French Resistance and Roman Fiction
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A World War 2 Trilogy
By FRED NATH (Novelist and Neurosurgeon)
Fred's Blog
Fred's Blog
Blog
The Promise
| Posted on 21 May, 2018 at 3:58 |
comments (79)
|
Note de l'auteur Je dois expliquer pourquoi je l'ai utilisé des morceaux de texte du livre d'Albert Camus l’étranger tout au long comme têtes de chapitre. Il a écrit de son livre "Il y a longtemps je résume l'étranger dans une phrase que je réalise est extrêmement paradoxale. «Dans notre société, tout homme qui ne pleure pas à l'enterrement de sa mère est susceptible d'être condamné à mort». Je voulais simplement dire que le héros du livre est condamné parce qu'il ne joue pas le jeu. Dans ce sens, il est un outsider à la société dans laquelle nous vivons ". Dans mon histoire Jean est un outsider. SOE peut l'avoir formé, mais à part les événements dans le chapitre d'ouverture, il reste à l'extérieur. Il ne parvient pas à obéir aux ordres, il va son propre chemin avec ses propres plans. A aucun moment il ne fonctionne à l'intérieur des exigences de ses maîtres. SOE a perdu de nombreux agents - certains aux autres de nazis tout simplement jamais venu à la maison et est tombé hors de la grille. Comment pourraient-ils garder une trace de tous? Je pense que la confiance était en pénurie une fois que les agents ont atteint leurs destinations. Certains ont été trahis par leurs propres opérateurs radio. Longtemps après que je l'ai écrit ce livre, je relis l'Outsider et estimaient qu'il y avait des similitudes dans les personnages du voyage si je dois dire que Jean est jamais passive comme Meursault, le personnage principal de Camus le livre. D'une part, ne Meursault joue pas le jeu - avec des conséquences désastreuses et de l'autre, mon caractère Jean, bénéficie de son comportement extériorisée à la fin mais il prend de grands risques afin de le faire. La passivité de Meursault ne serait jamais monté mon caractère, pas plus que le caractère de Camus aurait pu être un homme d'action, mais il les similitudes et les différences cessent. Il y a un certain chevauchement avec mes autres livres. Les noms mentionnés et événements décrits à partir d'un point de vue différent (la scène de la station de Francesca Pascal). J'espère que vous pouvez pardonner ce que - je l'ai fait parce que je ne pense pas que la vie est un fait. Nous expérimentons la vie d'une série de points de vue de notre propre et souvent deux personnes témoins de la même chose, mais l'expérience quelque chose de tout à fait différent. Leurs engrammes de mémoire ne correspondent pas à la fin. Oh, par la façon dont j'ai grandi dans cette maison à Bermondsey et écrit à ce sujet était un peu nostalgique, en particulier car il est plus là. Je ne peux pas dire que cette histoire a des thèmes profonds ou allégoriques - il est juste une histoire d'un gars. J'espère que vous en avez profité! here. |
Windrush, Politics and Prejudice
| Posted on 25 April, 2018 at 9:46 |
comments (77)
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The plight of the Windrush families and their British naturalisation is a topic quite close to my heart.
