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Growing up as a teenager in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and loving contemporary pop music, I saw the release of a great number of songs that have not lost their popularity up to this day. One of these songs is Catch The Wind by Donovan Leitch.
Donovan (Donovan Phillips Leitch, born 10 May 1946, [...]
Growing up as a teenager in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and loving contemporary pop music, I saw the release of a great number of songs that have not lost their popularity up to this day. One of these songs is Catch The Wind by Donovan Leitch.
Donovan (Donovan Phillips Leitch, born 10 May 1946, in Maryhill, Glasgow), is a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist. Emerging from the British folk scene, he developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelia, and world music. Donovan came to fame in the United Kingdom in early 1965, and his popularity spread to the USA and other countries. He scored a string of hits in the UK, the USA, Australia and other countries, including several British and American #1 hits and million-selling records.
He became a friend of leading pop musicians including Joan Baez, Brian Jones, Bruce Springsteen, and The Beatles. He influenced both John Lennon and Paul McCartney when he taught them his finger-picking guitar style in 1968. Some of his most popular songs are Catch The Wind, Sunshine Superman, Colours, Universal Soldier, and many more.
His first hit song Catch The Wind was used just lately as background music for a car commercial, which is remarkable, because the original version they used in the commercial was from 1965. This original version is very basic, just Donovan, his guitar, and his harmonica. Later the producers added some strings. That is the reason why most Donovan compilations contain two versions of the same song.
There is, however, a forgotten third version, which was released a few years later. It is a more romantic version, and it is quite longer than the original. For many years I have been trying to get my hands on this version, but it seems it got lost in history. The only version I did find and which comes closest to the last release is on Donovan’s record Donovan: Best of Live. So, the search will continue.
The CD also contains a live version of Hurdy Gurdy Man, one of his more psychedelic songs, and this is where we come to Donovan, Four Beatles, One Beach Boy, and Mia Farrow. During the song Donovan explains how George Harrison suggested a verse for Hurdy Gurdy Man, but he never recorded it. His exact description, with his strong Scottish accent, is as follows:
“When I wrote this song I was in India with four Beatles, one Beach Boy, and Mia Farrow. We were gathered together one day in Maharishi’s bungalow, these four Beatles, one Beach Boy, and Mia Farrow. There was an embarrassed silence in the room. Maharishi, he sat cross-legged on the floor. And John Lennon, the wit and the humorist, he decided to break the silence. So, he walked up to Maharishi as he sat on the floor, and he patted him on the head and he said, ‘There’s a good guru!’ We all laughed! And Maharishi laughed the loudest. Later that night, as we were gathered together, on the roofs of our bungalows under the tropical Indian stars we brought out the guitars, and I started to write this song. And George Harrison, he turned to me, and he said, ‘I could write a verse for this song, Don.’ And he did. But I didn’t record it.”
And here is the long lost verse of George Harrison:
When the truth gets buried deep
Beneath a thousand years of sleep
Time demands a turnaround
And once again the truth is found
Hurdy Gurdy Man
by Donovan Leitch
Thrown like a star in my vast sleep
I open my eyes to take a peep
To find that I was by the sea
Gazing with tranquillity.
‘Twas then when the Hurdy Gurdy Man
Came singing songs of love,
Then when the Hurdy Gurdy Man
Came singing songs of love.
Hurdy gurdy, hurdy gurdy, hurdy gurdy, gurdy he sang.
Hurdy gurdy, hurdy gurdy, hurdy gurdy, gurdy he sang.
Hurdy gurdy, hurdy gurdy, hurdy gurdy, gurdy he sang.
Histories of ages past
Unenlightened shadows cast
Down through all eternity
The crying of humanity.
‘Tis then when the Hurdy Gurdy Man
Comes singing songs of love,
Then when the Hurdy Gurdy Man
Comes singing songs of love.
Hurdy gurdy, hurdy gurdy, hurdy gurdy, gurdy he sang.
Hurdy gurdy, hurdy gurdy, hurdy gurdy, hurdy gurdy, hurdy gurdy.
Hurdy gurdy, hurdy gurdy, hurdy gurdy, gurdy he sang.
Hurdy gurdy, hurdy gurdy, hurdy gurdy, gurdy he sang.
Here comes the roly poly man and he’s singing songs of love,
Roly poly, roly poly, roly poly, poly he sang.
Hurdy gurdy, hurdy gurdy, hurdy gurdy, gurdy he sang,
Hurdy gurdy, hurdy gurdy, hurdy gurdy, gurdy he sang
Imagine a young boy of sixteen, working in a factory in Germany, listening to a song on the radio, a song he had heard before, but not sung by a young woman. She had a beautiful, slightly smokey, but strong voice. “Who is this?” he asks another young worker. The answer comes quickly and briefly, [...]
