Patrick Dalzel-Job is in Normandy and has just liberated the French town of Glanville. He has teamed up with the American 6th Armored Division and providers them with valuable intelligence on the situation in Brest – a port the Allies dearly want. Although not mentioned in his original book, From Arctic Snow to Dust of Normandy, Dalzel-Job works closely with a British born agent who is in the pay of the Americans as an OSS officer, and it is from this officer’s HQ that Dalzel-Job witnesses the execution of a German by the Marquis. Ironically, amongst the Marquis members is a German soldier!
Hopefully, I should be able to finish that chapter soon with just two or three more chapters to complete.
Screenplay: The focus has moved on from the sinking of the Blucher. There is much controversy surrounding the sinking, but hopefully I can address this in the script.
August 2014: Hopefully, I can soon confirm that there will be an English version of Redd Gullet!, available in the UK and the USA. Proposed release date is the Spring of 2015, but will announce the publication dates as soon as I have official confirmation.
December 2014: Casemate has issued their spring catalogue for 2015 and it includes a piece on the English version of Redd Gullet!, titled, ‘Gold Run’. Please see the link for details: http://www.casematepublishing.co.uk/pdf/Spring2015_Catalogue.pdf The book is to be released in hardback form in the UK and USA.
December 2014: Samlerhuset, a very prominent Norwegian coin company, asked if I would pen an article on two ships that were lost during WWII – the SS Gairsoppa and the M/V Borgestad. The story is one of sacrifice in the face of overwhelming odds. The bravery of merchant crews cannot be emphasised enough and the conditions they faced on a regular basis was daunting at best and at times just horrific. Over the next few days, I will post the article on this site.
May 2015: Its been a while since I last updated, so my apologies. The Gairsoppa and Borgestad articles have been published, as have nine articles on the gold transport – these have all been for Samlerhuset. Currently, I am working on an article about the Battle of Britain for the London Mint Office.
May 2015: I am pleased to announce that ‘Gold Run’, the story of the rescue of the Norwegian gold transport from the clutches of the Germans in the spring of 1940, has been published by Casemate and is now available in the UK and USA. This is the English version of ‘Redd Gullet!’ (2010).
May 2015: Another visit to the archives at Oslo in the company of my good friend, Geoff Ward.Thanks the staff at the Hjemmefrontmuseum we were able to copy many of the files that we had targeted. I never tire of Norway and its people.
August 2015: The London Mint has asked me to blog for them on four subjects with two of them being based around wartime. One concerns the life and times of Winston Churchill, whilst the other focuses on the differences between the Spitfire and the Hurricane. Both are very emotive subjects and I am hoping that both will prompt others to write their views.
August 2015: Many thanks to fellow researcher and very good friend, Arild Bergstrom, who noticed a mistake in my figures concerning the number of people who were saved by Dalzel-Job at Narvik in April 1940. Thanks Arild for pointing it out and bring it to my attention.
August 2015: Attended the War & Peace Show in Kent – what a great festival! Will be penciling the date again for next year! I attended as the guest of Casemate Publishing to help promote Gold Run as part of their publishing showcase. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and learnt a great deal in the process. Thank you Casemate. I met many authors and shared their experiences. As a result, I am now on Twitter! I now need to link that to these pages…somehow!
February 2017: StorylineNOR, a Norwegian based film production company, have asked if I will assist them with research into the Battle of Narvik for a proposed TV series. Hopefully, this will be an on-going and exciting project for some time.
April 2017: In April of last year I began writing a novel. This was a new direction for me as I wanted to to see if I could write a fictional story based around true events from WW2. The story focuses on two people, a German Jew born in Norway, but living in Berlin with her family and who become tragically embroiled with the infamous Kristallnacht, and a Norwegian boy involved with the fighting in Norway after his country is invaded, but eventually escapes to England to join the Special Forces. The lives of the two became inextricably linked as spies, assassins, saboteurs, Quislings, Nazis and stolen artwork all stand in their way.
June 2017: Finished the 3rd draft of the novel and have placed it with two people whom will give me feedback. I have purposely chosen them for their ability to critique and not hold back. One is an English teacher, whilst the other is a voracious reader. Once their comments are in I’ll go for a 4th draft. Once that’s complete and I’m happy with the story, I’ll begin the task of submitting to publishers.
June 2017: I have just completed a draft piece for a small museum in Åndalsnes, Norway. They’re running a gold transport exhibition, so I was only too pleased to help out. The museum are currently reconstructing one of the rail box-cars that was used for hauling the gold from Lillehammer to Åndalsnes, whilst the gold was being hunted by the germans. As we know, they were unsuccessful!
July 2017: I’m writing this in advance of the talk, but looking forward to attending the Felixstowe Book Festival on Saturday 1st July. If last year’s festival is anything to go by, then I’ll be happy. I was impressed with the organisation and the quality of the speakers. Three of us from Wolsey Writers Club are going. Please see link for details: https://felixstowebookfestival.co.uk/
