Tag Archives: Green world

A Modern Metropolis

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I was born in Cheadle, Cheshire, moved age one to Farnworth in Bolton, and then when my parents separated at the age of four, I came to Hyde.

It’s sad really that Hyde is famous for the sadness and pain of the moors murders and Dr Shipman in the rest of this country, because actually Hyde was once such a beautiful place. I say was, because today I think it has been allowed to die, and as this is the place I consider to be my home town after 45 years of living here, I have seen so many changes that it feels heart breaking to walk around, and see the destruction and neglect brought upon us by a Metropolitan Council.

You see, back when I was a lad, Hyde was run by its own local council, my grandfather ran as a liberal candidate for it at one time, like many of the other locals, because it was run and maintained by local people who saw it as an act of local duty and pride, sadly that too is a thing of the past.

Hyde was a country dwellers place in the early days, it was run by the gentry, and it was a thriving market town, which actually boasted the biggest market in the area. I remember well the busy Saturdays, I think in many ways it was the hustle and bustle of those wonderful Saturdays that at the middle of my life in Horticulture brought me onto the markets myself as a trader. My mum in my youth worked right at the top of the long market street, in a store called the Economy Store, I loved the place, it was the second shop down at the top of the hill, and it sold everything under the sun to help clean the house or fix it up, and all at reasonable prices. I remember standing out on the wide pavement as a boy and looking down the hill that was crawling with thousands of people, as they hurriedly did their weeks shopping before heading home for their Saturday meal. Hyde was so beautiful, Market Street was lined with trees that ran all the way down to the town hall and the market, where the trees were bigger and lush and filled your eyes with clouds of deep green foliage. I look at it now and despair.

The beauty of this town was inspiring, never in my life had I seen such beautiful buildings. We paid the rates on Greenfeild Street where there was the most magnificent building with tall Roman pillars. It felt like walking into an old Roman forum, and my brothers and myself would fantasise about gladiators and the Roman Legion. The post office, and the theatre, were massive and architecturally stunning, the fire station was opposite and we would run up and look through the large glass windows and wave at the firemen. The town hall contained the police station, and we shuddered with nerves as we passed, even though we had done nothing at all wrong, but the site of the old architecture was enough to bother us. The Town Hall was a beautiful and impressive building, today it still stands but looks a little Jaded due to lack of care. The Library was my Mecca, I visited it every week and devoured as many books as I could, it is still the one place in Hyde I love the most for all the happy memories I have of it, but that is soon to end.  

Then came the merger into Tameside, a metropolitan borough, and out went the old local council and the people who cared, to be replaced with what I can only describe as career politicians. Since that time I have watched it fall brick by brick as it was uncared for and unloved by those who enjoyed the power and status as they moved everything slowly to the centre of Tameside, and their jewel in their crown Ashton.

There is no more Roman Forum, the fire station is a mile away up a side street, the beautiful Old Post Office was closed and moved to a new modern building with no charm. The theatre is empty and dilapidated, and the market has gone and been replaced with a glass roofed enclosure filled with expensive shops and cubicles no one can afford, governed by a company in Liverpool. Half the shops inside are empty, and the cubicles are being removed because no one can realistically afford to pay the high business rates and rents. The same can be said for Market St, you no longer see the sea of people walking up and down, and all the shops are take a ways and shabby. There are very few trees on the market, and even less market stalls, we did have free parking until Tameside wanted to sell the land, so they started to charge a stupid fee and that left it empty, so they told us no one uses it and demolished it to build a KFC, yet another part of American heritage added to our country, as we wipe away ours.

We do have large superstores, but that is why we have no local shops, Hyde had so much diversity to offer, and the narrow minded profit thinking of the Metropolitan Council wiped it away, we do have young women’s fashion, Agos and take a ways, stood next to nail salons and estate agents, the bedding shop has gone, so has the kitchen supplies, Old Mr Brooke the tool shop has gone along with the gardening shop and the many other small unique traders, and we have endless charity shops on discounted rates, and we have also lost the lights at Christmas.

We moan the destruction of youths, and yet like us older ones they have been robbed, gone are the disco’s and boys clubs, where are the meeting places we all attended? They have been wiped away in the so called needed cuts, yet there is always money for demolition and new buildings, they can find the cash to improve their offices. They call it progress; I call it heartbreak, narrow vision and greed.

The council at Ashton do not care about us, they sleep at night in their posh homes safe in their fat cat lives, they will not lose a nights sleep knowing that our Library will be moved so the building can be sold, one of the last beautiful buildings of Hyde and a shining remainder of what our town was once like under the caring hands of those who lived here. They deny it will be sold, but we have been here before, and everyone knows what their agenda is. The grammar school is going, the college moved to Ashton, and Hyde is a sad reflection of what it once was, and there will be no lights this Christmas. I remember the lights as a lad, they were magical as they lined the whole of the long Market Street and all of the market, strung across the road in many colours, they were so bright in the dark evening as we gazed down the street in wonder. The shop owners would decorate trees and put them in brackets above their shops to add to the beauty, it made Christmas feel so special, it just feels like another dark winters eve now, its hard to believe it is a week before Christmas, there is so little to show it.