Imagine a young boy of sixteen, working in a factory in Germany, listening to a song on the radio, a song he had heard before, but not sung by a young woman. She had a beautiful, slightly smokey, but strong voice. “Who is this?” he asks another young worker. The answer comes quickly and briefly, “Melanie.”
The song is Ruby Tuesday, originally released by the Rolling Stones. The year was 1970, and the young man was yours truly. Since that time I am a relentless Melanie Safka fan. I have most of her albums, first as vinyl records, then CDs, and nowadays stored on my computer and my iPhone.
Years later I found that Melanie didn’t care how the producers had arranged Ruby Tuesday, and consequently she wrote another of her signature songs, Look What They’ve Done To My Song, Ma. For many, many years I was convinced she was wrong. I still love the song as it is, but, thanks to modern technology in form of YouTube.com, I was able to hear the version she had intended, and, as a matter of fact, her version is better.
Just yesterday, while raking the endless supply of oak leaves on our property, I listened to her album Stoneground Words, released in 1972. At the time when the album was released I didn’t enjoy most of the songs, because, according to my assessment at the time, they were a little too “jazzy”. Well, Jazz for me is an acquired taste, and now I do enjoy the mixture of folk and slight elements of Jazz. Through the years you learn that an artist like Melanie Safka cannot remain what she was. Only change brings progress.
One song in particular, My Rainbow Race, caught my attention, and today, after some research on Melanie Safka I found that the song was actually written by Pete Seeger in 1967. I guess, through all those years I didn’t care to look for that information. I simply enjoyed the music and the lyrics, and, after all, an amazing voice.
What is striking about the song is that, even after more than forty years, it has not lost an iota of its meaning.
My Rainbow Race
by Pete Seeger
One blue sky above us,
One ocean, lapping all our shores.
One earth so green and round,
Who could ask for more?
And because I love you
I’ll give it one more try
To show my rainbow race
It’s too soon to die.
Some folks want to be like an ostrich;
Bury their heads in the sand
Some hope for plastic dreams
To unclench all those greedy hands.
Some want to take the easy way:
Poisons, bombs! They think we need ‘em.
Don’t they know you can’t kill all the unbelievers.
There’s no shortcut to freedom
One blue sky above us,
One ocean, lapping all our shores.
One earth so green and round,
Who could ask for more?
And because I love you
I’ll give it one more try.
To show my rainbow race
It’s too soon to die.
Go tell, go tell all the little children!
Go tell mothers and fathers, too:
Now’s our last chance to learn to share
What’s been given to me and you
One blue sky above us,
One ocean, lapping all our shores.
One earth so green and round,
Who could ask for more?
Sigerson Clifford was an Irish poet and playwright. I took a line from his poem The Boys of Barr Na Sraide, the line that goes “And when the hills were bleeding and rifles were aflame…”, to use it as the title for my book “The Bleeding Hills”. The research for my also revealed that there is not a lot of information available that would describe the person Sigerson Clifford in more detail, and that is the reason I created a web site in the hope that people all over the world find it and possibly add more data.
The Bleeding Hills - A Novel by Wilfried F. Voss
Sigerson Clifford was an Irish poet and playwright. I took a line from his poem The Boys of Barr Na Sraide, the line that goes “And when the hills were bleeding and rifles were aflame…”, to use it as the title for my book “The Bleeding Hills“. The research for my also revealed that there is not a lot of information available that would describe the person Sigerson Clifford in more detail, and that is the reason I created a web site in the hope that people all over the world find it and possibly add more data.
Sigerson Clifford (1913 – 1985)
Clifford was born at #11 Dean St, Cork City, and was christened Edward Bernard Clifford. His parents, Michael Clifford and Mary Anne Sigerson, were from County Kerry, and they returned there in the following year, to Cahersiveen, where he was raised on the Ring of Kerry. He attended the Christian Brothers school in that town.
At the age of six, he went to live with his paternal grandfather, Ned Clifford, on the Old Road in the town. Ned was a gifted storyteller, and his influence encouraged Eddie to write poems and stories while at school. As a writer, he adopted the first name Sigerson in honour of his maternal family, although he continued to be known as “Eddie” to family and friends. At nineteen, after finishing secondary school, he joined the Civil Service, and worked for several years in unemployment exchanges in Cork and Kerry. In 1943 he moved to Dublin.
In 1945 he married Marie Eady from Cork. Clifford continued to write, but he did not leave work, and retired from the Civil Service in 1973.
