Working on my new book … The Fight For Freedom

Not much time for blogging, as I am writing, writing, writing. Here’s the book I am working on:

I don’t wear a poppy on Remembrance Sunday

A year ago, I accompanied my late father in commemorating Remembrance Sunday. He served for six years in the Second World War, including in the jungles of Burma.

Remembrance Sunday was created to remember the dreadful slaughter of young men in the First World War. I first joined in as a child, and this memory remains as touching as ever. We regretted war. We did not celebrate it.

My father always told me “no more war.” I think he had a right to be listened to.

I have respect and sympathy for soldiers who continue to die in wars. But I do regret that Britain continues to fight war after war, for purposes which are not entirely clear.

Remembrance Sunday has been turned into a celebration of today’s warfaring. My father was right, and this is wrong.

For that reason I do not wear a poppy.

Last chance to acquire 100 years of history for less than one penny per year

Today 15th January 2013 is your last chance to experience 100 years of thrilling history, told through people who went through it, for less than one penny per year if you buy A FOOT IN BOTH CAMPS: A GERMAN PAST FOR BETTER AND FOR WORSE as an ebook.

Special Offer: 99p, $1.99, €1.99. Ends at midnight tonight.

Put your hand on your medals

My father, 96, who fought in World War II, usually spends his mornings in his Oxford nursing home room in bed watching TV and reading. On Remembrance Day, Sunday 13th November 2011, a carer brought him down to sit with the other residents in his wheelchair to watch the Cenotaph ceremony in London on television together.

She brought his campaign medals down with him, and told him:

“When they stand for the two minutes silence, you don’t have to get up. You can just place your hand on your medals.”

Which he did.

He had tears in his eyes when he told me later.