I hear all the time that Britain is losing its identity, well I am not surprised. How can we maintain any sense of who we are, when the places we live have been asset stripped and sold off by the pound? The very thing we held pride in has been ripped away from us by local councillors who care for nothing but their own vanity, they tell us they care when they need our votes, but if they get in, the last thing they do is what we want, they are cold and self serving with no idea of value, they are wrapped up in their arrogance and see us as nothing but underlings to rule over. They are the reason Britain has fallen, and they are the ones who have destroyed our identity, and then they sit around griping how people are disenchanted by politics, hell can you blame us? We have been lied to far too many times and listened to your spin as you side step our questions and divert our answers, your lack of openness and honesty has appalled us to the point where we are weary and worn out trying to understand why it is you do not fight with us to improve the places we call home.

Hyde has died, the green has gone and been built on, the beauty was sold or torn down and replaced with ugly, what little that is left we fear will be taken; even the park has less for our children to admire. It’s so sad, because the people who live here really care about the place, and they like me are as heartbroken.

Where did the hope go, we had such high ones? Progress for the sake of progress does not bring attraction, it brings destruction, and replaces heritage with limited life. My Grandfather ran for the local council not for power or prestige, he felt it was his duty as a proud member of the town, I shudder to think what he would say if he was still here. It is called a modern metropolis, and it’s brash and dirty, and for too long now it has swept the land changing the face of the places we live, to the point where we recognise nothing. It is yet another sad reflection on the world today, where progress is built on greed, with no regard for need.

 

A Slice of A Life.

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I often get asked what my series of stories Heirs to the Kingdom is really about, especially when confronted with a potential new reader, and in many ways the answer can be so complex I am not always certain I can give a direct answer.

The problem I think is actually a very simple one, and that is that there are two real ways to describe the books to another person. The first answer and the most simplest being that of the many stories I have read since youth, I have found many tales end with the rumour that the hero is not really dead and will return one day when the world needs them. It is true of King Arthur and Robin Hood and many more folk tales from our ancient past, I love the idea of this, and I think it is theme that runs through life, we even see it in religions, especially Christianity where we are told one day Christ will return to save us all, and so with that in mind, I chose to return a king, but as in all things there is a twist.

Rather than bring back the one true king to a Britain tore apart after a deadly virus wipes out the larger majority of the population, I looked to a hidden heir. I took the blood line of those heroes of old and zipped through time to the year of 2038 and presented their heir to confront the injustice that was rising in the land in hope that the blood in the veins of the heir would have what it takes to match the honour and courage of those ancients, and fight for was right and moral. Ok so I throw in a lot more just to spice things up, and I give all the characters their own personalities and doubts and worries to boot just to keep it all paced and interesting. In a nut shell I have a reminder of a glorious past mixed with the difficulties of life after a world torn apart; it feels to me like a good recipe for fantasy and adventure.

For anyone who wants a deep and inclusive read, I think and hope it works, but as for myself, the series is far deeper and more interwoven, after all this is me writing the kind of book I want to read, and I think it is quite safe to say, I can be somewhat rebellious and complicated, so what does HTTK represent to me?

In the easiest possible terms HTTK is a Slice of a Life.

Confusing I know, but that is how I see it, and it is for myself the reason I have always wanted to write it all down. Not only is it a slice of life taken from a struggling community who are doing their best to avoid what is seen as their inevitable destruction at the hands of the tyrant Mason Knox, it is and here is the important bit, the experience of my own life of experience’s and observations.

Recently I published the fourth book in the series entitled Queen of the Violet Isle, and at the start of the book I write the equation of Runestone Sapphire, (The lead heroine character of the story). It is a simple theory of a symbol which represents Life, Circle, Line. It is a main theme of the books and also has been the main theme of my life as this simple equation which I have tailored into the theme of the books is how I see what is important in my life. Ok so it does not fit everyone, but don’t forget I am the author and have the joy of knowing I can do anything I want as this is my story.

 

Life: I have questioned and pondered life for most of my own, which I think is not that unusual as most of the world has at some point probably asked why are we here, and what is the purpose of life? We all do it, and I certainly have done it a great deal. I love nothing better than to watch the world and talk to others about what they feel is the answer and even what they feel should be the answer. We are all basically carbon based life forms made of stardust, and whether or not you believe there is some unseen entity who brought it all together, or you believe in the big bang theory is actually irrelevant as all of us hold some unique personal insight deep within us that guides us in an almost spiritual way through life. I have read much on religious feelings on this and the science, and in my own way which is possibly influenced by Tolkien or even Wyndham, I thought it would be a wonderful fantasy to create my own, and so I began to write a tale that would run behind the story of HTTK that recreated the world in a completely different way to the way in which we all perceive the world today. I added mystery and hidden meanings within the story, and layered my ideas of multiple powerful spirits beings known as the Ruling Council within the story. It was a most delightful experience as I got to play with a few Celtic legends and myths, and in doing so I slipped in some of my own beliefs about the world and what comes after. It is all done I hope in a quite subtle way, but it does slip right into the fantasy deep end, and I hope create thought and discussion amongst those who eventually read the series. I will add at this point I do not like blatant direction in writing; hence I weave it slowly through the series of books and wait to see who picks up on it.

Another strongly held feeling of my own is how very precious and important life is. For myself, I feel all life is of the greatest value, unlike much of the world at the moment which is being swallowed by greed, oppression, and conflict. It pains me that the value of a life has become less as I have aged, and it is something that I find really hard to come to terms with, something I know is reflected in my writing, especially with my lead male hero. I actually like that even though he has to take life; he feels the pain of it and does not take it with such ease. I understand survival, and as a vegetarian of almost 35 years, I know if I was thrown into a world wide disaster, I would have no choice but to take life in order to survive and protect those around me, but I can say without any doubt, I would not do it quickly or easily, and having done it, I would never feel at ease or comfortable doing it. 