Sigerson Clifford died in Glenageary, County Dublin on 1 January 1985, aged 71, and was interred in Kilnavarnogue Cemetery in his native Cahersiveen, with a graveside oration by his fellow Kerry author and playwright, John B Keane. A monument in memory of Sigerson Clifford is located in Cahersiveen.
Clifford wrote a number of poems and plays, including The Great Pacificator, which was staged at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, in 1947. Clifford is best remembered for his poem, The Boys of Barr na Sráide, which was named after a street in Cahersiveen. The poem recalls the life of his boyhood friends starting from when they were young children through to the Black and Tan period, and up to the civil war. The poem speaks of the Irish tradition of “hunting for the wran” (wren), a small bird, on St. Stephen’s Day, 26 December. Later set to music, the song has been recorded by numerous traditional and folk singers including Christy Moore and Tim Dennehy.
Contribute to the Sigerson Clifford web site
If you can contribute any information on the life and work of Sigerson Clifford please have a look at the web site I created to honor his life and work. Unfortunately, there is not a great deal of information on Sigerson Clifford, and I would love to show photos and a more detailed biography.
The web site is located at SigersonClifford.com.
The most important advice for any author and publisher at this time is to check the Scribd.com web site. Search for names and titles. Chances are your work is not listed, but if it is write an e-mail to copyright@scribd.com with the following content.
The most important advice for any author and publisher at this time is to check the Scribd.com web site. Search for names and titles. Chances are your work is not listed, but if it is write an e-mail to copyright@scribd.com with the following content:
Attn: Jason Bentley, Scribd, Inc.
Pursuant to 17 USC 512(c)(3)(A), this communication serves as a statement that:
- I am [the exclusive rights holder | the duly authorized representative of the exclusive rights holder] for [title of copyrighted material being infringed upon, along with any identifying material such as ISBNs, publication dates, etc -- or, if the material is a web page, the URL];
- These exclusive rights are being violated by material available upon your site at the following URL(s): [URLs of infringing material];
- I have a good faith belief that the use of this material in such a fashion is not authorized by the copyright holder, the copyright holder’s agent, or the law;
- Under penalty of perjury in a United States court of law, I state that the information contained in this notification is accurate, and that I am authorized to act on the behalf of the exclusive rights holder for the material in question;
- I may be contacted by the following methods (include all): [physical address, telephone number, and email address];
I hereby request that you remove or disable access to this material as it appears on your service in as expedient a fashion as possible. Thank you.
Regards,
[your full legal name]
You will receive an automated message from Scribd, also inviting comments. I would recommend you speak your mind!
Depending on workload they will remove your work within a few days (during which time it is still available for view, print and/or download).
The Absurd Part: Protecting your work on Scribd
According to scribd.com:
- Automated past protection: Each time Scribd receives a DMCA-compliant takedown request from a copyright holder, we quickly remove the unauthorized document and add a unique reference file corresponding to that document to our copyright database, deleting previously-uploaded copies of the same work identified by the system.
- Automated future protection: We also urge authors and publishers to proactively add the text of their work to the Scribd CMS.
Note: CMS = Copyright Management System
What they’re asking you is to sign up to their web site, thus gaining yet another user, and upload your work so that it can be “protected”, meaning you provide them the means to verify and prevent unlawful uploads. It works the same way when you have the document “removed.” In all consequence, your document remains in Scribd database, no matter what.
As a Scribd user they also provide you a feature to “Manage Keyword Alerts”, meaning you will receive an e-mail alert as soon as somebody attempts to upload a document that matches your keywords.
It is like an e-mail from your friendly car thief: “Hi, I just stole your car. I am so sorry! Can I sell it now, please? If you do not agree, please fill out the attached form. In case our verification process finds your claim to be legally valid, I will return your car to you. However, please be aware that it is already damaged.”
The following is a – growing – list of activities on my part to raise the awareness of the scribd.com copyright infringement issue.
The following is a – growing – list of activities on my part to raise the awareness of the scribd.com copyright infringement issue.
- Contacted author Steve Berry through his web site, asking him, if he was aware that his novel “A Templar Legacy” was posted in full on scribd.com (View & Print only, no View).
- Contact Ballantine Books through their web site to inform them about scribd.com. There is a great list of their books on scribd.com, but I have the suspicion that this may be part of their marketing policy, even though that would be a strange and very risky policy.
- Contacted Michiko Kakutani, who writes book reviews for the New York Times. I briefly explained the scribd.com situation and asked to have a look at the issue.
- Sent an e-mail to John Mutter, editor-in-chief at ShelfAwareness.com.
