!" I grinned.
"Do you know anything about taking photographs?"
"I have been known to take one or two..." I admitted.

She rummaged in her handbag for what I presumed would be a camera. But no, out came a Samsung Galaxy phone - these were old ladies of a certain calibre... It did have to be switched on from scratch - she wasn't going to have her day interrupted with nuisance calls, after all...
"Ooh, don't they take a long time to warm up...?" she shrugged.

I dragged a chair round to take them from the correct height and delivered the phone back with what I thought was a nicely framed picture of the two ladies grinning at me - long spoons held in eager fists and with tall ice cream and jelly and fruit concoctions topped with whipped cream and a couple of wafer biscuits each.
"Oh that's lovely, dear, thanks!"

She turned the phone off carefully and put it back into her bag and as we sipped our cups of coffee the two old ladies demolished the ice creams before them.
"We won't want any dinner after this..." the second one commented.
"Nonsense, dear, it's only eleven o'clock - we'll be alright having fish and chips for dinner!"

We finished our coffee and wandered round the streets of the town for a while - there's a couple of good antique - sorry: Retro shops there. One had a 1960s radiogram playing records in the shop and I was so tempted to ask the price...

Then we ended up in the huge second-hand book store that I had found on our last visit and we found the owner pulling his outdoor display under the cover of the shop's awning as dark clouds gathered in the sky.

"Have you been before? Ah - well I've just taken some more stock packed in around 30 banana boxes, so not all of the passages can be accessed I'm afraid..."

It didn't matter. I found four books to buy without any problem at all. Fran came back with a bunch of Fyffes and I have the first pressed tarantula of a new collection...

We had dinner in another cafe where a slightly bizarre conversation could be overheard from the table behind me.
"I don't think much of our coach driver..." complained the rather large mother of a family from middle Lancashire, "He's a great fat thing!"

Now forgive me if I'm being picky, but is that a reason to dislike a driver? I could dislike a driver for swerving all over the road for no apparent reason, but for being on the large side??? And this from someone who was recognisable from countless Bamforth seaside postcards herself...

Book Signing

A lovely afternoon yesterday, sitting in Waterstones Blackpool, chatting to people and signing copies of my book, Blackpool Then and Now.

Sincere thanks to all those who came to see me and buy the book. Some were friends already and some were names I've seen on various forums and Facebook pages. They all seemed like friends anyway!

It would be wrong to say that copies simply flew out of the door, but it was nice to think that in that one shop, for three hours or so, the book went to the top of the bestsellers list!

The Waterstones staff were wonderful and supporting and a special thanks to Laura, who looked after me.

Waterstones Appearance

I know I've been a bit scarce here recently. I'm sorry folks, things have been a bit hectic!

Work has been busy, but for a change, not because of travelling. Well, I did zoom down to London for the day yesterday but there's not been as much zooming about as I've gotten used to!

Then we had carpet fitters round, so evenings have been spent moving furniture from one room to another, followed by ... where are those fitters... followed by "What do you mean you haven't got us booked for today - we're sitting on top of the display cabinet in the kitchen!!!"

Well it all got done in the end and looks wonderful. Now I need to get those 27 episodes of "Pointless" watched...

Then the local paper phoned me to do an interview about the Blackpool book.

The interview can be read online on the Gazette's website but the online version doesn't have all the photos I'm afraid. You'll have to buy the book for that!

Note for work colleagues - I'm still employed by the University of Northumbria and haven't defected to Cumbria!

And lastly, there's a chance to get a signed version of the book, as I'll be spending three hours in Blackpool Waterstones on Bank Hey Street tomorrow afternoon, Saturday 2 February. Hope to see you there between 12:00 noon and 3:00pm!

Blackpool Then And Now

Well it wasn't due out until the first of January, but the printers must have made special efforts because I received several copies of my new book this week through the post and today a friend has commented on my Facebook account that they have seen it in our local Waterstones.