It is a mark of the human being and the arrogance of mankind that life is defined in terms of their lives. In my world life is everything, and everything is dependant upon each other in order to survive. One of the strongest themes that marks myself as the author and is strewn throughout my story is that of Balance. I feel very deeply that we have lost control of the balance of life as we put what man wants for greed far ahead of all other living things. My life which shows a certain theme of defending life especially that of animals and nature, and it is clear where my mind is on the world today. I have dedicated my whole working life to the preservation of life, either by protecting it via campaigns, or as a horticulturalist creating new life from seeds cuttings and various other techniques, often at the expense of being seen as a crack pot or old hippie tree hugger, for deep within me is that love of this our most precious gift and surprisingly it was never scripted to be any of the stories, it just flowed naturally out as I wrote.

Circle: The circle is such a wonderful symbol, and I love symbolism, so it was only natural I would use it within my stories. The circle is represented in my books mainly via the connections of Runestone Sapphire and her tables of power, and this is not a chance addition to the story. I thought for a very long time about it, years actually. Circles are something every single human being on earth has in common, for we form them naturally around us without thought or consideration. I speak of those bonds we make through life with everyone we meet and know, and if you want to see a glowing example jump over to Google plus and set up a profile, you will soon see those circles forming as you sort through who is who, and who is most important to you. From the moment we are born we are placed into a circle of our own life, be it, immediate family, extended family, in laws, friends, class mates, workmates, drinking buddies, we are surrounded by interlocking circles that defines our life and who we are. When I first scripted out HTTK is was the very first task I set myself so that I could create as a real a replication of life as possible. The books are littered with them, Specialists, Villagers, Lox family members, Fae, Cutters, Generals, as in life you could spend a week drawing the circles and adding them to charts to show how they are all interlinked in one way or another, and it is my hope by defining these circles, again I create a realistic and life like story which will appear almost as real as the readers own life and draw them deeper into the tale.

Line: Have you ever sat and thought very deeply about how you ended up here reading this on your computer? The simple fact is that most people haven’t, they just take for granted the fact that they exist. I use a line within HTTK that states “Look to the past, for it will guide you in the future” and it is something I believe is deeply important to all of us, for we are at the end of the day the sum total of all that have walked before us. It is a glorious thing to behold when you take a moment and begin to understand the actions of every person that has led you to the point of who you are and where we come from. You can travel back thousands of years and be absolute in the knowledge that there is a relative there of yours somewhere. It is something that fascinates me as you begin to see how thousands of chance encounters brought about the partnerships through wars, and depressions, and times of great trials to result in what you see in the mirror everyday.  

My grandfather was at the Somme in 1914 during WW1 and got shot in the head. He was lucky as the German army found him on the battlefield and took him to hospital where he received treatment and was nursed back to health. Have you ever been asked the question if you could travel back in time in a time machine where would you go? I have and my answer would be this. I would go back to that hospital and find those who nursed my Grandfather to health, and I would thank them with all that I have, because my family could very easily have been ended at the moment when the bullet hit him. It was a one in one million chance that he lived, and thanks to the enemy he did, and came home at the end of the war having been a prisoner of the Germans and he created my father, and later on along I came with my brothers to grace the world, and who would have thought it, I became a writer.

Like my story there are threads of chance weaving throughout our own lives that stretch back for thousands of years, and whether or not you choose to accept it, they are deeply significant and important, and we should never forget them. Like the circles they define who we are from the moment we are born, and as a result they should be respected, as we are the living heirs carrying the bloodline of all who have stood before us, we are all heirs to a kingdom.

Life, Circle, Line is the sum total of everyone’s life history, it is your slice of life story and it is the reason why I write Heirs to the Kingdom, for hidden deeply within the circles and lines are my own personal history and the pride I feel in my family line and the circles I have walked through in my life to date. I wanted to write the kind of book that would appeal to me, and in doing so I wove myself through it to bring it to life. So if you ever feel the need to ask what is HTTK really about, well you now know.

 

Live well and honour those who came before you always.

 

Provoking Thought.

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When I first began to seriously write Heirs to the Kingdom, I thought I would take the story that I had built up in my mind over what had been a long period of time and get it down on paper without really thinking about the words I was committing to the file. I know that sounds a little odd for someone writing a book, but at the time I was just doing an exercise to see if I could actually achieve it. There wasn’t any thought of publishing, or even having to talk to other readers of a finished work, it was simply me alone with my thoughts and feelings, letting everything I had kept deep inside me flow into my fingertips. It is still like that today, I cannot allow the thoughts of what others may think to even enter my mind, it has to be plain and simply that deep inner voice guiding my words, and although most of the people reading my work do not see it, it is probably some of the most deeply held parts of myself that come to the surface.

Sometimes a bike ride can help reduce carbon, so each trip you make will help in a small way

Sometimes a bike ride can help reduce carbon, so each trip you make will help in a small way

Personally it can be quite a surprising experience, as things I never actually intend to share come out in the words I put down, of which I would say the most obvious has been the power that is contained in my love for the plant world and the whole of the planet on which we live. Shortly after writing the first two thirds of the Bowman of Loxley, I let a few very close friends read what I had done, and then waited with baited breath for their comments, it was to say the least quite a nervous point in time. I suppose having been surprised myself at what had come out on the paper my insecurity did increase a little, because I had made some bold statements about how we all live within this world, and pointed out a great deal of my private disillusion with the world.

