Over By Christmas is a "factional
novel" - that is, one that sets fictional characters and story lines
against a background of factual
situations and people - and for those who may wonder which parts of the
book are factual and which are fiction, there is a rough guide below.
My motivation for writing this book came out of my desire to recapture a
time when the British Empire and the Royal Navy were at the pinnacle of their greatness
and Britain commanded respect in the world. In 2008
hardly any veterans of the Great War are still alive, and although the
war began less than 100 years ago the period is already on the brink of fading
into the backdrop of history as remotely as the Roman
Empire. Coming from a naval family, I wanted to recapture the essence
of the time as the drama of various lives unfolded then, but from
a naval perspective. So, I set out to capture the essence of the war in
a "cause-and-effect", "decision-and-action" manner by writing about the
events of the time "sliced" from the top level of the decision-makers down to the level of those who were
obliged to live or die implementing those decisions "in the field" and
more specifically at sea. Why WW1? Basically, my interest in the Great
War was raised in the 70s while I was the Diving
Officer at HMS Condor, Arbroath, Scotland, in the 70s. There, I
led the diving team which found the massive propellers of the WW1
battle-cruiser, HMS Argyll - a well-known wreck - on the Bell Rock.
(Please see A NOTEWORTHY EVENT at the foot of the
"About William"
page HERE
)
Once I had started delving into the circumstances of how this ship
happened to run aground there during the Great War, I found myself
inhabiting the events and seeing "film scenes" of them in my mind.
This, in turn, caused me to look again at my father's old naval papers
of his time in the Great War - and then I was off and running!
My hope is that I have succeeded in bringing the period to life for
interested readers, before it drifts into oblivion and this beacon of
what made Britain and her Royal Navy great is
finally extinguished by the currently fashionable torrent of economic cutbacks, political correctness and
anti-Britishness.
That which is historical
FACT in the book:
All references in the book to
ships of the Royal Navy and the navies of other nationalities - their
names; classes; types; captains; operations; battles; whereabouts;
involvements and circumstances (including sinkings and statistics) are
fact.
Similarly, the names, functions, titles and circumstances of all senior
naval and army officers of all nationalities upwards of commander level.
The dates, locations and circumstances of seas battles and the Gallipoli
Campaign.
All background points of interest.
These are all factual, as are:-
The circumstances, attitudes; writings and dialogues of Prime Minister H
H Asquith; David Lloyd George; Winston Churchill; Lord Kitchener;
Admiral Sir John Fisher; Venetia Stanley; Margot Asquith; Edwin Montagu
and all other cabinet ministers, politicians and statesmen featured in
the book are FACTUAL and researched from books and papers credited in the
Reference page of the book and at the foot of this page. For the sake of
dramatisation, some of the conversations attributed to the historical
characters featured may have been extracted from views expressed in letters and
memoirs, but these are FACTUAL and accurately attributed, as is
Asquith's obsession with Venetia Stanley.
To see images of the historical
characters and the ships referred to in Over By Christmas click
HERE
Bibliography
I wish to respectfully acknowledge and
offer my grateful thanks to the following authors and publishers whose
books and web sites I referred to during my extensive research for
Over By Christmas:
Asquith's Letters to Venetia Stanley
Edited by Michael and Eleanor Brock.
Published by Oxford University Press, 1982
Dreadnought: Britain, Germany, and the
Coming of the Great War Vol.1
By Robert K Massie. Published by Jonathan
Cape, 1992
Battleship at War
By Cdr. B. R. Coward RN. Published by Ian
Allan, Shepperton, Surrey, 1987.
FISHER of Kilverstone
First edition 1973
By Ruddock F. MacKay. Published by
Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Naval Gun
By Ian Hogg and John Batchelor. Published
by Blandford Press, Poole, Dorset, 1978
The Dreadnoughts
By David Howarth and the Editors of
Time-Life Books, 1979.
Published by Time-Life Books Inc.
War Memoirs of David Lloyd George Vol.1
First edition, 1933
By George, David Lloyd. Published by Ivor
Nicholson & Watson, London
The Great World War: A History, Vols.
I – IX
Frank. A. Mumby F. R. Hist.s
Published by The Gresham Publishing Co
Ltd., London, 1917 – 1920
How We Lived Then 1914-1918:
A sketch of Social and Domestic life
in England during the war.
First Edition, 1929
By Mrs C. S. Peel O.B.E. Published by
John Lane The Bodley Head Ltd.
Rock Lighthouses of Britain
By Christopher P. Nicholson. Published by
Whistles Publishing, 1995
A History of Lighthouses
By Patrick Beaver. Published by P Davies,
1971
http://www.firstworldwar.com
http://www.anzacsite.gov.au/
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