This is a pictorial book contrasting old postcards of Blackpool with modern shots taken last year from as near the same spot as I could get.

Given that many old postcards were taken from low flying biplanes and they don't allow you to do that sort of thing any more; and given that the shape of Blackpool's seafront has changed considerably over the last few years, this gave me a few challenges during the making of the book!

This is just one book in a series of Then and Now books published by The History Press.

Whilst it is to be found in the bookshops in the Blackpool district, it is also available to order in other places and is available online either direct from the publishers using the above link or from online book sellers.

For anyone in the Blackpool region, I will be doing a book signing between 12:00 noon and 3:00pm on Saturday 2 February 2013 in Blackpool Waterstones on Bank Hey Street.

King And King To Be - Free Promotion

ADVANCE NOTICE

King And King To Be will be on a FREE promotion Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 12-14 October 2012. You can download it for free during these three days. (Based on Pacific Standard Time so may be a few hours delay in UK of both start and end)

Product Description:

Britain in the Dark Ages. But a Britain that has been forgotten by history. A Britain where elves, fairies and goblins still reside, feared and mistrusted by Men.

As a dark force threatens to conquer the kingdoms of Men they turn to the elves and a wizard for help. Together they seek for the one person who could save the Britain of the sixth century. A man called Arthur. A man who was born and lives in the twentieth century...

A startling first novel by J D Burke combines fantasy with half-familiar legend and a hero who struggles to accept the fate that he once thought was either a story or that belonged to someone else.

Don't miss out! Download it from Amazon to a Kindle near you! Can also be read on a PC, laptop, tablet or other device - see Amazon for details.

"King And King To Be" Poetry

I've received a few nice emails recently complimenting me on the few bits of poetry in my King Arthur book, King and King To Be.

There are several sections of poetry, some of which move the story along, being flashbacks and some like the following sung by bards in the hall of a king.

In the starlight, elven twilight
Wood and water silver seem
In the deeping, softly sleeping
Lies a woodsman lost in dream

Under skies he closed his eyes
No roof for the travelling man
In ferny nest he finds his rest
Sleeping where and when he can

With a shake he comes awake
His faithful steed had called and shied
As he laid, the fairy rade
Set out on their night time ride

Wraps cloak around from off the ground
The misty rain is cold and damp
A flickering light off in the night
Approaches on his hidden camp

Woodsman watches fairy torches
Held up high as voices sing
Eyes open wide, as past him ride
The court of the Fairy Queen and King

King And King To Be, Chapter Nine.

The book is available for Kindle only at the moment, but I am looking to get it out in paperback. This is going to involve getting more artwork done for the rear cover and spine so will take a few weeks yet.

You can download a sample 10% of the book at the Amazon page linked above to read either on your Kindle or on your PC screen and it's also possible to read on other devices too I believe.

Book Writing News

I've now seen and approved the proofs for the Blackpool book - Blackpool Then and Now

I see that Amazon have listed it with a discount for pre-orders too (use the above link) so what a bargain that makes it! The book is due for release at the beginning of 2013 and contains old postcard views from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, contrasted with my own photographs of modern day Blackpool taken as close as possible from the same spot.

The postcards have been put in a standard shade of sepia which compliments the colour of the photos of today.

This is not one of the photos from the book so you'll have to wait and buy it to see what is in it! [Chortles wickedly]

The postcard above shows the old Tower Menagerie, which I remember well as it still existed for the first few years of my life. This is the scene for Stanley Holloway's monologue Albert and the Lion where Wallace the lion gets an earful of a stick with an 'orse's head handle closely followed by a mouthful of Albert...

My novel, King And King To Be is still available for Kindle from Amazon and is selling steadily if not rushing out of the Kindle Store in droves. But early days yet... I've seen other books a lot further down the charts described (and not by the authors) as "doing well" so I'm happy every time I see it has sold a copy or every time someone else mentions it somewhere.

