Diana talks to JB Nichols, author of young adult books.

Hello! I am delighted to welcome you to Diana Talks…

First things first I am sure there is a question that you have always longed to be asked. Now is the chance. Ask your own question and answer it!

* Am I going to make a difference for the better to anyone's life? My rock of a husband has Asperger's syndrome, and I know I'm good for him

If your latest book ‘Loveupmanship’ was adapted into a TV show or a film, who would you like to play the lead role?

* I think a young Mayim Bialik; someone not wildly good looking but enormously self possessed, could play Lynne Jones

What made you choose this genre?

* I'm a young adult at heart

How do you get ideas for plots and characters?

* They were all around me at school; the good, the bad, the beautiful and the redeemable. And the villain was based on a close relative

If, as a one off, (and you could guarantee publication!)  you could write anything you wanted, is there another genre you would love to work with and do you already have a budding plot line in mind?

* I'd like to do a murder story. And yes, I always have plot lines. My problem is with keeping plot lines at bay

Was becoming a writer a conscious decision or something that you drifted into (or even something so compelling that it could not be denied?) How old were you when you first started to write seriously.

* I always had a story to tell. From the first stories my mother ever enthralled me with, I wanted to get on the story creating band wagon

Marmite? Love it or hate it?

* Love it. Pile it on thick

Do you have any rituals and routines when writing? Your favourite cup for example or ‘that’ piece of music...??

* No rituals, no distractions, no music; nothing that would interfere with the sounds, smells and pictures in my head

I promise I won’t tell them the answer to this, but when you are writing, who is more important, your family or your characters?

* My characters. They consume me. I can temporarily switch them off absolutely if I have to though

Other than writing full time, what would be your dream job?

* If not providing an entertaining escape route and guiding anyone who cares to switch on into a different take on the world, I my limit free,  no holds barred dream job would be - ach! I was going to say a pimple popper! But who am I trying to kid? Writing full time is the only dream, because wherever I am, whatever I'm doing, it's all experience to be stored up until it escapes through my finger tips on the keyboard

Coffee or tea? Red or white?

* Coffee. And red wine

How much of your work is planned before you start? Do you have a full draft or let it find its way?

* I usually have an end in mind shortly after doodling with a beginning, otherwise the doodle doesn't get any further. I let it go its own way until I need to steer, and sometimes let my original ending get derailed for a better one

If you had free choice over the font your book is printed in, what font/fonts would you choose?

* Any font that doesn't distract; Plantin, Times Roman, possibly Arial. I once put comic sans on my phone when fiddling around, exploring what could be done. It nearly drove me crazy quite quickly because humour in a font is rarely appropriate and I couldn't  recall the moves I'd made to put it on in the first place. Got there in the end though. It's back on Arial

Imagine that you could get hold of any original source document. What would it be?

* What? Only one? I would probably waste it on something to do with religion, and I'd expect to be disappointed

Have any of your characters ever shocked you and gone off on their own adventure leaving you scratching your head??? If so how did you cope with that!?

* Yes, often. I have to remind myself that they’re my invention, or at least an imagined creation based on observation, so I have to take some responsibility. Sometimes I've had to abandon them to their own devices as they might not go away until I've let them have their head

How much research do you do and do you ever go on research trips?

* I never have gone on a research trip because I mostly stick with what I have experienced naturally. Having said that, I've done voluntary work with the disadvantaged and with victims of crime, and this involves delving into dark minds and dark circumstances which are way beyond my personal experience and stretch my capacity for shock and sadness. It's involved speaking to police officers, lawyers, psychologists and fellow volunteers with their caseloads.

Fiction authors have to contend with real characters invading our stories. Are there any ‘real’ characters you have been tempted to prematurely kill off or ignore because you just don’t like them or they spoil the plot?

* No, so far I've managed to dislike with understanding. Actually it's not even real dislike.  Actually I can't really remember disliking anyone real imaginary. I've hated people, but that's quite different

Are you prepared to go away from the known facts for the sake of the story and if so how do you get around this?

* No, it irritates me when the laws of physics are broken, or historic certainty is overturned - unless a key part of the fiction is explaining why. I would lose trust for an author who did it through ignorance and expected me to go along with it

Do you find that the lines between fact and fiction sometimes become blurred?

* Of course

Have you ever totally hated or fallen in love with one of your characters?

* I'm currently in love with Steve Raven, a kind, considerate psychopath I'm writing about now. And I was a little in love with Lynne Jones in Loveupmanship too. An ugly girl with inexplicable, magic charima a and sex-appeal - I loved her so much it made me cry

What do you enjoy reading for pleasure?

* Garrison Keillor's short stories

What drink would you recommend drinking whilst reading your latest book?

* Coke zero

Last but not least... favourite author?