My father was born in India, you see. When WW2 broke out, he came to Britain, joined the RNR and as a ship’s doctor had quite a bad war in the Pacific, North Atlantic and Mediterranean. He held a British passport and settled as a GP in Bermondsey once the war ended in 1947. He obtained British naturalisation without difficulty, because he was a British subject and that did not change until the immigration act of 1948. After 1949, any foreign person whether from the Commonwealth or not, had to apply for naturalisation. There was at one time, concern that his children might not qualify for British citizenship, but this seems to have dissipated and I have had a British passport all my life. The point was, that he was here before the 1948 act came into force. My father’s British citizenship was allowed because he came from what was then a Commonwealth country and British nationality was automatic. He always held a British passport. The Home office according to the 1948 act have acted within the law but as in any government department they seem keen to apply the law in a draconian and uncaring fashion. Heartless really. Many of the Windrush generation of immigrants came here on their parent’s passports. They were mostly in lower socioeconomic groups and so probably didn’t need to apply for passports early on (people didn’t travel so much in those days) and it seems for many they found the prospect of applying for a passport daunting once the Home Office regulations became well-known. They have ended up as citizens of Nowhere. Unable to get British nationality, they cannot return home either and become West Indian citizens – they have no papers. Combined with this situation, many of them cannot afford the thousands of pounds to undergo naturalisation either. Despite this, they have lived in the UK since childhood as far back as the 50’s, contributed to the running of the NHS in various roles, paid taxes and been a valuable part of our society throughout. The Romans treated their slaves in a similar way. If slaves had ability or knowledge, and they accumulated enough wealth, the Romans would eventually allow them to become ‘freedmen’. A freedman was not a Roman citizen and had none of the rights associated with that status. They too were citizens of Nowhere. It is almost as if, an African shipped to the West Indies in chains becomes freed from slavery then comes to Britain and becomes some kind of second class freedman. No rights, you see. I saw what happened in Rwanda. Black people killing black people – no one in the international community seemed to care. I always wondered whether if they had been white or even coffee-coloured there was a greater chance of some nation stepping in to prevent the slaughter of 30,000 people with machetes and their bodies dumped in a river. Maybe, even though they were all black, if they had oil the world would have intervened. I have a deep-down feeling that race, and skin colour contribute to the Windrush problem at its roots. It looks to me like an extension of colour prejudice. It isn’t obvious, it isn’t spoken about out loud, but I think it is there deeply embedded in foundations of this problem, like some malignant insect digging away at the roots of democracy, freedom and humanity. And no one speaks out about it until now. Our politicians? A wise man once said that poly is Greek for many and tics are blood-sucking parasites, but all the same, it isn’t only one party or government who have condoned the prejudicial treatment of a group of people welcomed here to help re-build after WW2; it has continued through all the governments since 1948. I am nonplussed by the thought that there is not one of them in all those years and all those elected governments who was enough of a statesman to recognise the injustice and correct it. Our present Government professes ignorance and hides behind that as a reason for not changing the law or at least making a specified exception to the rules. There are Government ministers who maintain that until recently they were unaware of the problem. Do you believe them? Sorry folks, I don’t! |
Dr Bawa-Garba and Manslaughter
| Posted on 9 February, 2018 at 11:30 |
comments (87)
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Many will have heard of this
terrible, tragic case. The doctor involved was tried for manslaughter and
convicted despite serious Trust flaws which led to the tragedy. My feeling here is rather different
to the majority. I do agree that a junior doctor, left unsupervised with two
juniors below her, each of whom had only a months’ experience of paediatrics,
and had herself just returned from 13 months maternity leave was particularly
vulnerable to a mistake being made. Where I depart from many people’s stated
views is that I do not think the registrar is culpable. After 32 years as a consultant, I
know that my duty working with junior doctors is to ensure they manage every
case with knowledge and insight. This is done by closely supervising the least
experienced ones and checking that all the right things have been done with
every case admitted under my care. Those patients admitted when I am on call
are my responsibility. The buck stops with the consultant. It has always been
so. If the registrar makes a mistake
then it seems clear to me that I am the one who should be held accountable, not
the junior who is following my instructions. I am the consultant and the
patient is my patient. If I leave a junior in charge, it remains my
responsibility and I have a duty of care. In this case, the clinical biochemistry
details were given to the consultant in charge of the case, by Dr Bava-Garba
before she went off shift. The matter is then his responsibility. Even had she
not imparted the correct information, it remains the responsibility of the
consultant to ensure the patient is safe and being treated properly. If I have a failing registrar one
must ask oneself who’s responsibility is that? Junior doctors are not a few
months out of the pram, they are qualified, responsible medical practitioners,
with medical and often post-graduate degrees. They are all capable of learning.