Without too many spoilers, it's a King Arthur story involving time travel, Merlin, elves and fairies and links back to as many national and local legends about King Arthur and the other legendary characters as I could work in! Oh and a dragon for good measure...

Buy it now and you'll be able to boast that you bought it before it became famous... Currently it has 3 reviews - all of which give it the full 5 stars.

King And King To Be Locations and News

The Facebook page for my book, King And King To Be now has several photos of different locations to be found in the book.

I've found it amazing how much it shoots up the bestsellers lists when a sale is made and how quickly it drops when no sales are being made - a bit like a yo-yo!

Today I have uploaded a photo of the location for one of the final scenes - the slope from the Roman fort Camboglanna ("Camlann" in the book and possibly the best candidate in real life) down to the River Irthing at Birdoswald on Hadrian's Wall.

Facebook users can "like" the page and I'll be very grateful if they do!

The URL address for the page is https://www.facebook.com/#!/KingAndKingToBe

The book received a 5-star rating recently from Mr W J Peacock who wrote: "As an avid reader of any books about the dark ages and the Arthurian legends in particular. I was interested when I heard of a new author entering this popular arena where the competition is so tough. As soon as I stared to read this well written and engaging book I was hooked. An enticing mix of fact, fable, legend and fantasy with a clever twist. I would certainly recommend this book and am looking forward to this author's next book, albeit sequel or prequel."

Well I can reveal that I've started writing a prequel which will concentrate on the story of Myrddin and Nimue/Vivien. Don't hold your breath... I remember how long the last one took...!

King And King To Be Facebook Page

I've created a Facebook page for the book. Today it had climbed from a position in excess of 110,000 to 20,381 in Amazon's bestsellers (paid category) as another couple of copies were sold. A grateful thank you to the two buyers!

The page will feature discussion between readers (though give them a bit of a chance - at time of writing it has only been available for a week!)

Also I hope to put a few extracts on every now and then to give a flavour of the book and also I'll add a few insights as to how the book came to be written and how the plot developed.

Facebook users can "like" the page to feature it on their own timeline. And I'll be very grateful if they do!

The URL address for the page is https://www.facebook.com/#!/KingAndKingToBe

King And King To Be

Introducing my new baby - my first novel, a fantasy: King And King To Be. It has published today on Amazon for the Kindle and other eReaders.

I wrote this mainly during the 1980s and then it got put aside when I got immersed in computers and learned a new career which has taken me to where I am now.

The book took on the role of "retirement project" but with the advent of ebooks and the ease of self-publishing now I've taken it up again over the past few months and edited and proofed and edited again several times until I'm struggling to find the mistakes that are probably still in there!

The product description reads:

Britain in the Dark Ages. But a Britain that has been forgotten by history. A Britain where elves, fairies and goblins still reside, feared and mistrusted by Men.

As a dark force threatens to conquer the kingdoms of Men they turn to the elves and a wizard for help. Together they seek for the one person who could save the Britain of the sixth century. A man called Arthur. A man who was born and lives in the twentieth century...

A startling first novel by J D Burke combines fantasy with half-familiar legend and a hero who struggles to accept the fate that he once thought was either a story or that belonged to someone else.

A huge thank you goes to my cousin, graphic artist, Catherine Metcalfe, for the fabulous cover. The brief I gave her was "Stonehenge, a sword and some idea of magic"... I cannot fault her interpretation.

To all those who read it years ago and gave me encouragement, a thousand thanks.

To anyone who goes out and buys it (including those who rushed out today on the first day) a thousand more thanks.

Large version of the cover: at Amazon of course! Oh and Flickr also!

Links to buy the book at: amazon.co.uk or amazon.com

Book Publishing

Just to bring you up to date on a couple of projects.

I'm currently involved in putting together a book about Blackpool. Commissioned by a publishing company it will be a collection of old postcards with modern views taken from as near the same viewpoint as I can get.

