Milk from the Pub!

The other afternoon, I needed a coffee to help me through to the end of the chapter I was writing, when I realised that I was out of milk.

I slipped out, quickly walked up the hill to the village store, only to find it was closed.

Of course, I should have checked the time before I left, so I turned around, headed down towards the quay and popped in to my local pub.

Fortunately, at the end of the bar by the coffee machine, they have West Country milk on tap, so I bought a pint, and had a chat with Jack the bartender.

Imagine my surprise when he showed me a copy of Stories of Benjamin that I had signed for him in 1993, when he was six years old.

I knew his grandfather Bill Blamey well, and remember him asking me for a copy of my book for his grandson.

He was a real character, having retired to the village. Sadly he is no longer with us, but is remembered fondly by all who were fortunate enough to know him. It's very gratifying to meet people, now grown-up, who read my stories, or had them read to them as a child, and even more gratifying that children are still enjoying these stories, and listening to them.

This is what has encouraged me to to republish my Stories of Benjamin as a complete book, containing all the stories from the first two books plus some extra unpunished stories.