Those that do not learn, remain the consultant’s responsibility and the failure
is his and his alone with only rare exceptions. Consultants are at the top of the
clinical salary scale in the NHS for only one reason - because they take
responsibility in the end. The registrar in this case was scapegoated and was
not adequately backed up by her consultant who it seems, was elsewhere, teaching
at the time. I find this below a reasonable standard, in my opinion. A
consultant who knows the inexperience and limitations of the junior doctors
under him, and who is absent in any case, is not doing right by the patients or
staff. He should not have been allowed to be away from the hospital if he was
not immediately available for the patients being admitted under his care. He must
have planned the teaching, accepting that it was a commitment which once begun
could not be easily left. Did he arrange for another consultant to cover in his
absence? Apparently not. Accepting commitments away from work when you are on
call has always been regarded as wrong. This is especially true if the
consultant is engaging in private practice or other fee earning work. How is it
different to arrange a teaching session elsewhere? He was on call and therefore
responsible. If the registrar in the hospital
needs supervision, then that is the responsibility of the consultant. When I am
on call with any new registrar, I always check with them what experience they
have and what operations they have already done with and without supervision.
When I am called by them I always take their experience and ability into
account. Dr Bawa-Garba, in my opinion is
the victim of scapegoating to protect others who should stand up and accept the
responsibilities which they assume on appointment as a British consultant. I really hope the case is
appealed once more, and others are prepared to speak out in support of this
victimised and wrongly punished doctor. |
A Swedish Christmas Recipe
| Posted on 22 December, 2016 at 1:53 |
comments (234)
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This is a typical Swedish recipe passed to me through my mum, who baked loads of stuff at Christmas. It makes really nice sweet bread that goes a treat with coffee especially on Christmas morning. The cardamom adds a hint of lemony fragrance. Vätebröd - Swedish Buns - makes
24 buns or 2 loaves. Ingredients: 25 g
Fresh yeast or 15 g of dried 70 g
butter 2 1/2
dl of milk 1/4 tsp
of salt 1 dl of
sugar 1 tsp
ground cardamom 425 g
flour (Strong white) (if
using dried yeast use tepid water as on packet) Break
up yeast in a bowl. Melt butter in a pan
and add the milk and warm gently. (Finger
temp) Mix
yeast with a little of the liquid. Then
add the rest of the liquid. Add salt,
sugar, cardamom and nearly all the flour through a sieve in stages. Save some flour for kneading dough. Work dough in bowl. Let rest to rise in bowl for 30 mins. Covered in warm place. Put the
dough onto a floured board and knead it until smooth. Either
divide dough into two if making loaves or plaits or make little buns. Leave
to rise for another 30 mins. Then brush
a little beaten egg over and top with granulated sugar and finely chopped
almonds or hazelnuts. Bake in
oven (temp 180 C) for 5-7 mins. (If loaf
15 -20 mins at 180C). This recipe works for me! You may wish to
alter the individual quantities to ensure that the dough rises. |
Yorkshire Puddings Anyone?
| Posted on 13 September, 2016 at 2:07 |
comments (78)
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 So what’s
all this hike about Yorkshire puddings?For those
of you who live across the pond, Yorkshire is a county in the north east of
England. It has a history dating back way back when and seems to be the place the
classic ‘puds’ arose. Three or four hundred years ago when they roasted meat in
an oven, the fat and juices would drip off and be wasted unless caught in a
dish underneath. In mid-18 century, the idea came to someone to
put a simple pudding underneath and the ‘dripping’ would drip and the batter
would rise – the first Yorkshire pudding! So? I hear
you say…What is it? I use 3
level dessert spoons of plain flour to each egg. For four puds two eggs is
fine. I combine the eggs with the flour using a whisk but don’t over beat the
mixture – it damages the starch, I think. Yes, you want air in the mixture but
in olden times they just used a spoon so an electric whisk is massive and maybe
too much. I add 50 ml of milk for each egg – 100 ml in this case. Pinch of
