Here I am at the edge

  Medical Staff I am giving thanks to the wonderful staff at the Bristol Royal Infirmary for saving my wife's life. I will never know who you are, but you have the eternal thanks from my family

  They gave their lives Some people remember the end of World War 1 at the 11th hour, of the 11th day of the 11th month with a minutes silence; others remember those who gave their lives each day - I am one. I wrote this short story as a remembrance of the grandfather I never knew; we moved south before I had the opportunity to get to know him. My life is a testament to the strength of British steel over a German bayonet; my grandfather was bayonetted in the trenches, but lived because the bayonet broke, to his dying day he bore the hole in his head were the blade hit but never penetrated. I took the title from the two composers who typified the outlook of the period. In  Elgar 's time the view was the British Empire would push the hun back to Germany in no time, and then our men would come home safe. In four dreadful years, the view was that we'd been lucky to come back, a time depicted beautifully, if sadly by the tune The Lark Ascending by   Vaughan William...

Red Army Faction Many of the readers - especially in the US - will be familiar with the term "Arab Spring," it was a time during the Obama/Clinton era when the Middle East became the closest to WW3 as we ever came. However, I doubt if even the older readers have heard the term "German Autumn."  It was the Fall of 1978, I was in Germany, and the RAF (Red Army Faction) -AKA - Bader/ Meinhoff group had begun to fracture as their leadership changed with the death of the people it was named after had died in prison. NATO camps all across Germany were put on high alert status as death threats spread to US/UK personnel, like most terrorist groups the RAF made no distinction between "hard" targets - military - and "soft" targets - civilian. UK NATO personnel may as well have had Bulle-eyes painted on them as we were offered yellow Cortinas as the vehicle to drive, a more visible target could not have been chosen.  On one return trip from leave...

We shall remember them. From Elgar to Vaughn Williams      https://www.draft2digital.com/book/32122   is a short story I wrote to commemorate the fallen of the many wars.  My late grandfather was saved by his helmet after being bayoneted in the trenches.  The lark ascending by Vaughan Willams is a tune that always brings tears to my eyes, it exemplifies the massive changes that #WW1 brought to the UK. So many large families lost heirs that the workforce returned to the farms and left the big houses in ruins.

Thank a vet for your freedom If you have your freedom, thank your #ArmedForces http://alsdomain.weebly.com/at-the-blogstop/lest-we-forget#.Wf8IwyK0Prc / https://hereiamattheedgeblogspotcouk.wordpress.com/2017/11/03/1658 / https://hereiamattheedge.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/at-11th-hour.html#.Wf8JDiK0Prd

Real heroes Until this month, I had always supported the RNLI, what has made me change my views about the charity ? This month, the have sacked over 100 people to buy Burkinis for some Muslim children in a country that hates the UK . I am pleased I never chose them for my charity to donate to via the Give as you Live app. This is the story of real heroes, who only made local news headline for a week. The story is fiction, but the events are part of my family history. This story is fictional, but the events portrayed are part of my family’s history. In the early 1970s, my late Uncle John was involved in an accident at Whitby harbor, similar to the one Johan had. The result was he lost his job as a stevedore on Whitby docks, a position he held since World War 2. Later in the 1970s, my Uncle Len was involved in the rescue of a Polish ship at the mouth of the River Tees, North Yorkshire. My uncle was the man who boarded the boat and got the men to safety. The event is lo...

Medal of Dishonor Many years ago, I was awarded the General Service Medal for a tour of duty in Ireland , during The Troubles . Since that day, I have vehemently opposed the decision because I feel I did nothing to earn the medal. Our base was over 15 miles from the action. The government of the UK has taken upon itself to charge soldiers who killed terrorists with murder, while IRA supporters such as Jeremy Corbyn  sit in judgment of the soldiers. It is because of this policy that I am looking for ways to return the medal. I cannot support a government that puts immigrants needs ahead of the needs of its people.  While we have homeless ex-soldiers begging for crumbs, these foreigners have done nothing for the country, and are probably never going to, should be sent back - Foreign Aid should be halted until we can look after our own people.

Armistice Day At the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, the guns fell silent, and four years of terrors came to an end.  The Lost Generation A generation of young people went to war believing they'd come back heroes in a few months. Four years later, those who did return came back with minds and bodies torn to pieces and were never the same. Is it any surprise that after such horror that generation lived for the moment.