* Anne Tyler

About Loveupmanship:

Funny and feelgood. A south Wales community is stirred up when Lynne Jones brings Miles, her aristocratic boyfriend home for the summer. The gossips have a field day. Not everyone is pleased - from the murderous Mrs Price to lost, lonely little Mandy. Yet it is a summer of hope, redemption, love and laughter - and everyone gets a magic wish.

© Diana Milne January 2017 ©

Commemorating Bosworth: Bosworth Field - The Battle

There are few battles as significant as the Battle of Bosworth, which took place on August 22^nd in 1485. It is viewed as ending the long running Wars of the Roses between the Lancastrian (Red) and Yorkist (White) houses; finishing the Plantagenet dynasty under Richard III, while installing a new branch of Lancastrians under Henry Tudor, the Earl of Richmond.

By the C15^th  perhaps due to the ongoing dynastic strife, the age-old feudal system had been corrupted. Loyalty to the king was no longer a given; instead nobles mustered able bodied men to their own militias, under their own command. Actual personal relationships between King and lord probably held more sway than any perceived sense of loyalty to the estate of the crown. The more powerful a lord, the greater the incentive the crown would have to yield to win over a house’s support. When all else failed, of course, there was always the practice of holding hostages as insurance. 

Due to resentment over the manner that Richard had seized the throne and the disappearance of the princes in the tower; Henry Tudor, an exiled Lancastrian, left Brittany and landed in South Wales with a force of some 2000 French mercenaries.

Henry took his time travelling through Wales and the Marches gathering support. In all he called to his banners around 2000 Welsh recruits and around 1000 Englishmen. Accompanying his venture were many Lancastrian exiles, including the experienced John de Vere, Earl of Oxford; whose strategic nous would prove invaluable to the inexperienced Henry. 

Meanwhile Richard, with 3000 men, moved to intercept Henry demanding his lords to join him; his most loyal supporter was John Howard, the Duke of Norfolk, commanding around 3000 men at arms. Also answering his summons was the Duke of Northumberland with 4000 and, dragging their feet,were the Stanleys from Cheshire with 6000. During the Wars of the Roses the Stanleys had a reputation of hanging back from many of the bloodbaths until a critical point. To make matters worse relations between Richard and the Stanleys were not the best, so to ensure his reluctant allies' support Richard held Lord Stanley’s son as a hostage. Henry himself had made overtures to the Stanleys but true to form they had held back from openly declaring their allegiance to either claimant. In theory then Richard had three times as many troops as Henry.

In the C15th battlefield tactics had seen a reemergence of heavy infantry. The Longbow, Pike and Billhook - and to some extent cannon - had robbed cavalry of their battlefield supremacy. Cavalry were now mainly used to chase down a retreating enemy and ensure a rout and also to swing around the flanks and prevent the foe escaping.

Nobles and professional men-at–arms would be encased in steel plate, wielding sword and mace, while levies would have quilted armour, if fortunate a helm, and would be armed with poleaxe weapons.

Heading west, Richard’s forces moved through Sutton Cheney in Leicestershire and took position on Ambion Hill with Norfolk. Ambion Hill overlooked a plain with an area of marsh on his left flank. Behind this marshy area Northumberland’s forces formed his rear-guard.

To the west at White Moors were Henry’s forces, while south of the marsh, visible from Richard's position, the Stanleys and their 6000 men camped at Dadlington. The Stanleys had, in effect, acted as a screen to Henry’s forces, while Richard’s army assembled.

Forced to attack Henry’s army swung east, and then north, to be able to cross the river that drained into the marsh. While advancing Richard’s cannon harassed them. Although becoming more common, cannon were notorious at this time; they were inaccurate and easily overheated, with the unfortunate tendency of sometimes exploding and killing their crews. If the Stanleys had attacked at this juncture the battle would have been over. Indeed Richard demanded that they take action, threatening the death of his hostage; but Lord Stanley would not move coldly replying that he had other sons.

Staying at the rear with his guard, Henry gave command of his army to Oxford. Oxford ordered that his men stay in a single formation and formed a wedge and advanced with his cavalry guarding the flanks. After the usual exchange of arrows Richard ordered Norfolk to attack.

In the desperate hand to hand melee Oxford’s wedge formation began to gain the upperhand. Richard’s superior numbers were negated as they couldn’t break the formation and destroy them piecemeal. Oxford had ordered that his men shouldn’t stray more than ten feet from their banners.  Richard ordered Northumberland to attack but this force didn’t move. Whether he was mirroring the Stanleys or disloyal to Richard is unknown. If he had advanced he would either had to swing east in a wide flanking move to avoid the marsh or would have had to advance through Richard’s forces currently engaged with the enemy. To add to Richard’s woes Norfolk was struck in the face with an arrow and killed. The battles' outcome was on a knife edge and both commanders knew that the Stanleys could sway the result either way.

