Just seen your rejoinder, Bill. I think you wouldn't recognise Straddie now. My first visit was in '98 and I had to wait another ten years before I went there again, and in that time it had become very much a weekenders' holiday patch, even in the Aussie 'winter'. It's had quite a history, including lunatic asylum and penal settlement. My own interest springs from its days as a quarantine station, newly declared in the early months of 1850, just in time to receive the stricken 'Emigrant', which arrived there from Plymouth, in July, with typhus on board. And that's where my novel starts.

Autobiography is difficult and I wouldn't attempt it myself, except minimally. I have found, from reading biographies of poets, novelists and cricketers whom I have admired that their written 'lives' tended to make for rather dull, often repetitive reading - unlike their 'creative' work, whether with pen, bat or ball. It needs a lot of emphasis on 'licence' rather than on 'truth' to be really successful, I think - taking it then at least half way to being a novel. I cannot think of a biography I have read that I would ever want to read again.

Doug

This title is now also available on Amazon for any who are interested (ISBN 978-0-9567477-0-9).

Doug

Thanks David and Terry for passing on Bill's message. I did in fact know about the association of the Three Wise Men with Yorkshire - funnily enough, that's what this book is all about!

Merry Christmas to one and all!

Doug

READ ALL ABOUT IT !!

this

Well Done Doug

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1950-55

Current location (optional) KEIGHLEY

Yes Doug, well done. It was a good write up in the Keighley News. I hope that it is selling well for you. Cheers, Bill.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1947-51

Current location (optional) Auckland NZ

I hope I am not the only one who has read Doug’s book. It is a fascinating take on the star-followers from the East who chance to meet in search of some deliverance from their successful but unfulfilled lives: one young, one middle aged and one old; a king, a minister and a priest; none sure what to make of the powerful presence but seeming banality of the mother and child they find when the star stops.
And Trevor’s brilliant cover captures exactly the mirage-like uncertainty of the journey’s meaning to them.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1954-59

Current location (optional) Denholme garethwhittaker99@hotmail.com

Thanks Gareth,
I should point out that the actual painting used on the cover is by author/artist Doug. I simply arranged the elements and the typography.