The Troubles I am not going to say what the army did was right, or wrong. I wasn't there and have no right to condemn the actions. All I can do is try to give an explanation of the times and fears, I think the men were feeling.   The Troubles I was in Ireland during "The Troubles,"   http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/troubles . I was stationed well behind the lines but at the same time, there was a fear of living in an occupied territory and being hated for being there.  I was in Ireland at the date of the Maze Prison hunger strikes   http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/columnists/archive/ed-curran/how-the-maze-prison-could-tell-our-labyrinthine-story-of-horror-29227984.html .  I spent two months on our base and never went further than the mess. To go off the camp, you had to supply an account of what you intended to do and when you estimated to be return, for your safety.  I doubt if any of the modern Irish even know what caused the problem; f...

Armistice Day Last year, I planned to write a family-friendly story to commemorate the centenary of the outset of The Great War .  Johnny and his grandfather The story - Johnny and his grandfather - would have told the story of a veteran of the First World War taking his grandson to visit a war memorial for the what might be the final time. With one thing and another going on, I never got more than the opening page written, mainly because until a few months ago, I couldn't find a photo I took at Staithes , North Yorkshire  that I was going to use for the cover.  From Elgar to Vaughan Williams This short story  http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00BNDHL0U   is the story I wrote to commemorate the fallen of the wars.  I won't deny writing the story made me cry. It was a very emotional story for me to write. Ghosts don't dance On a similar theme is my short Ghosts don't dance   http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00GXSY8F6 . The story, in this case...

How lives got changed forever Gertrude Stein   It was American authoress Gertrude Stein   http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/gertrude-stein   who coined the term "The Lost Generation http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/features/amliteuro/lostgen.html ," about the age of writers like herself who went to war in 1914, and whose lives were never the same. Artists all The Lost Generation included famous names such as    F. Scott Fitzgerald , [1]   T. S. Eliot ,  James Joyce ,  Sherwood Anderson ,  John Dos Passos ,  John Steinbeck ,  William Faulkner ,  Waldo Peirce ,  Isadora Duncan ,  Abraham Walkowitz ,  Alan Seeger ,  Franz Kafka ,  Henry Miller ,  Aldous Huxley ,  Louis-Ferdinand Céline ,  Erich Maria Remarque   and the composers   Sergei Prokofiev ,  Paul Hindemith ,  George Gershwin , and Aaron Copland .    Life takes a new meaning whe...

Remembrance Sunday Veteran's Day in Lac La Biche, Alberta In 2009, I had the pleasure of staying with a lady who I loved in Canada. On the last full day we had together, we saw the Veteran's Day service in Lac La Biche , Alberta , Canada .  This article about the day is an article I wrote for my good friend, Julia, last year.  Veteran's day parting  To fully understand both the joys and sadness this day has for me, I need to take the story back to a few days before Veteran's Day .  The first trip over to Canada to see my lovely friend Faye had been in the Summer of 2009, even though we had planned meeting months in advance. I still had to use CanAir as the flight, owing to the shortage of money available. This trip entailed a Tuesday to Tuesday schedule, being cheaper than Air Canada they fly once a week from Gatwick airpor t - it was a real pain to get to the airport, involving a six-hour wait for the flight and worried about nerves. ...

A long time ago and in another life November 6th is the day I joined the Royal Air Force for a six-year period.  Through many roads have I travelled in the past 41 years, at times I thought my time had come but I am still here to tell my tales.  By the time Christmas arrives, I will have had my injured tendon for that length of time too. Scary - isn't it!  For most of the time, the ankle has been good. It is only in the last few years that the injury caught up with me and left me physically challenged . 

In memory, do they live with us To the men and women who gave everything.  Free speech is not free, for the like of Muslims to come here and slander our country and be free to break the rules of society, men, women and even children died in wars.  Remembrance Day   Or as our friends across the Atlantic call it Veteran's Day . Is a day to remember those who gave their lives, so we may live in freedom. As an ex-serviceman, I have no need for a special day, I am always thankful for the people who went before me.  Besides which, I carry my own personal reminder of my days in the Royal Air Force , an injury done playing hockey as a recruit has left me physically challenged - to use the PC term.

Back in civvies   35 years ago this week, I became a civilian after serving for six years in the Royal Air Force .   My last week was a demob course for driving in Liverpool , a week I'll never forget.  The instructor was more accustomed to teaching HGV drivers with years of experience and was not suited to train beginners. Learning to drive while avoiding bricks, planks, and rubble along the banks of the River Mersey is not to be recommended. I didn't finish the Crash course  as the instructor was very abusive to the students. On leaving Liverpool, I returned to my base at RAF Brampton  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Brampton   for the last three days of my service period.