- Sent an e-mail to Diane Broncaccio, a reporter for the local Greenfield newspaper “The Recorder.”
- Sent an e-mail to the Writer’s Digest editorial offices.
- Sent an e-mail to the editors at Poets & Writers.
Response from Writers Digest:
On November 13, 2009 I received an answer from my favorite most useless magazine, Writers Digest:
“Hi Wilfried,
Thanks for letting us know! You’ll want to take those concerns directly to
those sites to resolve the problem. Refer directly to each site’s terms of
use policy to help make your case.
Best wishes,
Melissa
WD”
The links at the bottom of the e-mail pointed to their Online community and a sign-up for their VIP program ($47 a year). Sorry, been to their Online forum and found it to be one of the most uncivilized in the business.
The answer also reflects the magazine’s attitude: You, the writer, are only important when you pay them.
The law firm of Camara & Sibley has decided to take on Scribd, seeking class action status against the site in a lawsuit filed in a Texas federal court. The charge: Like YouTube, Veoh, and other user-generated content sites, Scribd makes it just too easy to upload copyrighted content without permission, and the company should be held liable… and pay up.
The law firm of Camara & Sibley has decided to take on Scribd, seeking class action status against the site in a lawsuit filed in a Texas federal court. The charge: Like YouTube, Veoh, and other user-generated content sites, Scribd makes it just too easy to upload copyrighted content without permission, and the company should be held liable… and pay up.
According to the Camara & Sibley web site:
“Scribd is a web site that publishes books submitted by users and makes these books available to users to download. Among the books that Scribd publishes are many books that are under copyright but that have been submitted to Scribd without any license or permission from the copyright holder. With respect to these works — which comprise a large part of the most popular works available on Scribd — Scribd is engaged in flagrant copyright infringement and in facilitating the copyright infringement of its users.
Scribd makes money in large part through advertising: it uses the copyrighted works that it publishes on its site to drive traffic to that site, where it displays ads targeted based on the content of the copyrighted works that a user requests. This advertising revenue is the direct result of Scribd’s piracy of coprighted works. Scribd’s investors include Paul Graham’s Y Combinator, Redpoint Ventures, The Kinsey Hills Group, and Charles River Ventures.
Elaine Scott, a Houston-based author of award-winning childrens’ books, has engaged Camara & Sibley to file suit against Scribd on behalf of herself and all other authors’ whose copyrighted works have been added to Scribd’s database without their permission.
Tim Nyberg will serve as lead counsel for the plaintiffs.”
For more information read also the article on arstechnica.com.
Ironically, the people at the Camara & Sibley law firm have posted a copy of the suit on the Scribd.com web site.
The crime in question may be copyright infringement. The fact is, Scribd, Inc. – the owner of scridb.com – creates income by enabling copyright infringement through their web site. Scribd.com, in their own words, “is the largest social publishing company in the world, the Website where tens of millions of people each month publish and discover original writings and documents.”
Obviously crime pays , or there’d be no crime.
- G. Gordon Liddy
The crime in question may be copyright infringement. The fact is, Scribd, Inc. – the owner of scridb.com – creates income by enabling copyright infringement through their web site. Scribd.com, in their own words, “is the largest social publishing company in the world, the Website where tens of millions of people each month publish and discover original writings and documents.” Also according to Scribd: “All content on Scribd is uploaded and maintained by Scribd’s users with no editorial intervention or approval from Scribd employees.”
Further: “Scribd is breaking down barriers to the publishing process, making written works available to people on the Web and mobile devices, and most importantly, fueling the conversations happening around them. Documents published on Scribd are accessible to Scribd’s community of readers, indexed by search engines, and easily embedded and shared on thousands of other Websites, including Twitter and Facebook. Many leading media companies and businesses distribute content through Scribd, including The New York Times, Ford Motor Company, Simon & Schuster, O’Reilly, World Bank, Chicago Tribune, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and more.”
The absence of “editorial intervention” does come with some serious downsides:
- Scribd does not verify the identity of their users.
- Scribd does not verify that a user has in fact the authority to upload copyrighted material.
The damage done to the publishing industry can only be a guessing game at this time as many authors and publishers are not aware that their copyrights might be infringed.
The Sign Up Process
The “Sign Up” button is located on top of the Scribd.com web site, and upon clicking appears a window similar to those on many other web sites.
The entries I used were :
- E-Mail: tully.bascombe@grandfenwick.com
- Username: tullybascombe
- Password: Victoria12
Now we’re in! No, there will be no e-mail sent to my inbox asking me to confirm my sign-up. No, there is no box asking for my address information, etc. No, there is no “I accept the terms and conditions of Scribd.com.”
