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#HistFicThursdays - Inspirational Series: Our Flag Means Death

I can’t quite remember what inspired me to watch Our Flag Means Death . I have a vague recollection of watching a trailer on Facebook and then, eventually, picking up my phone and flicking through various streaming platforms, finally settling on that as my pick. What I was expecting was a farcical pirate romp. Maybe elements of The Muppets’ Treasure Island but with a little more adult content. Lots of hopeless pirates attempting swashbuckling tasks with comically poor results. Possibly a bit of Blackadder -esque historical humour. As anyone who has watched the series would be able to tell you, I was a little way off the mark. In fact, it is a delicious, hilarious and touching tribute to Wokeness. And I say this as a good thing: all people are welcome here. For me, watching it straight after finishing (or getting towards the end of, I can’t quite remember) my novel about Alexander the Great, the relationship between Stede and Blackbeard really resonated with me. What begins as a fascin...

World Book Day - Lend a Hand

So, the New Year Resolutions went out the window. But don't they all?

I was in a staff meeting after school today, and it was mentioned that Park Primary had reopened, and needed some interim supplies before they could get their stock up again.

For those of you who didn't see it on the news, Park Primary in Invergordon was burned down after an old laptop caught fire. Amazingly, all the staff and children got out and were not harmed. They reopened last week, but have lost all of their supplies.

My headteacher, a practical-minded individual, was hoping to put together some textbooks that we don't use. My first thought was that it was World Book Day this week, and the school had no library. Surely, if they had lost all their textbooks, they would have lost all their library books too!

Imagine that! No books for the kids to sail away on. No chance for the children to fight or fly with dragons, or meet superheroes and wizards.

With that in mind, I determined to package up my book, Taking Wing, and the two other Crowvus books that were written for children (Rosie Jane and the Swodgerump by Susan Crow, and The Backwater by Judith Crow), and send them to Park Primary to help in some small way.

I would encourage other children's authors to do the same. We all know how important books are to kids - I'm sure we all loved to read when we were little. I know that authors need the income from sales but...

Please consider sending just one of your fantastic books to help Park Primary regain its class libraries. Thursday is World Book Day. Make this year's event memorable for those children and their teachers.

It seems that Park Primary have temporarily relocated to Invergordon Academy, so I would send the book to:

Park Primary
c/o Invergordon Academy
Academy Road
Invergordon
HIGHLAND
IV18 0LD

Their postcode is old!!

Thanks, tremendous people!

More details about the fire are here:

https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/news/pupils-of-fire-hit-primary-school-to-be-taught-at-academy-site-192214/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-51614060

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