One of my market trading friends Pru was actually the very first person to read HTTK, and she surprised me a great deal when she informed me that it was indeed very thought provoking, and she had thought a great deal about what was written for quite some time after reading it, and that became a bit of theme, as I allowed others to read the first drafts of the first book. I have never forgotten that time, and even though I still do not allow the opinion of others to cloud my writing of the books, I have begun to open up and share a lot of what I feel passionately about in my Blog posts.

The blogs are for me, another way of expressing my thoughts in a none story environment, it’s a place when I can be a little more direct about my point of view, yet remain within the confines of the HTTK themes. I have found that there are quite a few readers who have not read the books, who still read the blog posts, and as a writer it’s another wonderful way of allowing all the thoughts tumbling through my mind to tumble out for another audience.

The story of HTTK is very much the representation of my struggle through life with various issues, especially that of a green campaigner and supporter. I do see the world as two separate sides in these days, and to be honest at the moment I think the side of stone builders is winning. I see a lot of the ways of Mason Knox in the world today, especially in our Governments across the world as they are seduced and corrupted by big large multinational corporations, I think if Mason was indeed a real living person in today’s world he and his evil mother would very much be the people behind the scenes pushing government’s into raping all of the natural resources of the planet on a road that can only lead to the eventual destruction of everything.

I am and always will be a member of the Woodland Realm, like young Robbie in my own early teens I sought to fight those of power to change the world, and even today I still try to educate people in a way that opens them up to what is really going on globally. I have been ridiculed for a great many years for being the Hippie type campaigning for trees and life, and to be honest what felt like insults in my youth, I wear today as my badge of honour. I have campaigned for petitions and protested and even at times employed a few Specialist tactics under cover of darkness to strike one for the green cause, although these days I am getting a little too long in the tooth for covert activity, and my mind has turned to thinking about other solutions.

Writing is certainly one of them, it’s a little warmer sat at the computer than walking the cold streets handing out leaflets, and I also look at today and the way the world has changed so much since my youth, and ponder as to whether there is a better way for all of us to live together in a more balanced way.

In the UK this week, we have been told that over the coming years we will see our bills rise to an unprecedented level because as our natural gas supply runs out, and old coal power stations are taken offline, we will need to import more gas from the continent. It’s a reality that in a world where those like the Knox family, have corrupted every system, and brought the global economic climate crashing down to the benefit of themselves. Once again the poor of this country and countless others, will be forced into the hardship of bearing the costs, and the costs are not just financial, they are also a cost to the world we live in, a cost that will punish our future generations.

The biggest argument I face is that in this world of technology, people will not support an environmental point of view, because even though they are not calling the government’s into question over their lack of effort on the environment, they have embraced all the new technology so much that to take an environmental road will deprive them of the little joy they have in life these days. When you look at the wide range of products we have available to us, it is a valid point, let’s face it communication and labour saving devices have never been so good, and our lives have been transformed by all of them, but surely there has to be a way forward for all of us to do our bit.

It can appear like a double edge sword, either we change drastically and give up everything, or we continue on the road towards destruction, but really do the choices need to be so stark?

I think not. Why is so impossible to see that the environment and technology can walk hand in hand. In my books I take the best from the old

We can make a choice that uses the best technology to balance our lives, with very little change to the wat we all live

We can make a choice that uses the best technology to balance our lives, with very little change to the way we all live

world and add it to the natural world, in a way that benefits people and yet has little impact on the world, why is so hard for the UK and other countries to follow the same lead? Oil does not have to be the future of everything and neither does Gas powered, I am very anti-nuclear, simply because it’s just too expensive and as we have seen in Japan, it’s not quite as safe as we thought it was. Britain is considering fracking as a gas alternative, but that is actually banned in many European countries because it has been proven to be far more harmful to the water table than our Government are admitting. We have already had one large scale earthquake caused across Yorkshire and Lancashire because of the early drilling; do we really want to destroy and poison the North West of England?

We need jobs to get the economy growing again and take the pressure off the benefits system, as well as move away from the old fossil fuels, so why are we not looking towards Germany for inspiration? Literally on our doorstep, we have so many solutions that are good for everyone that it must provide a way that leads to jobs and cheaper fuels for all. In Germany they invest heavily in green technology, not only do they encourage solar power plates on homes, they have solar farms, which they combine with wind power to create a substantial amount of clean green energy. Ok the costs for setting it up have been high, but let’s be honest, it has to be better to pay UK citizens a good wage and build and install these systems rather than just paying our money to an Eastern European country for extra gas. Wind power across the globe rose by 20% in 2012, Ok so there are a great deal who hate the sight of windmills; personally I think they look a lot better than the gaping holes we create for strip mining, or the sight of large Fracking drills. I love windmills I have to confess, I want a small one on my house, I will probably paint it to look better than just plain white, but yes as soon I can afford it, I will get one simply because it will drop my household bills over time, which means I can invest in more fun tech for me and the kids.