King Richard may have been lacking luck at Bosworth but he certainly wasn’t lacking courage. He saw that Henry had moved with his bodyguard to negotiate with the Stanleys. In a desperate bid to land a decisive blow, Richard, with a small mounted force, swung around the melee to attack Henry’s force. Richard himself felled Henry’s standard bearer and came very close to Henry himself. Henry’s bodyguard were sorely pressed to defend their lord from the battle crazed Yorkist king. It was at this point the Stanleys made their move, seeing Richard isolated they fell upon him, forcing his small force into the marsh. With his horse stuck in the boggy ground or killed beneath him as in the Shakespearian verse, and after coming within a sword length of Henry himself, Richard found himself surrounded.

Men with halberds fell upon him, striking him so fiercely that he lost his helmet with its golden circlet. It was said that it was a Welshman, Rhys ap Thomas who delivered the death blow.

With Norfolk and the king dead all hope was lost for the Yorkist cause. Northumberland and his forces fled north. The circlet was retrieved and Henry was crowned king on a hill at nearby Stoke Golding.

In 2013 the positive identification of King Richard’s remains in a car park in Leicester revealed a skeleton with ten wounds, eight of them to the head.  So died Richard III. An usurper? Maybe. A child killer? Perhaps. A brave warrior? Absolutely.

Rob Bayliss is a reviewer at The Review and is currently writing his own fantasy series.     Information on his writing projects can be found at Flint & Steel, Fire & Shadow.

PAULA READS: THE CUCKOOS OF BATCH MAGNA BY PETER MAUGHAN

“Bound to happen sooner or later, I suppose,” the Commander said equably, tamping his pipe down. “It’s the times, my boy, the times. O tempora o mores. The new order. It goes under different names but always calls itself progress, and we are in its way."

Please see below for details about the giveaway!

The story is set in the 70's in a rural riverside village in England (except for the bit that is in Wales). The Cuckoos of Batch Magna follows the lives of a houseboat community as they take on the new American squire, Humphrey Strange and his 'corporation' as they decide to transform his dilapidated old estate into a holiday camp (que cries of 'Oompa Oompa!'), which will destroy the idyllic lifestyles of the Riverboat fraternity. Determined not to be tossed out of their homes on the river so the new squire can get his hands on more money the community, led by cheeky charmer Phineas and the old commander, work on plans to stop the eviction and the holiday camp from going ahead. But it seems that what they thought is not at all what they believed it to be.

How often do we relax and sit back in our armchairs by the fire, pipe and slippers and a copy of our favourite classic novel and a hot toddy on the table beside us? Goodness! you might exclaim at such a thing and proclaim the proverbial one liner that we often use about the  complexity of our busy lives whenever anyone suggests relaxing or doing something for ourselves that we wouldn't normally even contemplate because life goes by far too quickly in our stress filled worlds:  Where on earth would I find the time to do that? Well, this book has nothing whatsoever to do with sitting in a chair by the fire cosily wrapped in a dressing gown, but it does take you back to a time gone by when simple things like a rocking chair, a fire and a good book were the things that made us happy - like going to your local village pub on a hot summer's evening, tables by a river, a pint of real ale and good friends to cheer our souls, knowing that whatever the time of day or season, there would always be someone there  you could call a friend.

If you were born, like me, in the 60's or before, you may remember a time when you could call on your neighbour's house, walk right in without knocking and expect a cup of tea or a piece of home made sponge cake fresh from the oven to be on offer, no fear of being turned away or rejected. That's how life was back then, at least it was so when I was a child, a teenager and a young adult. Sadly times have, like the old commander says there in the quote above, have moved into a new order. These days, people are too rushed to sit and relax; open log fires have been replaced by central heating, which might be far more efficient and less smelly, but it rids us of the centre focus of family life, the hearth.  Who would ever dare to pop next door for a cup of tea and a chat without knocking first? Indeed, who would even pop next door at all?

That's what I liked most about this book, with its touch of the Wind in the Willows for adults about it. It evokes times of quintessential English village life as it was before Xboxes, laptops and mobile phones made the world a lot smaller. The characters are delightful and something right out of Toad of Toad Hall, but they are also very real and typical of the people you can imagine living in the marcher parts of England, except when it is in the bits of it that are in Wales.

The author, Peter Maughan, introduces us to the idyllic existence that the residents of the River Cluny paddleboats experience in their every day lives. The introduction starts when the old squire on whose estate the riverboat residents reside in, dies with his wonderful memories of the Old Cluny Steamboat Company:

'...the day boat trips to Walter Lacy and back and the 2 shilling dips...the paddlers crowded with villagers and farm workers in their Sunday best, with bottles of beer and pop, and sandwiches made for the trip... And the Moonlight Excursions, when courting couples found the shadows on deck and coloured lanterns lit the murmuring, soft summer darknesses.'

