Crimson Flower Reviews Welcomes Critically Acclaimed Author George Stratford…..
I was born prematurely (feet first, all two and a half pounds of me) in Croydon, South London during early June 1944 – just four days before Hitler’s V1 flying doodlebug bombs began raining down all around our neighbourhood. Years later my mother told me the story of how our house (with us inside) had one almost miraculous escape from these bombs. Maybe there’s a novel somewhere in this for me? It’s a strong possibility.
My father was a Canadian pilot serving with 78 Squadron RAF Bomber Command. He was killed in action on his 28th mission when I was just six weeks old. Before I was born, my mother was also very involved in the war effort, serving as a WAAF at the top secret Bletchley Park (Station X) establishment where the famous German Enigma code was eventually broken.
My first published novel, IN THE LONG RUN, had as its backdrop South Africa’s real life event Comrades Marathon – 55 miles of torture run over massive hills, most years in considerable heat and humidity. This was selling spectacularly well for a first novel until my publishers went bust virtually overnight, so not a single penny of royalties ever found its way into my pocket.
I later re-published the title with Booksurge, now Create Space. The book features a foreword written by BBC broadcaster and former Olympic athlete, Steve Cram. Steve, whose world record time for the mile stood for over eight years, also provided a jacket quote stating, “A gripping tale from start to finish.” That’s Steve with me in the picture, taken at the launch party of the original version of IN THE LONG RUN in March 2000. This was held at the London HQ of advertising giants Saatchi & Saatchi, where I was working at the time as a copywriter.
How the heck did I ever manage to get myself such a job in Don Draper land at 51 years of age when only three years previously I had been a long-term unemployed bum with absolutely no educational qualifications to my name? That’s another story altogether. One that I’ve just finished writing in a bio called AIN’T FINISHED YET. I can indeed identify with many aspects of the fabulous TV series Mad Men, although sadly from a personal point of view, with very little of the gratuitous sex and huge salaries involved.
Although all characters and events in it are entirely fictional, my new novel, BURIED PASTS, now available through Great Minds Publishing in both kindle and paperback formats, is in fact a personal tribute to the father I never knew. You’ll find more about this in the following interview.
When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
Right from Junior School days, English and essay writing were the only subjects in which I excelled. I hope this doesn’t sound arrogant, but putting thoughts down on paper came quite naturally, and at the time I couldn’t understand why some of the other kids often seemed to struggle with something that felt so simple.
Somehow, despite this obvious career path offering, after leaving school at the age of 15 I kind of drifted into manual work for many years, writing only as a hobby, or part-time for a bit of extra pocket money. Writing a full-length novel was always the ultimate aim, but that was not something that came so easily to me as the shorter stuff. It wasn’t until I had reached my late-40s (and produced an industrial sized skip full of aborted disasters) that I finally managed to complete a novel even half worthy of the name.
Then, at this turning point, I was suddenly made redundant from my job with a shopfitting company. It was all gloom and doom at first, but ultimately this setback led to me returning to full-time education, and after that, my first ever proper job as a writer. And what a job! – as a copywriter/creative at the London office of world famous advertising agency, Saatchi & Saatchi. I’ve since written a light-hearted memoir of those years, during which I also experienced the 15 minutes of media fame that Andy Warhol spoke about way back in 1968. This is called Ain’t Finished Yet, and I hope it will be published very soon.
What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
I’m not sure if you would call it a quirk exactly, but in all of my novels I try to combine action and adventure with an equally large helping of sensitive human issues. My new novel, Buried Pasts, is typical of this. In a review, the much-respected publication, Publishers Weekly, described it as: “A page-turner that blends suspense with a cast of characters who genuinely care for each other. It’s an engaging and satisfying novel for fans of adventure stories with a heart.”
That description works pretty well for me.
What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books?
