Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot, cooking and eating in northwest England)
1
Just finalised a publishing agreement for my next book and I’m well chuffed. I don’t mean to boast - but I did want to tell everyone I know and that includes my HO virtual friends
It’s very much a niche market - I tell the stories of the 283 men from my borough who were awarded bravery medals during World War 1. I sent it to several local/military history publishers and heard nothing back, so it’s been somewhat of a surprise that one of them has taken it. The research and writing has occupied me for much of the last year.
“Stockport’s Heroes of the Great War” should be out in late summer.
Anyone that can put in the sustained effort to not only write enough to make a book, but also do all the rigamarole it takes to actually find an agent and publisher and manage to put their creativity into a public ally, widely available form has my profound admiration.
One can only hope your inevitable continental book tour will give you the excuse for many memorable dinners out at someone else’s expense.
I am assuming all book authors get celebrity book tours with assistants and publisher-paid per diem. This is the case, is it not?
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot, cooking and eating in northwest England)
5
Dunno about all authors but I have been invited to speak at a number of branches of the Western Front Association in the past. One wasnt that close to home so they did pay for my hotel and also invited me to dinner. But that’s as exciting as its ever been.
Your Bully Beef & Biscuits is in a stack on a shelf under my coffee table between Nigel Slater’s “EAT” (which I bought on your recommendation) and Eric Ripert’s “32 Yolks”. So you’re in good company!
Congratulations! The market may be niche, but I bet those stories will pull in anyone that starts reading. Well done!
2 Likes
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot, cooking and eating in northwest England)
9
Here’s one of the stories of a man who was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal.
John Shannon, Private, 8653, 1st Battalion, Cheshire Regiment. John was a regular soldier who had been born in Stockport and enlisted, aged 20, on 12 October 1907. At the beginning of 1908, he served 28 days in a military prison for “making a false account” and, in July 1913, another 28 days for “drunkenness on duty”. He was also demoted from corporal back to private. When war was declared on 4 August 1914, the Cheshires were stationed in Londonderry but quickly mobilised and went overseas on the 16th.
John’s DCM relates to the closing weeks of 1914, the medal citation recording it was for “gallant conduct in continually conveying messages under shell and rifle fire”. He was a signaller and motorbike despatch rider. Reporting the medal award the Stockport Advertiser noted that “however thick the bullets were flying, he was to be seen wending his lonely way.” In May 1915, it reported that John had previously been posted as “missing” but it had been confirmed that he was a prisoner of war. In fact, neither was true.
On 12 June 1915, he was promoted to an acting rank of sergeant. Two months later, he was wounded in the chest, returning to the UK for treatment and not going overseas again until 19 July 1916. His sergeant’s stripes were made permanent on 10 September. By then he had received another wound, on 5 September, this time in the wrist. It meant another hospitalisation in the UK and he did not return to duty until 27 November. On 31 January 1917, he was promoted to acting Company Sergeant Major and, for a few weeks in June and July, to Regimental Sergeant Major – the most senior soldier in the Battalion who was not a commissioned officer.
There was another wounding on 14 March 1918, when he received shrapnel wounds in his arm and leg. He spent a month at 26 General Hospital in France before returning to the UK and it is not thought he went overseas again before the Armistice. After that, the Cheshires were sent to Russia to aid the “White Russians” in their war against the Bolsheviks and John went with them on 3 July 1919. He was finally discharged from the Army in January 1922.