And as he draws his last breath, the lives of the Cluny residents are about to be turned inside out.

Another one of the things I enjoyed mostly about The Cukoos of Batch Magna was the wonderfully descriptive narrative that the author employs.

'The mist had rolled up to Batch Magna's High Street, and as far as the castle above the river, the last grey wisps of it drifting among its ruined stone like cannon smoke, like the ghost of old battles.'

It is these passages that make this book such a joy to read, mainly because as the reader, you are transposed into the book itself, planted by the author amongst the winding roads that run through the lush green meadows and the sunlit walks by the softly rippling waters of the Cluny. Batch Magna is a fictional village set somewhere along the Welsh Marches, not far from Shrewsbury and as we are often reminded humourously, is half in England and half in Wales. The characters are delightfully drawn individuals with their own three dimensional personalities - though they have one thing in common: they are all quirky in their own ways. We are invited into their lives and are privy to their emotions and their wants and desires for their families and themselves. They are all  one community and one gets the feeling that you hurt one of them, you hurt them all. 

We have Phineas, an English middle aged playboy crime writer, who can't make up his mind whether he wants to keep on being a playboy or settle down with Sally the local nurse-midwife. Out of the blue and into his life, his vegetarian son Daniel appears to make his life just that little bit more complicated when he unwittingly steps into his father's love life. Then we have the Welsh couple Owain and Annie and their rather large brood of kids; one of them, teenager Ffion, is going through the angsts of being an adolescent on the look out for love. The Chardonnay supping commander and his wife Priny and their dog Pink Gin, along with single mother psychic reader Jasmine and her brood make up the rest of this wacky  river boat crew.

Bill Sikes

And I mustn't forget Bill Sikes, the pitbull who likes to get in on the antics of his master Phineas, and to whom the world is none of his business until he has had his breakfast.

But these aren't all of the characters; there are also the villagers who live on dry land and they also add flavour to the story, especially Humphrey Strange, the American great nephew of the old squire who inherits the estate complete with river and the river boats and whose plans has the residents of Batch Magna trying to devise a cunning plan with which  to retaliate against the greedy big shot Yank's plan.

Although the crew spend the summer evenings plotting in the local pub The Steamer Inn, one can't help but see the humour in the way that the author conveys this to the reader. It is possible to imagine that this is a farce, a comedy that if played out would be something to laugh at rather than be horrified by. Eventually the American comes secretly amongst them only to discover their plot and then the reader is left to follow the hilarious antics that emerge in a way that one might not have imagined it.

Crime writer Phineas is no doubt one of my favourite personages in the book, and I love the scrape he gets into when his lustful playboy self overtakes the sensible middle aged man in him and he has to look for a way out of a scrape his playboy self has gotten himself into. Even Sikes has to get in on the caper, drawn into the mad world of his master. When reading Phineas' passages I was put in mind of Mr. Lucas from Are You Being Served played by the wonderful late Trevor Bannister. He was always late for work and had a creative excuse every time.

I enjoyed this book mostly because the plot, although simple, takes on a different dimension at many turns. This is not a book that follows on particular line but also feeds into the many different threads that encapsulate the lives of the people of Batch Magna with a delightfully written prose. The dialogue is witty and amusing and there are some wonderful phrases, such as:

The commander was the only Englishman he had ever met who really understood otters. but then to Owain' s mind, which had its own logic, The Commander wasn't really an Englishman, but a Welshman who just happened to be English.

I wholly recommend this delightful tome to everyone, whatever your favourite genre be. Its gentle humour and delightful prose will warm the cockles of your heart.

The cuckoo? Well you will have to see who that is when you read it.

Peter Maughan

I am an ex-actor, fringe theatre director and script writer, married and living in the Welsh Marches, the borderland between England and Wales, and the backdrop to a series I’m writing, the Batch Magna novels, set in a village cut off from whatever the rest of the world gets up to beyond the hills of its valley. 
All the books in the series feature houseboats, converted paddle steamers on Batch Magna’s river the Cluny, and I lived on a houseboat in the mid-1970s (the time frame for the novels) on a converted Thames sailing barge among a small colony of houseboats on the Medway, deep in rural Kent. 
An idyllic time, heedless days of freedom in that other world of the river which inspired the novels, set in a place called Batch Magna. 

Follow Peter on his Twitter account and find him on  Goodreads and Facebook.
Check out his website to find out more about Peter's Batch Magna novels.

***Peter has very kindly offered an ebook for a giveaway. Please comment on the blog below for a chance to win a copy or post a comment on our Facebook page ***

Paula Lofting is the author of Sons of the Wolf  and the soon-to-be-published sequel The Wolf Banner. By day she is a psychiatric nurse and by night she dwells in the far off places her imagination takes her to. At the weekends she can be found running around fields with a spear with re-enactment society Regia Anglorum.

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