salt, grind a bit of pepper and the mixture is done. Stand in fridge overnight. You need a
Yorkshire pudding tin. Put your fat into it. I save the fat from previous
joints of meat and place 1 ½ teaspoons in each division of the tray. Pop into
the oven at 200 degrees C for ten minutes, until really hot. Beat the
batter – electric whisk lowest setting for up to 30 seconds. Share out the
mixture evenly between the Yorkshire pudding tin compartments. Place in the
oven and cross your fingers. My ex-wife
used to do really good ones – serve with gravy before the rest of the roast
dinner they are a really good crisp starter. My first attempts were dismal –
like pancakes. Don’t be discouraged. Keep doing them and look for little
wrinkles that one day work. The could look like this! (see picture). I should have
had The Fat Chef make them in my book , but I hadn’t learned how to make them
when I wrote that book. As a single guy I’ve had to learn from scratch. Pretty consistently good these days too. |
Monday Morning Blues
| Posted on 20 June, 2016 at 4:05 |
comments (5)
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20 6 16 5 am. Dog wakes me –
need to go out. Oooooh groan. Dressing gown, slippers stumble down stairs –
fresh air on my face. Damned funny time to get
up. Start to think… Could I be more productive? Apportion my time… Bed beckons. But… and there’s
always a ‘but’. Can I? Full-time neurosurgeon,
prolific medico-legal expert, published author, house person to my daughter or
was that slave? More productive? But work never seemed to
be ‘work’. I always enjoyed it. Never felt that even at 3 am. opening someone’s
head that it was hard work. Loved the surgery all along and the rest was a
means to an end. If you don’t do clinics you don’t see enough patients to
operate on. If you don’t operate then who are you? I used to wake up in the
morning on Thursdays and think, ‘Great, got that aneurysm to clip or that
tumour to take out.’ Difficult, dangerous stuff – adrenaline monkey maybe. But I’ve done other stuff too. At school I
worked in the holidays. Shop junior at Irvine Sellars on Carnaby Street. Served
Tom Jones once – he always carried a huge wedge of cash in his pocket, I recall. Oh, yes – hospital cleaner
at the now defunct St Olave’s Hopsital. I remember doing a night shift and
cleaning a ¼ mile corridor down one side, scrubbing on hands and knees. I
watched as a junior doctor walked all the way up on the wet floor, leaving
footprints all the way, so I started again. Plumber’s mate at a
building site in Findus, Sweden one summer. They called me Dr. Findlay as it
was the only British medical thing they’d ever heard of. Delivering books for a
book store in Sweden – Kilberg’s Bokhandel. Driving around in a two-stroke Saab
– great fun, but reverse gear was a bit tricky. And the Post at
Christmas. That was fun. All those cards. The thing about all
those jobs wasn’t the money, though to a student it was welcome. It was the
people. All kinds of people. Nice ones, bad ones, poor people, rich people.
They made the work a pleasure. I wonder now whether the
characters in my books aren’t based on my experiences of people where I’ve worked.
Each of the French Résistance books are character-based but apart
from one I haven’t consciously used anyone I’ve met. 5.30 am. Breakfast, run
with the dog, rest, shower – to work. All work no play, makes
Jack a dull boy. All work no play, makes
Jack a dull boy. All work no play, makes
Jack a dull boy. All work no play, makes
Jack a dull boy. All work no play, makes
Jack a dull boy. :-) |
The Cyclist and an Inspiration
| Posted on 15 June, 2016 at 1:07 |
comments (155)
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I was recently invited to do a guest blog post. I felt it was worth placing here too: The
Cyclist and an Inspiration Fredrik
Nath The early morning sunlight flickered
from behind the high clouds and reflected golden and crisp from the monument in
Bergerac’s market square. Around me, shoppers bustled and in the roadway a car
beeped its horn. The grey stone pillar rose fifteen feet above me, its shadow
pointing away towards the elm trees that line the roadway. A smell of garlic
wafted as I read those brave words that showed the strength of the French and
France’s indomitable leaders. The monument was a reminder of the valour and
sacrifice of those brave local partisans who gave up their lives in the
struggle against the occupying Nazi forces all those years ago. Yes, it is moving. Surely there’s a story here. In my head a story began to form.