The environment and technology can work as partners, and benefit all of us, but it takes a slight change of thought before we can implement it. Governments can change their view when they see that votes will not go their way, and it is up to all of us to finally make that stand and point them in the right direction. The future of this planet can only come with the will of the people, and it is up to everyone to share the information that will eventually force governments to change their mind. We have to abandon our complacency and apathy towards the way we choose to vote. It can be done as we have seen with the banking industry recently; as it was the public’s opinions that forced the government to make changes that are finally bringing them into line, and caused some very high profile job dismissals.

You make not like the way they look, but its a hell of lot nicer than drilling platforms of a devastated landscape

You make not like the way they look, but its a hell of lot nicer than drilling platforms of a devastated landscape

Just imagine this small point. This country has a huge amount of public buildings, what if we all made it clear that the government should fit solar panels to every one of them.  Have you any idea how many jobs that would create in fitting and manufacturing them? Do you know how much pressure that would take off our old and rapidly decaying oil and gas burning power stations? New technology can be environmental, and a shift such as this would not change the life of anyone, but it would do a massive amount towards reducing carbon emissions in this country, let alone globally. There is a very important lesson to be learned from some of HTTK, and it shows that we can share the best of every world and create a sustainable future for our children and our grandchildren’s generation, it just takes a few moments to think about it, and then voice your opinion, which funnily enough was what the hippies were saying forty years ago, It kinds makes you wonder why we didn’t listen?

There is always another way forward if you take the time to think about it, and then get out of your seat and do something about it. If you look hard enough there are so many other ways to improve our lives and the planet we all share, and whether you believe it or not, it does not belong to those like Mason Knox, it actually belongs to all of us, its home to seven billion people.

 

Taking Stock.

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There comes a time in every man’s life, where it is time to stop and take stock of all you have done and achieved, for most men it is a single event that comes around forty, and it is an important moment as you look back at all you have done, and with a little hope the picture is pretty good.

I have done it a few times in my life; I often think that was due to the fact that I had to change direction often, as deep inside me there were important changes going on brought on by changes in my life. My first break up from a long term relationship, losing my job after 12 years of hard grafting loyalty, fighting a council to save my business, all of them exacted huge changes that made me stand up and take notice, and forced me to drastically alter the way I lived. Within the past two years two events again have made me sit and focus on what is important in this life we live, and I feel it poses as many questions as it answers.

I think most of us take Nature for granted, and I think within that lies a note of caution, because Nature holds all of us within a delicate balance, something brought home to me in the hardest possible lesson recently as I watched my first daughter suffer, it was a reminder that had been served to me a year earlier as I watched my father struggle when he nursed my Step Mother back to health, and from those hard and painful times, I have started to understand the true value of the gift we all call life.

A recent survey I read (Which I cannot find the link to. If I do I will add it later) listed the five biggest regrets men had on their deathbeds, and one that struck me whilst reading, was the high proportion of men who wished they had not worked so much. I think it resonated so deeply within me, because in the childhood of my first daughter I worked at large Garden Centre, and the job which I loved took me out of the home at weekends and holidays, and also involved almost dawn till dusk working hours, as a result I missed all of those important moments watching her grow up. The sad thing was it wasn’t even worth it, I worked so hard and was without doubt one of the most loyal members of staff, but when it came down to the line, the owner let me go simply to save money in a budget cut, where he kept on the cheaper members of staff. OK in the long run he lost out, after all I was the one who brought in the sales, and to a large degree could justify my long working hours with my wage, but it hit me hard at the time, and it knocked me flat on my face for a long time after. I vowed then I would not work for another employer again, and began to set up my own business.

I learned an important lesson, one which I was lucky to get earlier in life than most other men, and when by what I see as a miracle, I became a father again later in life, I knew I was not going to pass up the chance of a lifetime to enjoy the life of my new child. Today I write from home, the money as a writer is not great, I do not live as well in comparison to my days working in a large Garden Centre, but I am surrounded by my family, and even though it is a struggle at times and I do worry about what happens if my books do not sell, I still think by comparison I am a lot happier than I was back then. It does pose the quality versus quantity argument as to which approach is best, and yet being by my wife’s side and enjoying the freedom to take my children out and watch them as they excitedly investigate the world around them, for me is something of extra special value, as I now want my time here with all of them to count.

As most of you know I love Celt culture and tradition, and one thing in particular that I am reminded of at the moment, is how they believed you should honour your ancestors and all who have been before you. To the Celts, it is the sum total of each member down your family line that has brought you to this point in your life, it is a profound thought when you sit and think of the lives of your family dating back through each generation, In a way I think it is a very important point that most of us have forgotten.  In heirs to the Kingdom I used the phrase, when I leave this realm, I will sit in a place of honour at my father’s table, it is a reference to this the oldest of Celt traditions and it is something that is a deep part of my own personal beliefs. Again it poses the question of when I finally leave this realm, what will make me worthy enough to earn my place at the table?

I know a few people who have worked hard all their lives, and in many cases they have built themselves up quite a business or small empire to show the world the worthiness of their achievements, and you cannot react in any other way than to admire the courage and determination they have shown in achieving such a feat. But at the moment I do question whether or not it was worth the sacrifice and effort, because I can only ask what will happen when they are finally gone? The cost they pay to achieve such a thing is very high indeed, and in most cases behind every successful business man, is a divorce or unfulfilled wife, and children who really do not know who their father truly is a person, it feels like a heavy price to pay for success to me.