After researching Buried Pasts, I think that ‘astonishing’ rather than ‘surprising’ is the appropriate word here. Discovering the full depth of the absolute hell that men on board those huge WWII bombers went through, time after time, was truly awe- inspiring. Unlike the fabled Battle of Britain fighter pilots for instance, whose bursts of combat action rarely lasted more than a few minutes, the slow moving and poorly armed bombers were there to be consistently shot at on missions that could sometimes last for more than eight hours.
But the most astonishing thing of all for me was the self-effacing modesty of the Bomber Command veterans I was lucky enough to interview. That really blew me away. These were men with an average WWII life expectancy of just six weeks and a fatality rate of fifty percent. In cold hard figures, the odds of survival were actually much better if you were a beaten and half-starved Japanese prisoner-of-war working on the infamous Death Railway. There, only one in four perished.
Where did you get ideas for your books?
There is no single source. It could come from something I’ve seen or experienced, or maybe even a random ‘what if’ type of thought popping into my head.
In the Long Run was inspired by my happening to witness South Africa’s Comrades Marathon in 1990. This is a 55-mile road race, run over a series of huge hills, often in great heat and humidity. Two million wildly enthusiastic spectators regularly line the route. All this made the event a truly wonderful spectacle. But what turned the Comrades into something really special for me was that, back in 1990, apartheid was still law in South Africa. Yet here, before my very eyes, were competitors and spectators all mixing together with no apparent restrictions whatsoever. Later enquiries told me that the Comrades had been the country’s only major open event in terms of colour and race throughout the apartheid era. I decided there and then that this race had to be the backdrop for my next novel.
By contrast, right from the very beginning, Buried Pasts was always going to be a tribute to my father. Dad was a Canadian pilot with RAF Bomber Command during WWII. He was killed in action in July 1944 when I was just six weeks old. So it followed that my main male character very quickly became a Canadian pilot from Brandon, Manitoba (Dad’s hometown) serving with RAF Bomber Command and possessing the spookily similar name of Mike Stafford. Even Stafford’s fictional 79 Squadron was as close as possible to the real life 78 Squadron that Dad was actually with when he died. In my mind, throughout the writing Stafford was Dad. I liked to fondly imagine that, had he lived, Dad would have handled all the invented dangers and problems I throw Stafford’s way in a similar fashion.
How many books have you written? Which is your favorite?
So far I’ve written five novels and that already mentioned memoir of how I went from being a long-term unemployed no-hoper, to an award winning creative with advertising giants Saatchi & Saatchi. No wonder I love the fabulous TV series Mad Men.
Although I have a parent-like affection for all of my novels, I think it pretty obvious from my previous answer that Buried Pasts has to be the favourite. Whatever I may write in the future, that opinion will never change. Also, seeing as how nearly eight thousand people already own either a paperback or kindle copy of this book, it is also my most successful to date.
What do you think makes a good story?
Curiosity may have killed the cat, but the desire to discover ‘what happens next’ is the very lifeblood of a good story. There should always be at least one dangling question (preferably several) waiting to be answered. This is true right up until the final page.
Obviously characters that make you care deeply about them are vital too. Finally – and clearly this is only a personal opinion – I do tend to put aside novels rather quickly if they get carried away with their description passages. For sure you need a certain amount of scene setting to paint the picture, but unless the ongoing flood of small detail is especially relevant to the story, surely a scene such as the cliché dark stormy night can be done in a single paragraph? After that, I’d want to get on with the telling of the story itself.
What projects do you have up and coming?
I’m currently putting the finishing touches to an adventure/thriller novel called A Fine Line. Without giving too much away at this point, it’s about a controversial USA Senator who travels incognito to a small English village during the Christmas and New Year holiday in order trace his roots and get over the death of his wife. He takes with him his recently divorced daughter and his Godson, a former Delta Force bodyguard now acting as the senator’s bodyguard. But unknown to any of them, there is a five million dollar price on the senator’s head, and the UK’s most feared and successful hitman is closing in.
