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To grow old is mandatory-To grow up
is optional
Welcome to retirement.
Don’t fight it, embrace it.
I don’t feel any age. Age starts
in your mind and in the mind of others. You are never too
old to start a new venture. I had often heard it said that
everyone has a book inside them to write. At the age of
Eighty One I decided to give it a go. Here is a brief synopsis
of my life leading up to that decision. My name is Des Evans.
I was born in Birmingham in 1925, educated in state schools
and left at the age of fourteen. I worked for Ten Acres
& Stirchley Co-operative society, delivering Bread and
Cakes. Started out to work about seven o’clock in
the morning, cycling to work, which was about seven miles,
collected the horse { Kitty } from the stables and walked
her half a mile through the streets of Stirchley to the
Bakery, this was always the junior’s job collecting
the horse. As soon as the Bread Cart was loaded, we set
off Six miles to our destination. Usually in the week we
finished about Five o’clock, Saturdays we were much
later, finishing about Seven thirty, a lot depended on the
weather, especially in the winter if we had Snow or heavy
frosts. I earned Nine shilling and sixpence per week to
start with, but we did get Wednesday afternoon off. {Forty-seven
and a half pence to day.}My brother also worked for the
Co-op in the grocery trade. He is nearly three years older
than me..He enlisted in the RAF as a Flight Mechanic early
1942., both of us following in the footsteps of our father,
who had served in the RAF during the early 1920s.
In November 1942 I enlisted in the RAF and qualified as
a Flight Mechanic. I had one or two temporary posting before
being assigned to 97 Squadron, Bomber Command at Bourn in
Cambridgeshire in October 1943 to work on Lancaster Bombers.
In April 1944 the squadron moved to Coningsby, Lincolnshire.
I stayed there until February 1945. By this time the War
had entered its final stages, the allied Air forces were
now in command of the skies meeting very little opposition
from the Luftwaffe. I then volunteered for an overseas posting:
spending the last eighteen months of my service in Malta.
My war service over I was demobbed in February 1947, returned
home and married the girl next door in 1950. My wife, Jean,
blessed me with a daughter and son who between them blessed
us with seven grandchildren. I retired in 1981 having worked
mostly in insurance. With time on my hands I took a course
on carpentry and with my wife, became interested in Antiques,
attending many auctions. My interests focussed mainly on
restoring old furniture. The new millennium arrived and
with it became involved with the new technology of Computers
and eagerly searched the Web for ideas. Through sheer luck
I came across a Website connected to my old squadron and
in 1999/2000 became its Webmaster for the next few years
before retiring in May 2006.. Jean and I moved to Shropshire
in 1963 and now live in the market town of Much Wenlock.
Another phase of my life had ended and so at the age of
81 looked for other ideas to occupy my time..About 1980/81
my wife and I moved into rented property with the object
of looking for a cottage to renovate. In this quiet period
I thought I would like to try and write a crime novel. I
had a very small typewriter and one good finger which hit
the keys hard. I chose as my main character DCI Jim Langton
a divorced man finishing off his career with the Po;ice
Force to tke up an appointment in Australia after his resignation
notice expired. His constant in this three month period
was Sgt.Harry Mills, his senior by fifteen years..I played
a lot of Golf at the time, so I used a Golf club as the
scneof the crime, and settled for the title `A Course for
Investigation`.
I remember vividly my Son Julian
who worked for the Shropshire Star in those days as a Graphic
Designer. He, ,used to pull my leg unmercifully about my
phrasing. In particularas I had typed a couple of sentences
saying Langton had strode into a situation etc.etc. when
I meant to wriet walked into etc.etc. . Whenever my Son
rang me after that he would invariably finish off asking
if Langton was still stroding.. He still reminds me of those
days . I struggled through about three quarters of the novel..
It was at this period in our lives we came across a 15th,century
cottage. We obtained permission to renovate it and so the
next 16 years forgot all about that manuscript.The manuscript
was put to one side. Twenty years passed by before I extricated
it 2006 and set to work to get it finished. I had just passed
my 81st.Birthday.
In 1995 we moved to Penrhyndeudreath in North Wales for
two years and then returned to Shropshire to Stapleton near
Shrewsbury and a year or so later here to Much Wenlock
I became Webmaster for my old 97
RAF squadron about 1999 and continued to June 2006. When
I became Webmaster In the meantime Ihad come across the
manuscript again and quickly sent it off to Book4 Publishers
in Bridgnorth ,Shropshire,that was in 2001, but let it slip
away again as I concentrated on the squadron website. When
I finally retired in 2006 I set about re-writing and editing
and thinking up plots for further books, thats when I decided
I would write a trilogy and call it the `Langton Investigates`
series..and in October of 2006 was finally accepted by a
London publisher and so my venture to being an author had
become a reality.. Now set upon a career of writing, I do
have to limit my time on the computer, unfortunately I discovered
I have glaucoma, this has debarred me from driving, however
I can carry on with my writing.
`Death is a Member` is the first of the trilogy. My wife
Jean suggested I change the title from `A Course for Investigation
to Death is a Member. The Publishers Athena Press agreed
with her. I have completed my second book `Murder in the
Ascendant`which is now published and on sale in July 2008,
again, this is Jeans suggestion of the title. I’m
now on my third `When the Hammer Falls`.and once more. her
choice again, I just write them and she makes up the title
, great partnership. .If I’m blessed with enough time,
who knows, —maybe another three novels.
The synopsis and reviews of`Death is a Member ` and `Murder
in the Ascendant`can be seen by clicking on Trilogy` in
the menu column..
If you feel like contacting me with any points on either
book, please feel free to do so at
: des@desandjean.freeserve.co.uk
My favourite Detectives are. Wycliffe. { Jack Shepherd
}. Adam Dalgleish { Roy Marsden } {Barnaby { John Nettles
} and of course John Thaw as Inspector Morse.
I don’t go in for gratuitous violence, I like to
give my reader a good chance to solve the crime. I obviously
try to mislead you, but thats the fascination of writing.
To order the Book via your local bookshop, click on Home
Page or Bookshops in the menu bar for the correct ISBN Nos.
My Books will have the inside search capability. You can
read some pages before you buy..
If you wish to contact about Web Designing. Scroll down
and click on Kit Boyd Evans in the Menu Bar.
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