First ad!

This week I placed for the first time, an ad in my local paper the Isle of Wight County Press, so now would be a good time to give the gist of what Sheep No More is about.

Decades ago I began gobbing off at any and every opportunity, mostly on radio phone-in programs, about the state of decay Britain was falling into, and the lazy, unintelligent, dishonourable, self-serving and visionless politicians handicapping the country and us all. Writing letters to newspapers took up my Sunday mornings as well, but none of it actually achieved anything other than vent a bit of spleen on my part. And no amount of outpourings from countless others in a similar vein have made the slightest difference to the way politicians operate. They do whatever their policy devisors / think tanks / ear benders demand, and they couldn't care less us about the hopes and fears of ordinary people.

I first had a go at writing my book a decade or so ago, after figuring all the energy spent crafting letters to editors was a waste. It would be better to direct that energy into the writing of a book, and so the first of many drafts of Sheep No More began. It was dreadful at first but slowly improved as I got the hang of the writers art. Along the way, I stood as an Independent Candidate for the Isle of Wight at the General Election of 2010 and polled 175 votes. I'm proud of that effort, and very grateful to those who voted for me, but I never had a dogs chance of winning and knew that from the moment my hat went into the ring. I went for it because to merely observe whilst our way of life went down the tubes and children's future with it, wasn't acceptable to my own ideas about right and wrong.

The day after the General Election I took the bull by the horns and sat down at my PC in order to bash out the book. It took a couple of years, absorbed much, if not most of my free time, and was self published on Amazon as an eBook and Feed-A-Read in paper and ink 2 years ago. Since then I haven't been able to get off the work treadmill and spend time doing promotion, so am now trying to summons up extra time from God knows where to do so. Have to give up sleeping probably!

We're now a year away from the next election and our situation is JUST GETTING WORSE. The same politicians responsible for screwing the country up are still in positions where maximum damage can be wrought, and they haven't got any sort of a plan to put the county back on its feet. Window dressing failure as if it was success and weasel words are plentiful, but not one ounce of genuine effort is being made to address serious issues, which just goes to make the case for the relevance of a book such as mine. Sensibly examining the monetarists mind-set to figure out what went wrong, and practical solutions aimed at countering their cancerous philosophy and economic model, is what SNM exists for.

A voice in the wilderness I may have been, but I have at least made clear my objections to lousy politicians and business leaders, doing their own thing whilst ignoring the interests of ordinary British families.

The recently opened shop is dual purpose. On the one hand, it is a conventional workplace out of which I can ply my trade, that of carving metal, mostly for silversmiths. The other side to the enterprise is to provide a shop window and base for Sheep No More, because we have to start fighting back. 14 months from now those same political monetarists to have spent 35 years destroying Britain, will be promising you MORE OF THE SAME, and you'll be expected to vote for the spivs!  

A bit of spit and polish for Sheep No More

Having had the best part of two years to mull over my book Sheep No More and take on-board the comments / constructive criticisms of some of those who've read it and whose opinions I respect, I've come to the conclusion that a few quite minor alterations could improve it a lot. The bulk of the text will remain exactly as it is because I'm still happy with it and stand by every word. The alterations to be made are regarding the cover, introduction, and ideally the insertion of a foreword written by someone who gets what this project is about and can see the potential it has.

Two people said pretty much the same thing about the cover which currently depicts a gravestone carrying text that laments what we've lost; democracy, industriousness and even handedness etc. 'Just two readers and you're altering the book as a result you may be thinking; can the bloke be that easily persuaded?' I agree with them which is why I'm biting the bullet on this particular issue. Both said the present cover is clever, but the gravestone gives off a negative vibe, which was not my intention and so must be addressed. When I asked others to be honest about it, opinions were split about 50/50. That set me thinking about an image that couldn't be mistaken as anything other than positive and after much mulling over, a pretty neat idea has come to mind that I'm set to get worked up by a professional book cover artist.

A new Introduction has been written that if I say so myself, is the dogs dangly bits and will replace the current one.

The first version only has a bit of musing on my part where a proper foreword ought to be, so now I'm going to address that issue and seek to gain the endorsement of a person with clout I've a great deal of respect for. The man I'd love to write it has been approached and all I can do is wait and see if he responds. A paragraph or two, or ideally a whole page would do it! The person concerned is a personal hero of mine and played a part sparking this whole project off, so to gain his approval would be a dream come true.

We're in a shocking mess as a country, with no genuine or even window dressing effort being applied towards the task of allowing generations to come a worthwhile future. My book has a lot to say on that account and could only do good if I can get it into circulation and make people aware of what we could, and should, be doing about it. It's about fighting our own and our kids corner at the end of the day.

The new intro is ready, the artwork is clear in my minds eye and just needs to be drawn up properly, and I'm pretty certain the foreword writer I'd love to do it will get where I'm coming from if I can just get his attention. I really need to crack on with this and will be placing small adds in carefully chosen newspapers and magazines to promote it. All it will take is one high profile celebrity, journalist, or businessperson to take an interest and the blue touch-paper will have effectively been lit. There is no reason we shouldn't sort this country out and give our children the future they deserve.