Okay M'Duck

Hi Ian, Brilliant that you have bought my book, Running with Finn McCool, thank you so much! I look forward to your thoughts on it! The other novel, To Hook a Gilded Bird, is just going through a final proof reading at the mo (having no publishing agent, this is a DIY jobby!). I'm told by the misses that this book is the best she's ever read, but her review's obviously biased!!! It's a much faster reading historical-thriller, a murder/mystery involving the Special Irish Branch and a London gang of female villains known as the Forty Elephants. Yes, they really existed; the story being, the

Yep, I was at Berridge around 1954. I think the headmaster's name was a Mr Griffiths, the youngest HM in England at the time, I was led to believe. I can remember the school entering us students into Fry's painting competition in '55 or '56 and I won first prize. It was a huge hamper full of chocs, and I spent the next fortnight taking bars of chocolate to school to share around. I also remember a teacher called Mrs Parrot. Evil. Whacked me so hard on the back of my leg with a ruler it snapped, leaving a huge welt behind my knee...

Was that the cafe we used to cal "the one-up cafe"? On ordering pie, peas and chips, the bloke serving would shout "one up" to the women in the kitchen. The place would get packed out and I remember a chap shaking a sauce bottle and the top came off! I was that busy laughing at my mate's face getting plastered I didn't realise I'd caught most of it up my back!

Hi Ian, been a long time getting back to you, sorry for that! Back down in lockdown again but things could be worse I s'pose! Yep, I do remember the name you mention, and if it's the same bloke, he certainly loved his ale! My novel, RUNNING with FINN McCOOL was published on the 1st of September on Amazon under my author name, Martin R Jackson. Getting five-star reviews! My next novel is already written and ready to go. TO HOOK a GILDED BIRD should be published early next year. Both novels are historical thrillers involving the Special Irish Branch and the protagonist James Asher, who is

The horn game. It was (or still is) known as "Bating the Bull". The ring, a copper nose-ring for a bull, and the string it was attached to, a six-foot bow-string. I used to play it back in the sixties, particularly when Yanks were in there. Make out I couldn't do it, then challenge 'em for a pint. Easy-peasy, chuck it over the right shoulder aiming at a mark in the sandstone and it would plop on perfectly. They couldn't believe it, but would always honour the bet!

Hey up, Ian. Sorry I haven't replied earlier... been busy writing! First published in 2017, but obviously started well before that. I played in several Nottingham (obscure) bands including: The Paranoiax, Grindles People and then the Mighty Sparrows. When in the Sparrows, we were the resident band at the Calypso Club in the Lace Market. Carried on in the motor trade and ended up as a Consulting Auto-Engineer working mainly for the Trading Standards (as was) and many Nottm Solicitors. I fitted that in with teaching at West Notts College, and became Course Coordinator with Derby Uni teaching En

It was known as "Pretty Windows" by locals...

Hi Ian, Great to hear from you too! Still got guitars but spend most of my time writing novels nowadays, "Believe Me, the Lost Treasure of the Templars, " "The Blade, Ben McVeigh & the Templar Poignard," and soon to be published: "Running with Fynn McCool" and sequal: "To Hook a Gilded Bird".

Eh-up-me-duck, It's me again, that Martin Jackson bloke. I wasn't the drummer in the Sparrows, reckon that was a guy called "Malc". I used to play guitar, Gibson 330 that I chopped in for a Rickenbacker...

Hi Ian, I'm Martin R Jackson, lived at Lynmouth Cres; Bobbers Mill. Played in "Billy Campbell & the Mighty Sparrows" and went to Peoples College. I was an apprentice at Atkeys. Now an author living in Norfolk.

Yo's in the fields, kickin' up his heels, if yo want him, yo go fetch him... while I keep conk Yeah yer can tell I went to Peveril School too!