What would it have been like to have to make the choices needed to protect
oneself and one’s family yet still remain French? The main character would need
to do something admirable. He would need to depart from the norm. If you became
a partisan you would endanger the people nearest you. What if you were caught? I began to think of how it would be
to be the one who is rounding up the local Jewish people. Would you hate it? Of
course you would, even if you were forced to it for fear of endangering your
family. For a religious man it would be even harder. Surely one would do
anything to avoid such ‘duties’ if you had a conscience? The story began to form. A Vichy
French policeman, a man of conscience, a family man working with evil Nazis whom
he secretly hated. I created Auguste Ran, a good policeman, but in essence weak,
until a certain event tips him over the edge and slowly he begins to fight
back. That’s where THE CYCLIST came from and it was my
springboard for the other books in my French resistance series. Each takes a
character and makes life hard for them, allowing them to become. In the end, THE
CYCLIST sold 30,000 copies. It was Editor’s choice in the Historical Novel
Review in 2011. You can catch all six books on
Amazon: a policeman, a teacher, an artist, a chef, a philosopher and in THE PROMISE a medical student. THE PROMISE is the last and most
recent of the series. Jean Valois, a medical student before the war, swears to
his sister he will protect her. But in war, who can keep such promises? Trained
to kill by SOE, in a desperate bid to save his sister Rebecca, he undertakes a
mission deep into enemy-occupied Poland, risking all for the sake of a promise
made long ago. A story of love, war, hatred and revenge, THE PROMISE tells a tale of courage
and staunchness. If you like drama and
character-based plots check them out! If you have questions you can reach
me at: |
The Junior Doctor's Strike
| Posted on 1 May, 2016 at 3:26 |
comments (76)
|
So, the
strike went well, I’m told. Rumour has it that there were no junior doctors and
the consultants had to do the routine and emergency work without the help of
the juniors. Think again. A number of juniors are not in the BMA. They can’t
strike partly because they are afraid of losing their visas or their jobs. This
meant that there were juniors working on both strike days. Elective work was
cancelled – consultants can’t be in two places at once and there is no one
available to look after the operated patients during the night. The Trusts won’t
pay for consultants to sleep in, to truly cover the absence of the younger
doctors anyway. But… the juniors were covering emergencies between 5 pm and 8
am in any case. They just had to do the day's work after 5. Why did
the juniors modify the strike to make it safe? It’s
because they are DOCTORS. Unlike
politicians they have integrity and they are in this job to care for you, Joe
Public. I think (my personal view) that if you want to do a job then do it in a
fully committed way. If you’re going on strike then do it. I believe all UK
doctors should resign at once or withdraw their labour completely. The doctors
did this in Australia (I think). The strike lasted four hours. Justice
prevailed. In this
country however, the medical profession have traditionally never taken
concerted action and stuck together. Things became worse when Margaret Thatcher
thrust consultants into management roles. It was a clever ploy to pit doctor
against doctor and allow the government to sit back and avoid the ‘shroud
waving’ which had hitherto been the doctors’ only way of pressurising the
government into providing resources. If the
juniors really want to make progress they have to enlist the main body of
consultants and GPs. All the doctors
should work together and allow the government to reap what they have sown. Yes,
people will suffer but it won’t be because of the doctors. It will be because
slimy politicians are using the integrity of the medical profession against
the doctors themselves. It is an abuse and it is immoral.It is what they do to policemen, except in the doctor's case it is self-impose because of moral responsibility not the law. When will
we take a leaf out of the miner’s book and fight back together? All doctors should withdraw their labour at once. Jeremy *unt can then take responsibility for the consequences. Phew! I
feel better for that! |
Moving house? Some thoughts.