There are several old postcard views of Blackpool on the pages of this blog but these will be ones that I haven't published before and hopefully a good many may not have been seen since they were sent through the post some hundred years ago!

There's no end of old postcards available of Blackpool two of which are shown below. These will not be in the book...

I love these old photos with a certain amount of artistic licence! This is a daylight shot as can be easily seen from the shadows of the railings etc. The festoons of lights on the upper Promenade are if in scale, around the size of footballs...

But here's the same photo with a bit more paint...

There just weren't enough light bulbs on that other one so the company artist has added a few more strings, some flag poles to dangle them from and for good measure a string of them around the grassed area where in reality they would have been broken within ten minutes or so...! I'm indebted to Chris Wynne of Shrewsbury for the kind loan of many postcards from his collection.

The book will contain around 90 photographs in 45 pairs and will probably be published somewhere in time for Christmas. Keep looking in for more news.

The other project is another book - this time a novel. I wrote this in the late 70s and early 80s but had put it on the back burner to be something of a retirement project.

However with ebooks bringing publishing within reach of everyone I've dusted it off and tightened up a few bits. The book is a fantasy take on the King Arthur and Merlin legends, the older of which contain much by way of elves and enchantments and lots to get the teeth into! Arthur in this book is a little removed from most people's idea of who Arthur was or may have been! It will be called King and King To Be.

I'm currrently waiting for cover art to be completed and then it will make an appearance, at first, for the Kindle and then hopefully... who knows?

As there have been a few literary John Burke authors - one writes history titles and another wrote film and TV scripts and adaptations amongst other genres, I shall have to adopt pen names. Non-fiction under the name John D. Burke and fiction as J.D. Burke.

Wish me luck!

Children's History of Lancashire

Ooh see! A new Children's History of Lancashire popped through my letterbox from Amazon today.

What am I doing buying children's books you may wonder? No it wasn't particularly for my granddaughter as she's a bit young yet! The book contains three of my photographs, so I thought it would be fun to both have a look at a copy to see how they had used them and to keep it for my own records. Most of my published photos I have as tear sheets, i.e. pages torn from magazines and newsletters or trade sheets etc. I might keep this one intact though! I imagine you'll want to rush out and buy a copy now. Check out pages 9, 10 and 11!

A Life on the Ocean Wave

5 March 2004. A day at sea as the cruise ship Carousel sails from Agadir in Morocco towards Madeira.

We start the day with a good breakfast - we need the energy to walk 5 times round the crowded Promenade Deck to complete a mile. Oh... er... well, not so crowded then...

Then we spend much of the day lazing on the Pool Deck. The weather is gorgeous and the sunbeds are fully loaded with the bodies gorgeous - not so easily spotted amongst the bodies bloated... I kept mine covered - the world is not ready for that to be unleashed!

The Entertainments Crew kept us all amused with more silly competitions - this being the Duckathon... No I can't remember the details, but it was something along the lines of the plastic ducks having to be rescued from the pool and deposited somewhere against the clock and the one who rescued most was the winner. Something like that.

I had my nose in my book most of the day - Bill Bryson's The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid and (according to Fran) a steady stream of snorts of laughter issued from me embarrassing her no end... I'm sure she exaggerates... At one point two pods of dolphins passed the ship all leaping in unison, around 60 of them altogether - a wonderful sight. Later another couple flashed at extreme speed right under my nose as I looked down the side of the ship at the sea. It spoiled us - I've never seen as many again on a cruise - in fact on the last two cruises we did we didn't see any at all.

In the afternoon one of the chefs came out to carve fruit into animals. Good entertaining stuff on a cruise ship - didn't impress Simon Cowell much on Britain's Got Talent a couple of months ago, but on a lazy day on a cruise ship you just go with the flow!

