Colne Spring & Henekey's: A Tale of Love & War - Real WW2 Letters. '...One fast receding Hospital Ship!'

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"...parachutists spilled from the planes as though the god of thunder had blown
dandelion seeds across the sky..." Crete

REVIEWS
"The descriptive nature of your narrative drew one right in, especially the chapters where James & Helen became closer & closer acquainted to the point of complete eroticism. It was not so much what you wrote rather than what you didn't!"
Ellis

"I wanted to write to you with a few comments about your novel as I did enjoy reading it. Particularly good were the men's journey from Crete in chapter 3 & the beautifully detailed description of Helen in Chapter 7..."
Alice Baillie Editor, Penguin UK

Main Story
A happily married young doctor starts his own surgery in Penge, London, supported by his faithful wife Milly. Life seems to go well for the couple with promise of a bright future, yet as routine sets in so does an intangible discontent. A chance encounter with a determined female doctor presents an unthinkable opportunity.

Years later James Steadman finds himself embroiled in World War 2, first during the Crete invasion & occupation, then as prison doctor in Colditz, the famous German POW camp, where he receives unexpected news from home...

How does this young doctor, a thousand miles from his family in England, deal with the news that his best friend has taken up with his wife and fathered a new addition to his family?

Societal norms of what is acceptable morph gradually during peace time & perhaps accelerate at times of war. What was it about the characters and their circumstances that for us, now in peace time, produced a most unexpected outcome?

Fifty years on and in the non-fiction real world, a daughter painstakingly researches her roots documenting her family history. She shows these documents to a friend Graham Matthews who then wrote 'Colne Spring & Henekey's'.

Further consequences of the publication are again unexpected and heartwarming!

WHO IS THIS BOOK FOR?
This book is not only for those old enough to have known love & romance during the Second World War era. It is hoped this book will appeal to a wider audience, since the subjects & issues presented are of a universal nature.

It is for those who simply like a good story and who'd like to know more about what life would be like, when the unthinkable happens on a mass societal scale, enforcing separation from those they love... And, all this against a shared backdrop of emotional upheaval, sometimes grief of loss and shared uncertainty!

As a war baby myself I cannot help wondering if such raw circumstance would have by necessity, compelled my parent's generation to view life differently and to grasp every opportunity for warmth that presented itself. Any morsel perhaps would have been most gratefully received, at least for those lucky ones.

This book may also appeal to readers who normally prefer non-fiction and who, like myself, would not have read this book, had the story of the cover and the long trek by stretcher bearers over the Cretan mountains, not at first been been told to me.

WHO IS THIS BOOK NOT FOR?
This book is in fact a hybrid factual and fictional elaboration of real-life events as supported by documentation. The letters contained in the fictional section are exact replicas of those written by real-life people.

It is written by a first time fiction author who is both artist and engineer, one of those rare individuals that bring their own unique perspective - an analytically descriptive ability combined with the flair and style of an artist.