A poppy for remembrance today on the 75th anniversary of Tobruk: on Sunday 21st June 1942, along with 30,000 or so other men, my dad, Bert Martin, was taken prisoner.
"I lost several photos and my diary, but managed to retain my overcoat, one blanket and my haversack containing washing kit and dixie.
"Now I was a PoW, I thought all my worries were over and everything would be OK, but I was greatly disillusioned during the following months."
In the 4 years which followed in prison camps in North Africa, Italy and Germany, he kept a daily record of his life in exercise books, obtained with 'camp' money from a canteen in a PoW camp.
Now published on Amazon:
Till We Meet Again Gunner Bert Martin 1941 - 1945
What a gorgeous tribute Hazel, Interesting story and now yes a book, superb detail, colour and composition, how about tagging it for this weeks theme-floral :)
@judithg We have realised from finding a very small daily diary in my dad's effects after his death that he recorded events daily and then wrote them up into a story in exercise books. So perhaps having written day by day, he remembenred a lot of what he had written - we didn't think to ask when we could have asked!
A lovely poppy to mark the 75th Anniversary. Your book was published at the right time for the date was it planned? Good the royalties are going to the Red Cross they do wonderful work wherever it is needed.Fav
It was sort of planned, Wendy but we did not know if we were going to make it. Ian, the publisher, was a wonderful person to work with, very calm and reassuring. He did all the actual publishing work on Amazon and more. We started work end Jan and already in February (when I was doing oral transcriptions of the IWM tape of my dad's interview, listening to his voice etc ) I started to feel ill (bipolar ill) and had to have a week or so off. Ian always said we had all the time we wanted to get the diaries ready for publication.)
Peter, thank you for your comments and suggestion - taken 2 days before the theme started!
Richard, thank you for your comment and fav and many thanks for sharing my post about Till We Meet Again on Facebook - appreciated.
Thank you, Margot. So far the book is winging its way to readers in the UK, France and USA.
It was sort of planned, Wendy but we did not know if we were going to make it. Ian, the publisher, was a wonderful person to work with, very calm and reassuring. He did all the actual publishing work on Amazon and more. We started work end Jan and already in February (when I was doing oral transcriptions of the IWM tape of my dad's interview, listening to his voice etc ) I started to feel ill (bipolar ill) and had to have a week or so off. Ian always said we had all the time we wanted to get the diaries ready for publication.)
The royalties will not be great - of the £10 cost of eachbook, Ian and I will receive £1.78 each but it is something.