As the ship was at sea, the casino and all the shops were open. We had a wander around the ship and Fran got rid of a tenner's worth of tokens on the fruit machines in a most efficient manner! Join us soon for tomorrow's trip to Madeira!

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Bristol and Ship Shaped

I'm in Bristol today and tomorrow and am currently studying the rain outside the hotel window. It's much like the rain anywhere else and I suspect it will wet me just as much as anywhere else when I nip out in a bit for something to eat.

I'm starving too - I had a bowl of Cornflakes first thing this morning; went off to the station and caught a train only to be held up outside Manchester just long enough to miss the connection. So a 6 hour journey down here and I missed out on lunch...

I'm at a meeting to discuss a number of related projects, one of which I'm managing and apart from a brief foray out tonight for food, the only bit of Bristol I'll actually see is from the taxi to and from the station. Such is life.

We have visited Bristol before though and I remember one work trip to a conference over ten years ago where we all had a boat trip around the waterways and harbours and docks which was both interesting and at times hilarious. (I was on the boat with a bar...)

One huge office building for a nationally known company was built over a catacomb containing lots of centuries old graves, I remember the guide saying. The joke was that the publicly owned company was still employing most of them...

Quite apt being in a city with a strong seafaring history as I'm currently re-reading the Bolitho books of Alexander Kent.

I have over a dozen of this series and they are not that big so I can get through one in a couple of days - particularly if there are long train journeys involved.

With a job like mine that involves lots of staying in hotels I get though an enormous amount of books in a year and can quite enjoy going back to read through a series I last read five or more years ago. Now where did I put those Enid Blytons...?

Naples

We'll move on from Taormina. The following day, Tuesday 8 July 2008, sees us docking in an overcast Naples. Excursions go off to Pompeii, Sorrento and Capri.

We've never been to Naples itself and although we've heard warnings about how impoverished it is we decide to just get off the boat and explore a little bit on our own.

We are met out of the port by this impressive pile of a fortress. Built between 1279 and 1282 it became a royal residence with the accession of King Charles II of Naples. It was also a papal residence at times. At one time it was found that prisoners regularly vanished from a dungeon used for those who had been sentenced to particularly harsh treatment. This was found to be because a crocodile had managed to enter through a basement opening and was dragging off prisoners by the leg! The dungeon became known as the Pit of the Crocodile...

We started our walk, heading through a large park near the castle. As we get further into the park, we suddenly find that almost every tree has a tramp or vagrant wrapped in sleeping blankets or huddled together in twos and threes staring at us. "I don't like this - get us out of here!" said Fran. We changed direction slightly towards a fairground and out of the park. Definitely a bit dodgy! I don't want to take the old saying "See Naples and die" literally, ha ha!

Traffic is unbelievable. Cars, taxis, buses and, most of all, scooters are vying with each other for each bit of road space, not caring which side of the central line they are on or whether they are moving in the same direction as the road. Changing lanes here means two or three at once and horns are blaring continuously. I apologise to all Parisians - I thought you were terrible and inconsiderate drivers but these guys have you beat!

We ended up taking an open-topped bus tour which was interesting. This is a set of traffic lights and obviously one direction is showing red, yet every one of these vehicles is moving...

The bus tour went along the coast although for a while there were more back streets than anything else.

It took forever to move the first half mile as we were in the city traffic. We passed one bus, surrounded by cops, deserted by passengers, a huge dent in the front bumper and a shattered bulge in the windscreen glass suggesting that when it hit something some poor soul was standing and was thrown forward into the glass from inside.

The bus driver seemed oblivious to overhanging trees also. On the open top deck, we were all having to duck at the side of the bus as branches whipped into our faces! Not ducking was painful. Sometimes even ducking was painful...

The tour took us along the coast - though more than half of it was down uninspiring back streets with little of interest. It was almost a relief to see the Island Star again as we neared the end of the ride!

The better part of the day came later, on the pool deck with my James Herbert book, Nobody True. Brilliant read!

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