Long Barn Books Blog

Our autumn title BUGLE BOY by Len Chester is published. This wonderful short book tells Len`s own story of how he  joined the Royal Marines at the age of 14 in 1939 and was sent first to Scapa Flow and then, the only boy among several hundred men, to Russia on one of the Arctic convoys. HRH the Duke of Edinburgh liked the book so much that he has generously written a Foreword to it. It has photographs from those years and is History brought to life. One class of history A level students in the Isle of Man are using the book in their study of WW2 and Len will be paying them a visit to talk about his experiences. He will also be doing a lot of publicity on and around this year`s Remembrance Day including an appearance on Channel 5 TV News.

BUGLE BOY is available in all good bookshops and from Amazon. It costs just 9.99 and for anyone who was in or is interested in, WW2 it makes the absolutely perfect Christmas present.

Is this week so everyone in London publishing is out of town. There will be  a lot of talk, meetings, handshakes, eating and drinking, a load of money spent on hotel bills and air fares. And to what purpose ? Whenever I have had a book being presented there by a publisher or agent, I have been told about ‘excitement’ and ‘interest’ but so often when people have returned to their offices and normal life, nothing has come of half of it, or I have been told that ‘the actual deals don`t get done at Frankfurt.’ So what does get done there ? Seems an awful lot of expense and trouble for nothing. And everyone moans and groans about it in advance but they all still go on going.