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I met Tony the first time I turned up at the local writers group. Delighted that he's here to talk about his first book, U-Boat Enigmas.
Tony, what does it feel like to see your first book fledge and leave the nest?
The book is still my baby even though it is now in public view: now I hope that people will like it. Amazement that I could actually write something that I am so proud of is the other overriding feeling. The best day for me during my research was finding the German Codebook from UC-44, wonderful to find and hold something so important that my hero helped to recover. Publishing gave me that same feeling, now I just want everyone to know the story. When I do the lecture that this talk is based upon I feel an energy that I hope brings it to life.
What advice would you give other first time novelists?
In my quest to produce this novel I joined a writing group, as I was struggling at the time and thought it might be helpful. Unfortunately, the style of leadership just turned me off; I have never been good at set homework. Then a chance meeting on a cruise ship led me to a writing group that allows us to do anything. Listening to other people’s work in an informal setting released me - let’s face it, I was only at the time writing a story for the family and our leader could get some copies published for a few pounds.
I was privileged to witness this book in development - we all loved the cat. Tell us more about him.
“Lucky” the cat is the small kitten that John is pictured holding so caringly on HMS Centurion during World War 1. When I came to write that part of the book I could do little else but include him, especially as this was when I decided that the picture would be the front cover. Another of my talks is entitled “Amazing Animals of WW1” and this explores the relationship between humans and animals in conflict. Caring for animals in wartime helps to take your mind off the horrors of war. He was probably the most useful addition to the book as a character bringing together some crew members who may not normally socialise especially on a warship. He is a mixture of the many cats that I have been privileged to know (nobody owns a cat) and a tribute to them all.
What surprised you most when researching this book?
The most important part of this book is the historical context which I believe has huge significance for our understanding of the salvage work in WW1 and Room 40’s intelligence efforts. The research has followed some strange paths and it was almost luck that led me to the understanding that I now have of events so long ago. I really believed that Bletchley Park would welcome my new research, it is after all their heritage and telling them before the book was released would surely allow us to work together. Their total disinterest was both a huge surprise and disappointment to me, however, that only strengthened my resolve to finish the book and now I can be content because I am the first to publish what I believe is new history and that cannot be taken away.
For people like me who read lots of books about codebreaking, what does this book add to the genre?
Most of this type of book focuses on the complexity and mathematics where extremely intelligent people perform miracles, such as they did in WW2 in Bletchley Park. Looking at WW1 the Zimmerman telegram decoding quite rightly has it place in history in bringing the USA into the war on our side. In my book, I show examples of other types of intelligence work which are as important especially during periods when codebreaking is failing. There are many instances in my book which show that Room 40 was learning these other tricks of the trade in WW1 and hopefully this will give the reader a more balanced view on intelligence work. My final point is that salvage of ships was critical well before they recovered the codebook in UC-44: in that way we could stay at war and eventually win.
Tony, what does it feel like to see your first book fledge and leave the nest?
The book is still my baby even though it is now in public view: now I hope that people will like it. Amazement that I could actually write something that I am so proud of is the other overriding feeling. The best day for me during my research was finding the German Codebook from UC-44, wonderful to find and hold something so important that my hero helped to recover. Publishing gave me that same feeling, now I just want everyone to know the story. When I do the lecture that this talk is based upon I feel an energy that I hope brings it to life.
What advice would you give other first time novelists?
In my quest to produce this novel I joined a writing group, as I was struggling at the time and thought it might be helpful. Unfortunately, the style of leadership just turned me off; I have never been good at set homework. Then a chance meeting on a cruise ship led me to a writing group that allows us to do anything. Listening to other people’s work in an informal setting released me - let’s face it, I was only at the time writing a story for the family and our leader could get some copies published for a few pounds.
I was privileged to witness this book in development - we all loved the cat. Tell us more about him.
“Lucky” the cat is the small kitten that John is pictured holding so caringly on HMS Centurion during World War 1. When I came to write that part of the book I could do little else but include him, especially as this was when I decided that the picture would be the front cover. Another of my talks is entitled “Amazing Animals of WW1” and this explores the relationship between humans and animals in conflict. Caring for animals in wartime helps to take your mind off the horrors of war. He was probably the most useful addition to the book as a character bringing together some crew members who may not normally socialise especially on a warship. He is a mixture of the many cats that I have been privileged to know (nobody owns a cat) and a tribute to them all.
What surprised you most when researching this book?
The most important part of this book is the historical context which I believe has huge significance for our understanding of the salvage work in WW1 and Room 40’s intelligence efforts. The research has followed some strange paths and it was almost luck that led me to the understanding that I now have of events so long ago. I really believed that Bletchley Park would welcome my new research, it is after all their heritage and telling them before the book was released would surely allow us to work together. Their total disinterest was both a huge surprise and disappointment to me, however, that only strengthened my resolve to finish the book and now I can be content because I am the first to publish what I believe is new history and that cannot be taken away.
For people like me who read lots of books about codebreaking, what does this book add to the genre?
Most of this type of book focuses on the complexity and mathematics where extremely intelligent people perform miracles, such as they did in WW2 in Bletchley Park. Looking at WW1 the Zimmerman telegram decoding quite rightly has it place in history in bringing the USA into the war on our side. In my book, I show examples of other types of intelligence work which are as important especially during periods when codebreaking is failing. There are many instances in my book which show that Room 40 was learning these other tricks of the trade in WW1 and hopefully this will give the reader a more balanced view on intelligence work. My final point is that salvage of ships was critical well before they recovered the codebook in UC-44: in that way we could stay at war and eventually win.
