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"Right Up Stephen's Brae"


Charles Bannerman

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Good luck on your book launch Charles. Forum readers may be interested to know that I have had several books published with an Inverness theme following the success of "The Lads from the Ferry" some five years ago. The other novels comprise a follow up to "The Lads" entitled "The Battle of the Ferry", a children's thriller "The Boy who saved the World" and three murder mystery/thrillers involving an Inverness based detective agency. Full details on www.alexmabon.co.uk or Amazon - just type in Alex Mabon.

It is some 55 years since I stood on the terraces at Telford Street. What wonderful memories. Where has the past 70 years gone?

Good luck to ICT in their endeavours to get back into the top flight.

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I am thinking about riting a book.

The corners of my mouth lifted at the thought.

Ozzie Osbourne is writing an autobiography, I heard on the radio that not only has he got a ghost writer to put it all together, he has also got a team of researchers to find out what he has done throughout his life, as he hasn't got a clue.

On that note if anyone can inform Ihe where he has been and what he has done over the last 40 years it would be gratefully appreciated.

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Good luck on your book launch Charles. Forum readers may be interested to know that I have had several books published with an Inverness theme following the success of "The Lads from the Ferry" some five years ago. The other novels comprise a follow up to "The Lads" entitled "The Battle of the Ferry", a children's thriller "The Boy who saved the World" and three murder mystery/thrillers involving an Inverness based detective agency. Full details on www.alexmabon.co.uk or Amazon - just type in Alex Mabon.

It is some 55 years since I stood on the terraces at Telford Street. What wonderful memories. Where has the past 70 years gone?

Good luck to ICT in their endeavours to get back into the top flight.

I don't want to pi55 on your parade Sandy but of the folk I knew that bought "The Lads from the Ferry" many felt they'd been cheated into buying it as they were expecting to hear stories they once knew about characters they'd long forgotten and not the work of fiction they got.

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Sandy--imagine that. I found your book so funny that I nearly died laughing in parts. OBVIOUSLY it was written as a satirical plug for the Ferry and Inverness and was designed not to be taken VERY seriously. Shoot! And I thought it was all about real characters too. :023:

Yet we have more whining and negative criticism like the last post.Must be a wee bit dispappointing for you.

Folks, if you want a l;ight read to settle down your High Blood Pressure this one will do it. Superb book for me. :(

Er....in your next novel will yopu feature the adventures of Scarlet...... :016: ?

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Having a rare lucid moment are we Mr Pimple.

People tend to judge a book by it's cover and when it appeared on the shelves there was a photo many recognised on the front and then the title concluded the deal. Any writer can set a story in an old area of any town in the land, put an old black and white photo on the front and give it a misleading title and then watch it sell like hot cakes in that area. Some people genuinely thought there was a nostalgic angle in it, that's all I am saying. Is that negative? I would hope it would be taken as constructive criticism.

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Having a rare lucid moment are we Mr Pimple.

People tend to judge a book by it's cover and when it appeared on the shelves there was a photo many recognised on the front and then the title concluded the deal. Any writer can set a story in an old area of any town in the land, put an old black and white photo on the front and give it a misleading title and then watch it sell like hot cakes in that area. Some people genuinely thought there was a nostalgic angle in it, that's all I am saying. Is that negative? I would hope it would be taken as constructive criticism.

Pull my Finger - your criticism is a fair criticism as the buyer has the right to pass comment. "The Lads from the Ferry" got a mixed reaction in Inverness - favourable from those who could relate to the Inveness of the 1940s50s - and derision from those who failed to see it for what it was - a fictional trip down memory lane from a Ferry lad. One reader went as far as writing to the publisher stating that the writer (myself) had clearly never been to Inverness. Another reader/critic stated that Alex Mabon must be living in Narnia if he thought that he could convince readers that he was from Inverness. Names of people and places were changed in the book for obvious reasons but most of the story (80%) is factual. I was approached by several readers during an Inverness signing who remembered me from my Inverness days and recognised some of the incidents mentioned in the book. I even had a couple of readers state (at an Inverness library reading) that they recalled a particular incident despite the fact that that particular storyline was a complete work of fiction on my part.

The word "Fiction" on the spine and the blurb on the back cover provided sufficient information for readers to appreciate that the book was a fictionalised account of some youngsters (all real) growing up in Inverness.

As the saying goes "You can please some of the people..."

Delighted to see Ross County doing so well.

Scarlet Pimple - Rodney, Good to hear that you are still alive and kicking.

Regards - Sandy

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Names of people and places were changed in the book for obvious reasons but most of the story (80%) is factual.

OK... so go on Sandy and tell us which Chief Constable really was a transvestite! You'll get away with it EITHER if the man is dead or you can prove it! :lol: :D

Charles. The transvestite Chief Constable was - as I suspect you've guessed - one of the fictional characters. This storyline was introduced after I had worked myself into a corner and was lost for an idea on how to finish off the fictional element of the story. In 2005 I visited Inverness courthouse to get the feel for court procedures/terminology. I explained why I needed the information and indicated to the very helpful court staff that, in the book, I was presenting the Highland Constabulary as bumbling and incompetent but I was a little concerned at the possible reaction from the then Chief Constable should he read the book. The staff were caught up with the idea of my taking the mickey out of the local police and a comment from one of the staff gave me the idea of a transvestite Chief Constable. As far as I am aware no Chief Constable has ever been a transvestite but the court staff may have other views.

One of the most bizarre storylines in the book was that of our hero John Urquhart writing intimate letters over a long period of time in the mistaken belief that he was writing to a young female nurse in the Royal Northern Infirmary only to find that he was writing to a male nurse at the hospital. This part of the story is based on a real incident. When I was at RAF El Adem in Libya in the late fifties I wrote and received letters weekly over a fifteen month period from a young girl from Leeds who wrote to me following a request in Tit-Bits magazine for pen-pals for lonely airmen. Or so I believed. The truth came out when one of my desert colleagues told the truth (in front of a packed NAAFI) the night before he was due to return to UK. He had set up the whole thing. I had been writing to his brother Dennis not the Denise I had wet dreams over. I came bloody close to proposing to Denise at one stage.

I have been to Leeds twice in the past three years. On one occasion I got lost in the red-light district on the way back to my hotel and had to ask one of the girls for directions. I often wonder what happened to Dennis and what would have happened had I proposed to him - how different would life have been.

Which reminds me of the boy/girl I ended up with in Bugis Street, Singapore!!!

Take care,

Sandy

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