Out in the ‘Wild’

It’s always nice to see one’s work ‘out in the wild’ so to speak, especially when the big mainstream authors get all the space on the bookshelves in the major booksellers meaning that smaller authors like myself, often get relegated to the bottom shelf of the ‘local history’ sections or the dusty pedestal in the corner with the ‘Ideas for Father’s Day’ signage instead. It is however in the smaller, and hugely supportive, independent book shops that we fair so much better.

Sometimes, it feels a real disappointment not to be able to get to rub shoulders with the ten or so ‘giants’ of military history who have all the shelves in the big shops like Waterstones or WH Smith (or whatever it’s now called!) and sadly, I had never seen a copy of my Burma book in a bookshop until now.

It was when passing a small and rather excellent bookshop in Norwich; the lovely and friendly City Books (please do go and have a look), that I spotted ‘A Battalion in Burma’ in the window at the ridiculously low price of £7.99, a bargain surely?!!!

I always knew that it would never be a huge seller as the the Burma Campaign is very ‘niche’ and Europe is always more popular with mainstream military history, but then again, I never wrote it to make a profit. My aim was to ensure that the men of the 2nd Battalion and their war against the Japanese were not forgotten and hopefully, it has done just that. Perhaps by now, someone will have given it a good home and will be discovering the fascinating story of the Second Suffolk’s jungle war.