How did I do last year?

On the plus side, my book of Letters from relatives of Far East POWs found a publisher Pen & Sword and will come out this spring/summer as Surviving the Death Railway: A POW’s Memoir and Letters from Home. I am really happy and relieved about this. I still have to produce a private version for the family with all the letters unabridged and this is proving very time-consuming, but that’s fine.

I did try and reach more of the relatives of the men in 27 Line Section. So far I have made no new contacts, but have been in touch with several Scottish families connected to my men. There are so many threads I could/should follow up, but the manuscript is now in proof stage, so any new information will have to go into a second edition… should I be so lucky.

I am determined to overcome my feebleness about public speaking. I am preparing a Powerpoint talk on the Death Railway, with one museum session fixed and others in the pipeline.

I have written not a single word of my new novel (working title Jeannie). Will I get to it this year? I don’t know. Here is the nearest thing to a (modest) resolution – five new chapters by the end of the year.

I’ll stop there.