show 22nd October interview with jimmy paget brown

Well, on show today we have Jimmy Paget-Brown talking to us about his new book 'Finns War'.
also we have reviews from Brian Lowen - another Dan Brown Digital Fortress and Folly by Alan Tichmarsh.
Also will be looking at the dagger winners which were announced last night.

Linda Thomas interviewed Jimmy Paget-Brown on the bookshow on 22nd Oct 2009:

LT: When did you come to the Islands?
JPB: My wife and I came to live on St.Agnes in 1998, from Shropshire.

LT: Had you been over here before?
JPB: We had been to the islands a couple of times and stayed on Tresco and St Martins and enjoyed the islands so when this place on St Agnes came up for sale we bought it.
LT: Wow that was quite a contrast suddenly going to live on St Agnes which is a small and isolated island.
JPB: Yes, but beautiful though and the best of them all!
LT: Well, I couldn’t live there its too quiet for me, St Marys is quiet enough

LT: What was your profession prior to coming here?
JPB: I worked for Sales Marketing

LT: What made you take up pen & paper?
JPB: Since a young adult my dream was to either play Rugby for England or write a book. I didn’t play rugby for England so I went for the second best dream.

LT: the book is based around World War 11, why this subject for the book?
JPB: Because I lived through the war, I remember the bombs dropping and Chamberlains speech when he told us we were going to war with Germany. In fact I have to laugh when I read in the news of unexploded bombs from WW2 being discovered and surrounding houses being evacuated for a radius of 3 miles. When we were boys an unexploded bomb landed in our neighbours garden and we would go and watch the men digging around and trying to lift it out of the boggy ground, on our way back from school!

LT: How long did it take to write and research?
JPB: It took me 4years from start to finish and I did my research through books, sometimes online and through my memories and experiences.

LT: What about a publisher and proof reader, how did you go about finding them?
JPB: Well, I knew it was either trawl around the publishers in London or publish myself out of my own pocket, so I went for the latter. A friend of mine is a childrens author so she proof read for me and enjoyed the book and also suggested the publishing house.

LT: What about the book cover design as I really do sometimes judge a book by its cover?
JPB: We have a friend who is an artist and she painted the idea in watercolours.
LT: did you have an idea of what you wanted?
JPB: Most certainly, I knew I wanted the background of London in the blitz – St Pauls cathedral, the spotlights, rubble, and the family in the forefront.

LT: So, can you give us a quick resume of the book?
JPB: It is set from the beginning to the end of the war and the story is based around a family who live through these times.
(Brian Lowens also on the bookshow, who has started to read the book, asks if any of the family are based on JPB himself, especially the bright athletic one?)
JPB, with a wry smile: I think there is definitely some similarity

LT: Do you read & if so what do you like reading? Favourite authors?
JPB: I like historical factual novels especially by an author called Antony Beever best known for his works, the best-selling Stalingrad and Berlin - The Downfall 1945 recount the World War II battles between the Soviet Union and Germany.
Fiction books, one of my favourite authors is Patricia Cornwell. Mind you I always feel guilty reading - I feel I should be doing the housework or cleaning or something.
LT: Hm, I always have that fleeting thought just for a nanosecond, then its gone and I get back to what I enjoy doing - lives too short not to Jimmy.

LT: Do you have any other hobbies?
JPB: I used to like playing squash but I never played after I came to live here as I felt I was too old. I enjoy swimming and swim most days in the sea.
LT: Wow, don’t you find it too cold!
JPB: Oh no, I have my wetsuit on!

JPB: I would like to say what tremendous joy I get from writing, its therapeutic and gives you power, power to do and say anything you want, you are in control of your story. I would recommend it to anyone. My next book will be a childrens book. I have written childrens stories before.
LT: Oh, I didn’t realise, were they published?
JPB: No, they were for the benefit of my own children when they were small, for me to read to them.
LT: Well I hope you will come back on the show and talk about your next book when you have finished it. It has been a pleasure having you on the show and talking to you. Thank you very much. Oh, by the way, why do you not use your full name on your book?
JPB: Well, I thought Jimmy Paget-Brown was too much of a mouthful so I shortened it to James Brown.....