History teaches us that all empires fall, so is it even worth building one in the first place? That at the moment is a question I have no answer to. Something that I think about and is important to me is the example set by my father. His father died when he was a small boy, and I often think of how my father worked his way up in his job to finally reach the top position, it was not an easy journey as he began at the bottom. Along the way he earned a great deal of respect, due mainly to his even handedness of those he managed. He spent a great deal of his free time in the Mountain Rescue, again playing his role as a team member saving the lives of a great many people. Is his father sat in another realm watching with pride? I would say a very resounding yes; my father has indeed earned his place at the table, because even when he is no longer with us, as a result of his life, other lives have been touched and changed by the way he lived.  As you can probably imagine I am very proud to be his son, and I can only hope that one day I will measure up to him, and all that have been before me, and take my own seat at the table that is the legacy of my family line.

I have lived quite an unconventional life, I am a natural rebel and I have lived a life without too much planning, taking in the moment and trying to make the best of it. I have always felt we place far too much emphasis on money and possessions and how everything appears to others, we are indoctrinated from when we are small children as to what is and is not acceptable, and yet those who teach us these so called important rules for life, disregard them completely and are usually the ones who obsess over money and gather great possessions, whilst breaking every rule ever set for what is deemed to be acceptable moral or otherwise. It is their way to control us, and I think today we are seeing that clearer and clearer as we watch corrupt governments and religious leaders lie and cheat to gain power and wealth for themselves, and the banks and business grow ever larger under the rule of their fat cat owners, as inequality and injustice are heaped upon the rest of us, so why should we live our lives at their benefit? The world has become obsessed with celebrity culture and the material gains they flaunt, I mean lets be honest why does the sex life of a celebrity really matter? Who cares if they have had an affair or slept with ten people in one night, I mean really does it matter that much in the scheme of things that they spent ten million on a marriage that lasted only fifty days? Focus on your own sex life and enjoying it, and make yours the one marriage that no matter what trials you have, it works.

Is it not more important to live as feels right for us?

Shouldn’t we all live in a way that honours those who came before us? I think it is time for change, and it should start by all of us taking stock of who we are, and what is more important to us. For myself, it is important that I leave something behind that my children and wife will never forget, it is also important that I earn the respect of my father and earn my place at his table. I am lucky I am a published author, I will leave something behind, my words will remain on file in the central library of the UK forever and so future generations of mine will be able to read the words I have written and share in my world, for my books do contain my life and my feeling and thoughts, even if they are written in a way that is encrypted to the rest of the world. More importantly I want my children to hold the respect for me that I hold for my father, that is the legacy I want to leave them, I want the memories to be of happiness as they remember how I introduced them to Nature and showed them how to use the tools we have to create and build things, and also to remember the lessons I learned in life to aid them and prevent them making the same endless mistakes I have. I want them to live free of thought, and not shackled by the rules of the institutions that have crept into this world and dominated opinion for generation after generation.

The one thing I am very proud of is my thirty year role around plants. I have sown millions of seeds, taking hundreds of thousands of cuttings, and travelled this country selling them on cheaply to people who have taken them home to plant and grow on with care. As I look out of my window across the woodland and wild fields, I can see countless trees that have been planted by me, some of which are now growing into early maturity. I have collected and scatted millions of wild flower seeds across this land, and helped revive some flagging varieties by reintroducing them back into the wild, and I have fought and campaigned to save trees all around the world, so when my moment comes to walk out of this world into another one, I will know I am leaving it a little more beautiful than when I came into it. That is one thing I am immensely proud of, and even though no one will ever truly know the extent of my life with plants, I have left something behind me which with hope will remain as a marker to my life for many years to come.

Be UniqueThe one thing I have learned more than anything else in the past 18 months is that life is precious, and it should be lived to its fullest. It is so unimportant what others think, being true to yourself and living every moment is far more important, because we really do not know when Nature will slip and the balance will change. The media is filled with endless opinion on what is and is not acceptable, but the daft thing is, it is only at that moment of time that it appears relevant, all the shocks and scandals we see blow over in days as the news rolls ever on, and it is the same of life, none of it really matters, but your family and its past heritage will, so honour it and those around you, by being true to yourself. It does not matter how you live, what is really important is that you live it well.

The Celts believed: Respect all of nature and every living soul. Live your life to its fullest, and hurt none. It is a ten thousand year old piece of advice, and to be honest, it is still the best piece of advice I have ever read.

Learning From The Green.

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We all have a powerful attraction to an element in our own lives, be it the car we drive or the house we own, each and everyone of us shares an affinity with some other element of this life on earth. In my case my deepest attachment has always been to the wild world of the woodland filled with trees, I have never really understood or been able to explain it, there just feels like something within a woodland that captures my heart and fills me with a sense of who I am.

Throughout my life it has been something others have been curious of, and even thought was a little bit flaky about me, and even though I have been asked a thousand times why I love the wilderness more than the modern world, its not something I have ever been able to adequately explain, and I have thought deeply about it.

Recently I took my children out without my wife, which in itself is not a common occurrence, as we tend to make going out into the woods a family affair. It was for me a very enlightening experience, as I walked slowly along watching my children run and laugh, enjoying the open space. It got me pondering my own times as a small boy doing pretty much the same thing as my own children, who had become filled with curiosity by the wonder and diversity of the wild.