As in my previous novels, with this latest work I also try to introduce human emotions and interactions not usually associated with this genre. Otherwise, it might simply turn out to be a hard-edged thriller story. For instance, how does a hugely successful contract killer react when his law-abiding, god-fearing mother discovers how he makes his living? And no, this is not a comedy moment.
Who are some of your favorite Authors?
Ken Follett is a particular favourite of mine. As well as fast moving contemporary stuff, he has also written brilliant stories that centre on both world wars, plus amazingly researched novels set in medieval times. His 12th Century novel, Pillars of the Earth, and its sequel, World Without End, which features the Hundred Years War and the arrival of the Black Death in Britain, are true masterpieces. His latest near thousand-page epic, Fall of Giants, beginning at the start of the 20th Century, is a great read too.
Aside from Ken, I also enjoy John Grisham’s novels a lot. And on a comedy level, the Wilt and Porterhouse series of farces by Tom Sharpe always amuse me, although possibly these may be of a peculiarly British sense of humour.
Who are some of the people that influenced your love of writing?
I suppose that Ken Follett must figure in this answer as well. The first novel of his that I ever read was The Eye Of The Needle, although I think it was called Storm Island when published in the USA. Not only did I think this a fantastic story, I also found it so very easy to read. At the time when Needle was first published in the late 1970s I had already written several half-finished failures, but was yet to actually complete a novel. Ken’s work inspired me to go that extra yard. I learned so much about the construction of a novel simply by reading, and then re-reading, his books.
On the genetic front, the only close relative I’m aware of who displayed any creative writing skills was my paternal grandmother. So I guess it is this remarkable little lady I should be thanking for any inherited talent I may have. If only I could have written Buried Pasts before she died.
If you could pick a celebrity to play one character in the movie version, who would it be?
This is what dreams are made of, and I’ve often thought about who I would like to see play Mike Stafford. I’ve always considered that Harrison Ford in his younger day would have been superb in the role. Sadly, that’s no longer an option. Of the younger actors, possibly Matt Damon could fill Mr Harrison’s boots rather well.
If you had one piece of advice for an aspiring Author, what would it be?
Unless you are writing about a world in which everything is a figment of your imagination, always do your research as thoroughly as possible. Get caught out once on an obvious factual error and your readers will lose a little faith. Get caught out several times and they will probably lose the book.
For what they are worth, I also offer thoughts on several aspects of novel writing on my website. These pages cover topics such as finding ideas, developing the plot, and creating conflict. www.georgestratford.com
What would you like to say to friends and family of writers (not just your own)?
For most of us, creative writing is something that is usually best done in solitude and quiet. Maybe it is a little anti-social when we shut ourselves away from you for hours on end to work on our latest book, but please don’t hold this against us too much. Hopefully, the end product will be great and then we can all celebrate together.
Excerpt:
As a taster, below is a brief summary of Buried Pasts’ storyline.
Want to dig a little deeper? You can read other people’s reviews, and the opening three chapters of Buried Pasts for free on Amazon.com. Here is the link to use:
NOTHING STAYS BURIED FOREVER
Personal demons can be a killer
Even after eighteen years, Canadian pilot Mike Stafford still carries a powerful sense of guilt over the death of his best friend during a huge RAF bombing raid to Berlin in 1944. He eventually returns to England for an inaugural squadron reunion full of apprehension over what the visit may produce.
Siggi Hoffman, then a young German girl of twenty, also has terrible memories of a personal loss from that same wartime night. She too is unable to forget. Nor has she ever been able to forgive.
When fate throws these two together in a small north Yorkshire town during the summer of 1962, the past collides devastatingly into the present. And all the time, lurking ominously in the background, is an unknown enemy intent on extracting violent revenge. Personal demons are only one of the many problems that must now be overcome when Stafford and Siggi find themselves fighting to survive.
As long buried secrets are finally revealed, events reach a literally explosive conclusion.
* * *
If you’d like to know more about anything mentioned in this interview, please do visit my website at www.georgestratford.com .
Elizabeth Delana Rosa 
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