| Posted on 5 April, 2016 at 2:32 |
comments (2)
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I’m
told that the three most stressful things you can do in life are: moving house,
losing someone close to you (grief) and getting divorced. The one I’d place
last is maybe moving house. Grief is grief – hard work that never ends but just
becomes less frequent. What
is it Leonard Cohen says in that song? ‘Everybody’s broken, like their father
or the dog just died’. I’ve been an orphan for many years now, but I still miss
my folks. They are part of me and remain integral in my personality and my
thoughts. That’s not to say I haven’t resolved those grief issues. If my mother
was alive now she’s be over 100 years old, with one leg, blindness, dementia
and a colostomy. Hell, I’d never wish that on anyone I have feelings for. I
think grief is a pretty selfish thing – we are upset because we are denied that
person. Divorce,
well what can I say? It depends mainly on the type of relationship you had and continue
to maintain with your ex-partner. If you loved them when you split then it
hurts for life. Karl Jung had a theory that in true, deep love there is an
exchange of ‘self’ so that the other person becomes part of your psychological
core. When you split, it leaves a ‘hole’ which we constantly seek to fill. I
think the Jungian thesis is very logical from personal experience. But… And
there is always a ‘but’. Most
splits end in rancour and the anger and frustration promulgated by the law and
hungry solicitors (who, because they are on the breadline and need the money to
feed their starving children) fan the flames and prolong the legal issues.
Anger is a kind of self-defence against the pain of loss and most psychologists
would suggest that it’s useful. It prevents the person from sinking deeper and
deeper into the mire of depression. Maybe they’re right – I don’t know, but
from personal experience maintaining a friendly relationship with someone who
you used to love is hard. The stress goes on as long as you are in contact – so
there can be an end to it, just accept the split. Today,
the packers are coming! Yes, I’m moving to a smaller house since there’s only
my daughter and me left. Downsizing is a nightmare. Half the furniture is going
to a charity and the only day they can pick up the stuff is the same day as the
removal people are coming to move my stuff. I discovered I had 143 DVD’s, 100
vinyl albums and hundreds of CD’s. Sorting through one has to be vicious. I’m
maybe a natural hoarder (my daughter tells me that anyway). I still have stuff
to sort out and they’ll be here in half an hour. Stress, stress stress! But it
will go in a week or two. I will be moved in, I will begin to relax and maybe
even get back to writing. There
is always a silver lining if you look for it. Matt, my publisher is publishing
Galdir IV. It should be out this week on Amazon, but I won’t have an internet
connection until ten days’ time. Funny how
life always seems an emotional rollercoaster isn’t it? |
Self-publish Your Book Now! (Episode 4)
| Posted on 23 January, 2016 at 2:26 |
comments (2)
|
If you’ve been following the thread so far, you should now
have the following assets: 1.
PDF of your book 2.
.mobi file of your book 3.
.epub version 4.
PDF of the cover 5.
.jpeg of the cover. Go to: You are now able to create an
account. Click ‘add new title’ Name your book and select
‘paperback’ then click ‘get started’ on the ‘guided’ banner. Input the data requested – all
stuff you already know – be cool! Click ‘save and continue’. The next screen asks if you want a
free ISBN number or whether you want to use your own. I use the one they
provide – it’s free. The next screen asks if you want
white paper or cream (cream is a little thicker). You can then upload your text (MS Word) and
cover files (.pdf). Then follow all the steps and the
Create Space software does it all. You then submit the finished
article and have it approved. You can order a proof to be certain what your
book will look like. At the end of the process they will
take you to Kindle Direct. You need to upload the .mobi file for the Kindle
version and also the .jpeg for the cover. There are then various pricing options. They will ask you to join Kindle
select. With the Amulet series I made the
mistake of enrolling them all. It means people can borrow and lend your books
for free as long as you’re enrolled. I think retrospectively that the idea is
that you do Kindle Select with the first book. It then filters out all the
people who don’t like your writing and the remainder buy the rest of the series
at whatever price you’ve put the books. I guess one marketing ploy would be to
escalate the price as you ascend the series. That way if people really like the
series they pay a bit more every time. There again, I’m not in this for the
money, it’s just a hobby so I’m not greedy. I just like the thought that people
enjoy my books! Kindle select does have the advantage that your ranking will go
up and more and more people see your writing even if you don’t make money at
first. Well, I do have two day jobs you know! The process is very simple: all you
have to do is follow the clear instructions and you are then a published author. That’s it! Best of luck to you,
because the next bit is about marketing your book and publicising yourself. If I had that info I wouldn’t be where I am
now! If you’ve found these posts of use,
or you disagree and can show me a better, quicker way forward then please let
me know: [email protected] |