Adults tend to look at woodland in two ways depending on their persona, some see it as a restful place to walk and talk, and share some moments of relaxation and reflection. Then there are those who see it as a resource, something free that they can chop and crop to earn money and enhance their life in the modern world. As a child sharing a large open woodland with my brothers and friends, I realised it became something completely different. Children see the wild through untainted eyes, and in doing so they react more naturally with it than adults do, because they have not yet been indoctrinated with the complex rules of life, which man has spent the last two thousand years weaving into our society, to instruct us as to what is or isn’t acceptable behaviour.

Wild open fields and dense woodland provided a completely different way of life for my brothers and myself back in the seventies, especially if we could climb over the back fence and escape the gaze of our mother or the neighbours. Having looked back on those amazing wonderful and happy times with my brothers in deeper detail, I realised something, which has never really occurred to me. Children are ruled by logic and more importantly instinct, they are not guided by morality or what society deems to be acceptable, they do not hold back as adults have been taught to do, because of fear and reprisal, or carry any deep rooted prejudice, they simply become one with everything and experience everything on a one to one basis.

We are at heart Mammals, and whether we admit it or not, we have a great many deep-rooted instincts from our gatherer/hunter past, and our connection to the earth. Children still have these instincts and they are more finely tuned than us adults realise. A child allowed to run free exhibits a great deal of the wildness we all once held, and very quickly they become one with their environment. I can certainly say that my brothers and myself did, as we explored each and every aspect of the world that lay just over the garden fence.

Being allowed off the leash we instantly lost all of the disciplines of being in the house under the view of a parent. We found a space where we could be our own natural selves, with no need for pretence or modified behaviour, and we did run wild and free and it was a glorious and wonderful experience to feel that connection with the natural world. Growing up out of view of the adults in a leafy green filled world gave us the ability to learn about whom we were, and whom those around us were. All of us had strengths and weaknesses, and we built a strong bond of understanding between us because of it. The wilderness taught to be resourceful, and how to construct by simple den making, or building a dam to create a swimming pond on the small stream. We learned to navigate using the many paths that wove through the trees, and overcame some of our fears climbing trees and making rope swings. We found isolated spots where we could sit alone and become at ease with ourselves, and as we developed as people, it gave us the confidence to be who we are today.

Like all families we have been through the good and the bad times, we have squabbled and argued and spent time apart, and yet somehow we have always found a way of overcoming our disagreements and meeting again as brothers. I know at this point they will once again think I am being flaky, but I do think that the bond we forged in an all natural environment is why we can find a way back from whatever we may have fallen out about. I think those times of being natural around each other allowed us to show the true sense of who we are to each other, and in doing so, we know we can overcome anything in life, as we did when we worked together out in the wilds on a project as brothers.

Today as I look back on what was one of the happiest times of my life, I think I have started to understand a great deal more about why I became the person I am today. Unlike the children of these modern times, I was not cotton balled by a parent who was afraid to let me out of view for fear of being abducted or hurt. There was no computer technology to lock me in the house and spend my day’s endlessly pressing buttons in hope of killing an animated villain. I learned from nature, and more importantly, I learned how to respond to nature, and it has imprinted on me deeper than I realised, for long after my brothers wandered off with their friends and built their own lives, I continued my association with the trees and fields of my home town, and did finally choose the path of Horticulture, such was my love of all things living.

In many ways I think being given the chance to unlock those instincts, which to be honest date back to the early times of mankind, has changed me on a very deep level. I walk a great deal and take a lot of joy from the simplicity of Nature, more than likely because my knowledge is deeper than a lot of others, who have never had the experiences I had as a child. I certainly know that when I meet with my brothers and we talk, I see the happiness on their faces, and I know that for them the memory is just as deep, but I think for me personally, it is not just the memories of that time that have had such a deep affect on me, it is probably more knowing how it made me feel deep down. When you have drank from a stream, or climbed the tallest tree to feel the wind in your hair, or smelt the deep rich scent of the soil and grass as you bask sweating, lay down in the bright sun, something does awaken inside you, and you feel very different as a result of it. I am sure many of those who read this blog will fully understand what I mean, especially if they were raised during or before the seventies. I think since that time more and more of the green wild spaces have disappeared beneath the buildings of modern man, or been fenced off forever, and sadly less and less children have had the freedom and chance to fully experience it. I do think we pander too much and cotton ball our children, as fear has taken over and added to the endless rules from society of what is and is not acceptable, and as a result I think we are depriving children of something very valuable.

To experience the sort of freedom I had when I was a child, I think opens your mind and enriches your life, I learned so much about myself, the world, and those around me and it prepared me for life. It taught me to question when I was told it was wrong to be natural in my thoughts and feelings, and it gave me the confidence to listen to my instincts and allow them to guide me. Feeling that sense of being free and at one with everything is a powerful feeling, and maybe for those who try to guide the rest of society it is not a good thing, as it does erode control, but I honestly think I am blessed because of it and I want my children to experience it as I did, so that they too know and understand that not everything suggested by society is the right thing for them, they will at least have a choice.

Today I have finally left Horticulture after almost 30 years, and become a writer, and yet the influence of my youth and a life of loving all that grows around me, has seeped through on to the pages of my books, and I think I have reached a point where even I can understand why I have such a deep affinity with the green world, and I can finally answer those questions. Put very simply, if I was a character in Heirs to the kingdom, there is no doubt at all I would be a woodsman.

