I am often in awe of the talented authors that I am fortunate enough to network with, starstruck sometimes!
The reason is very simple, they write great books.
It is for this reason that I enjoy helping them to increase awareness of their books to new audiences.
Great books should never be undiscovered.
Prunes For Breakfast by John Searancke is far from undiscovered. He has been featured in magazines, radio interviews and on multiple book blogs. Today, I would like to shine the spotlight on this accomplished author who has created a book which is described as a WW2 personal memoir, but which is also a wartime love story.
John Searancke explains how the book came about...
When a cache of letters, written by my father to my mother during the years of World War 2 eventually came in to my possession, I concluded that I should share some of them with a wider audience. In between a selection of those letters is traced the story of his life over those five long war years.
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| John with his parents |
It fascinated me to learn of the day to day life of an enlisted man – and later officer – as the war progressed to its inevitable conclusion, though finally without him as he languished behind the wire in a POW camp in Germany after having been captured on the battlefields of Normandy. And so his story has finally been written.
This is a watercolour painting of part of my father’s POW camp in Germany, Oflag 79. The painting was done by a prisoner, and my father brought it back to England on his release. It shows a skater in winter, skating across what looks like a frozen pond, but which is, in reality, a bomb crater. The Americans bombed the camp in error, thinking that it was the nearby Goering aircraft engine factory! They scored 7 direct hits and killed some 51 people. What an example of friendly fire!
John Searancke is no stranger to the author interview circuit, you might like like to check this out to find out more about the man behind Prunes For Breakfast.
Here is an example of what you will find:
Where do you get your ideas for your books?
My second book, Prunes for Breakfast, was the one that I really needed to write, to get it out of my system. It is the WW2 story of my father, through his training, battle, the invasion of Normandy and his capture there, thence to be taken to a German prisoner of war camp. A lot of research was needed, and I had the advantage of being able to refer to a cache of letters written during that war. I am very proud of that book.
Continue reading here
John Searancke is no stranger to being interviewed by the local press either!
What do reviewers say about Prunes For Breakfast:
on 13 July 2016
Prunes for Breakfast was one of those books that lurked in the 'unread' section of my kindle,
waiting for a time that I could give my full attention to a subject that deserves nothing less.
If I'm totally honest, I probably wouldn't ordinarily purchase a book about war (definitely more
my brother's cup of tea), but I enjoyed John Searancke's previous book - Dog Days in the
Fortunate Islands so much, that when Amazon suggested that I might like Prunes for Breakfast,
I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt and clicked on 'Buy now'.
Did I enjoy it? Without any doubt, yes I did. It was an intimate and fascinating account of one
man's WW2, cleverly told through a bunch of letters written by the author's father to his young
wife. I even found myself paying attention to the Notes on Military References, important to
read if you want a real understanding of the numbers of men who went into battle.
Thank you John Searancke for sharing your father's war with us. We really do owe his generation
an enormous debt of gratitude. By the way, if my husband had a prolonged absence from home,
and returned for a weekend, he too would arrive with his golf clubs!
5* "Intimate and fascinating- Did I enjoy it? Without any doubt yes I did"
Find out more about John Searancke and his books at
Rukia Publishing on the links below
or
Visit his author website
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