A Very British Blog 2013

A VERY BRITISH BLOG 2013

Welcome to A VERY BRITISH BLOG TOUR 2013 – a collection of blogs, books and authors who are surprisingly very British.

  Paul Anthony invited me to take part in ‘A Very British Blog’ by visiting and supporting the websites of authors involved in the tour and who are dedicated to turning out some of the finest books available in Britain today.
Each author named at the bottom of the page has  been asked the same questions but the answers will obviously all be different. You merely click on the author’s name at the bottom of the page to see how they have answered the same question.
By the way, we British have certain conventions, traditions, and procedures that are expected. There is a dress code in the reading of this British blog and you are expected to comply with it.
For example… NB… (You may chuckle if you wish)
Gentlemen will wear suits, white shirts and dark ties. (Military ties are expected wherever possible). Ladies will wear dresses (one inch above the knee, no higher, no lower) and floral summer hats. A break for TEA and cucumber sandwiches is expected at some stage and is permissible. The list at the bottom the page is not a queue. We British hate queues and will accept them no longer. It is an invitation and you are expected to accept that invitation and support the home-grown product. Now then, let us proceed in an orderly fashion. As you know, we are all very boring and staid in Britain, aren’t we?
Well, there’s a myth about the British and your starter for ten Stuffy, class conscious, boring, staid! But is this still relevant in today’s world? Let’s find out from our wonderful writers what they feel about it.
So, without further ado, here are the questions from THE VERY BRITISH WRITER:

To Andrew Scorah
Q. Where were you born and where do you live at the moment?
A.I was born in Doncaster, a town in South Yorkshire in 1965. I lived in Doncaster until I met my fiancée Lisa in 1999. She was from Swansea originally, after a bad bought of homesickness we moved to Swansea.

 Q. Have you always lived and worked in Britain or are you based elsewhere at the moment?
 A. I have always lived in the UK, apart from the usual trips to sunnier climbs for holidays, you know the usual Spanish destinations.

Q. Which is your favourite part of Britain?
A. I love the rugged beauty of the Gower coast down here in Wales, it’s visual poetry and abundance of wild life and history. Stretching from the Loughor Estuary in the North to Swansea Bay, no wonder it was designated an area of natural beauty. I can see how Dylan Thomas drew so much inspiration from the area.

Q. Have you ‘highlighted’ or ‘showcased’ any particular part of Britain in your books? For example, a town or city; a county, a monument or some well-known place or event?
A. My book Homecoming Blues is set in London and ends in Hastings, all the locations exist though some are changed a little to suit the story line. You do get a glimpse at the darker side of London, the side the casual tourist never views.

Q. There is an illusion – or myth if you wish - about British people that I would like you to discuss. Many see the ‘Brits’ as ‘stiff upper lip’. Is that correct?
A. You see in a lot of movies especially from back in the day, the archetypical image of the British character, a person who spoke the Queens English. Every word pronounced correctly in a clipped no nonsense manner. I for one have never heard anyone in real life speak this way, it’s a nonsense perpetrated by filmmakers and the films were possible the only contact with a British person people abroad would have. I don’t know maybe back then people from elite schools, Eton, Oxford etc did speak this way. I prefer to think the ‘stiff upper lip’ pertains more to our indomitable spirit, especially through the two world wars, never giving up striving through adversity, the Bulldog breed.

Q. Do any of the characters in your books carry the ‘stiff upper lip’? Or are they all ‘British Bulldog’ and unique in their own way?
A. No, if you said to my main character that he had a stiff upper lip, he would probably give you a fat lip of your own. He comes from a working class background, but has unique traits and values all his own.

Q. Tell us about one of your recent books?
A. I published Bordertown Blues on Amazon a few months ago, this is the sequel to Homecoming Blues. The book follows my main characters Jimmy Dalton and Jamie Duggan who are on the run in America, after the events at the end of Homecoming. They find themselves in Ajo, a town near the Mexican border. After being recognised by an eagle-eyed official of a shadowy Government agency, one of the Alphabet Companies, they are coerced into travelling across the border to locate some missing agents. They uncover a plot by Al-Qaeda to infiltrate the US and unleash biological weapons at various locations. What ensues, is a race against time through the wilds of Mexico and Arizona to put a stop to this plot. Homecoming was only meant to be a one off book, but the response I received from those who read it cried out for a sequel or two. Both books are fast paced thrillers, like a rollercoaster of death and destruction, with a few twists and turns of course.

Q. What are you currently working on?
A. Currently, I am working on a book called Jericho Blues, which is the third in the Dalton series. Dalton and Jamie face their biggest threat yet. They go up against a shadowy cartel of elite families who have secretly been pulling the strings of history for over a thousand years, their aim total world domination. Alongside a rag tag bunch of individuals, they fight back. It’s another fast paced thrill fest. JB is actually a merging with another story I was working on a couple of years ago about a mind-controlled assassin, the opening is taken directly from that story.

Q. How do you spend your leisure time?
A. I like to spend my leisure time with family, doing the usual family stuff, love music and my secret indulgence is Karaoke, queue the groans, ha ha! What can I say, I love to sing, it’s the frustrated Rock Star in me.  

Q. Do you write for a local audience or a global audience?
A. I write for who ever want to read my work, I write because I enjoy writing, if I ever make any money out of it then that is a bonus.

Q. Can you provide links to your work?
A. Of course, here they are.
Andrew Scorah’s blogsite
Andrew Scorah’s Amazon Uk page.
Andrew Scorah’s Amazon.com page
Andrew Scorah’s Lulu page (printed copies only)
Andrew Scorah’s Facebook Page

To see how our other authors responded, click on an author’s name below.
1. Clive Eaton
2.Paul Anthony
3. Nicholas Rose
4. Diane Major
5. Rags Daniels .
6. Bob Atkinson
7. Danny Kemp
8. Pandora Poikilos
9. John Hanley 
10. Andrew Peters 
11.Tim Vicary
12 Andy Szpuk
13. Alex Sumner
14. Maria Savva
15. Terry Tyler