The sense of being free inside and using nature as my guide has driven me forward for the largest part of my life, there can be no going back, which is probably why I walk out of sync with the rest of the world that surrounds me. I think mankind has lost its way, we have become far too occupied with money and possessions, it is nice to have a little of everything as its adds to life. I think we have now begun a process of hiding behind stone walls protecting what is ours, and we have forgotten to look over the wall at what else is out there. We have as a race become prisoners of our own making, writing the rules of society and its conduct, so much so that we failed to see we have given up something so very important that has always defined us as people, our natural instincts, and that is a path that because of my youth I could never walk, and so for as long as live I think my strange affinity with the natural world will continue to be my guide, and thankfully although we are few, I know I am not alone.

A sad reminder of my dissapearing world.

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Working in horticulture for most of my life, I have always felt that because I worked so close with plants, and within the plant kingdom, in a way it made me a guardian of that world. I strongly believe, as do many of my colleagues in the industry that it is our responsibility to do everything we can to support and protect the green world, especially in this modern age of destruction

Yesterday, I paid a visit back to my horticultural past and visited the large garden centre I worked at for the first time in 13 years. It’s a place I feel is a very large part of me and it played such a big role in my life through my 20’s and 30’s.

I must admit I loved the place, and I think it’s for that reason I spent such a long period working there, it certainly holds a very large place in my heart, and one of the reasons I think it’s been such a long time since I have been there, is due to the fact that leaving it was very difficult for me, it is indeed a very special and precious part of my life.

To get the full picture, I should say that it was a small place when I first went there, set at the bottom of a deep valley, in a very beautiful rural setting, it was edged on two sides by a river and the car park broke past the boundaries into a wide open landscape of wild flower meadows of outstanding beauty. I remember well arriving very early in the mornings and listening to the birds all over the place singing, you really could not have asked for a more wonderful welcome to your working day. I always thought that set in the centre of what is a country park, It was the perfect complement and a tribute to the surrounding area.

The centre itself was like a colourful jewel set against the backdrop of lush green from the meadows and the trees, as most of the garden centre was planted like a huge private garden, for any gardener it really was a very magical place, for myself with my ever growing love of the plant kingdom it was paradise, and a place where my own learning took a huge learning curve, as I was given the space to grow anything and everything and work it into the lavishly landscaped surroundings. I loved the place with all my heart and I loved being there, much to the annoyance of my partner at the time, as it was rare I worked less than seventy hours in a week.

I have and always will be deeply proud to be known as a horticulturalist, pride in my work to me is without doubt one of the most important qualities of who I am, and over the years I worked there, I stamped my mark well and truly all over the place, working with some of the most professional colleagues that I have ever had the privilege to work with. We were one of the best working teams in the country priding ourselves on creating the most awe inspiring displays of planted flower beds, which were accompanied by wide paving that had row upon row of the potted plants from each bed available for the customers at the highest quality. I have never been in another place that has beat us at making the garden in Garden centre really carry its truest meaning, it’s what set us apart from the mass designer rows of concrete and craft filled shops and DIY outlets at that time. I loved the fact that when the customers came in, we presented them with a completely different model of how the business should be presented, and because our setup was so unique, it did attract a lot of customers, in my time alone the customer base rose tenfold from when I first started there.

Change for change sake is not a good thing; it is my biggest argument with the world as I age. I deeply believe being unique and original is what makes the world such a wonderful place to live in, it has defined our past as those who chose not to follow the crowd made sweeping advances in every walk of our history, and it does appear to me that as we progress in the future of what is our time of modern man, we are starting to become more and more like clones of each other in the way we build the world. I have always shied away from the current trends, I see the world with truly inspirational leaders who are rare, who are followed by those who want to be like them, I think that is quite an accurate portrayal of many, and a great deal of my love of nature is precisely because even though it replicates itself, no two places are ever the same, it is the greatest wonder of the natural world.

Yesterday as I walked through the place that was once the most inspiring jewel of my working life, I think my heart broke a little. What was once a lavish, colourful and magical tribute to nature and the plant kingdom, is now a concrete replica of any other garden centre anywhere else in this country. It has become a clone like all the other followers of the trend and as the manager told me. “You cannot stop progress Rob.” I question very much whether what I saw was indeed progress?

The magnificent mature Cedar’s and weeping Larch are no more, the flowering cherries that grew at over two feet at the base and towered in the air like giant candy floss, shedding their blossom in every shade of pink and white in a gentle rain on me as I worked, have been bulldozed away, and there is exactly one 6×6 foot flower bed. Nothing is grown on site, and everything is bought in adding to the same bland choice of plants dictated by the growers in Holland, it truly was heart wrenching to see something so uniquely beautiful destroyed with such a massive lack of respect, and for what reason?

It is the age old reason of man, Money. Am I only one who does not understand why we must worship money so much? I am realistic, I know in these modern days we all need it to live, but must we be so careless and destructive to acquire it. I feel today like one of the most important times in my life has been completely erased for nothing more than if it looks big people will come and spend money, and the foolish thing I felt walking round, was how on such a gloriously hot sunny day in May how quiet the place was. Back in my day the staff on days like that would have been working full tilt to keep everything stocked up, and the place would have been buzzing with gardeners who were delighted at the row upon row of differing varieties of high quality plants. I very much doubt there was one quarter of what was once stocked there yesterday.

It’s so sad, and yet another reminder of the arrogance and greed of Mason Knox, and I always thought I was writing fantasy…. I wonder now if I am.

 

(Out of respect I have not included pictures or the name of the centre)