And now, I will scan Dan Brown’s The Monty Python Code and upload it to their web site… Just Kidding! Dan Brown never wrote such a book. I will use one of my books that has already been illegally uploaded by another user (and has not been removed as of yet, even thouth I e-mailed the proper legal form).
So, let’s click on the “Publish” button, and on the next screen I go with the default settings – Publishing Options: Standard, Privacy: Public (No, I have no idea what they do).
Let’s click the “Publish” button again: Up comes a window through which you select the document and I chose my book. Up comes a message box:
Do you understand the Scribd Terms of Service and Copyright Policy, and confirm that you uploading of this material complies with those policies and does not violate anyone’s rights?
Well, honestly I haven’t seen the Scribd Terms of Service and Copyright Policy, and if I was a criminal I probably wouldn’t care. After all, even if a user violated any copyrights by uploading the document, Scribd would not be able to point to the perpetrator. You just click OK and, provided the user didn’t have the rights to upload the document, the crime has been committed. It is as easy as that.
Legal Disclaimer:
While the author has used his best efforts in preparing this article, he makes no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this article. The opinions expressed in this article are entirely of personal nature. Please contact the author in case you feel that the article contains information that is incorrect or misleading.
On November 6, 2009 I received an e-mail from a friend, informing me that one of my books, and a book I publish for him, has been posted IN FULL on the scribd.com web site. As of the same date there have been 935 “reads” on both books since June this year, which translates in a loss of sales volume of almost $20,000 for me and my friend and his co-authors.
On November 6, 2009 I received an e-mail from a friend, informing me that one of my books, and a book I publish for him, has been posted IN FULL on the scribd.com web site. As of the same date there have been 935 “reads” on both books since June this year, which translates in a loss of sales volume of almost $20,000 for me and my friend and his co-authors.
Case #1 – Embedded Networking with CAN and CANopen
Authors: Olaf Pfeiffer, Andrew Ayre, and Christoph Keydel
ISBN 978-0976511625
Embedded Networking with CAN and CANopen on Scribd.com
The image to the left (see also the screen shots in higher resolution) shows a screen shot made on November 6, 2009. The PDF file was uploaded by a user “gustafhaarhoff” on June 9, 2009. The screen shot clearly shows the copyright message. The PDF file of the book is available as a download for everybody.
Underneath the book information is a link “MORE INFO” leading to a section where other users can copy code to embedd the “document” into their web site.
Needless to say that the user name is a fake. Nobody with that name ever purchased the PDF file through the publisher’s web site. The user cannot be contacted through the Scribd.com web site, unless you, as the victim of the crime, sign up as a user and wait for the perpetrator to “subscribe” to you, i.e. there is no way to contact a user who infringed the copyright, knowingly or not.
Case #2 – A Comprehensible Guide to J1939
Author: Wilfried Voss
ISBN 978-0976511632
A Comprehensible Guide to J1939 on Scribd.com
The image to the left (see also the screen shots in higher resolution) shows a screen shot made on November 6, 2009. The PDF file was uploaded by a user “gustafhaarhoff” on June 9, 2009. The screen shot clearly shows the copyright message. The PDF file of the book is available as a download for everybody.
Underneath the book information is a link “MORE INFO” leading to a section where other users can copy code to embedd the “document” into their web site.
I contacted the scribd.com legal department, namely some Jason Bentley – Director of Customer Care. Originally I received an automated response with the invitation to add comments and adding comments I did, without being insulting.
Mr. Bentley’s response was: “Thank you for your feedback. Your interpretation of our automated response is bizarre and simply wrong. I am closing this case pending receipt of a legally valid takedown request.”
So, he did close my current request, and I have to apply for a removal yet again, because he didn’t care for my comments.
However, this is not where it ends. I did some further research and found more examples of copyrighted literature freely available as a download on scribd.com. Further victims of copyright infringements through the scribd.com web site are:
-
Springer-Verlag, New York
-
Booklocker.com, Inc.
According to Booklocker.com, one of their books has been read more than 13,000 times through the scribd.com web site! Another one was read more than 900 times.
I can only assume that the list of copyright infringements is much larger, and I encourage everybody who is involved with writing and/or publishing to check the scribd.com web site. Please feel free to leave a message here as well.
.
Legal Disclaimer:
While the author has used his best efforts in preparing this article, he makes no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this article. The opinions expressed in this article are entirely of personal nature. Please contact the author in case you feel that the article contains information that is incorrect or misleading.
Imagine roughly one acre of land covered with oak leaves and pine tree needles. Imagine a crazy man in the middle of it, raking the leaves, wobbling his head, and singing “There’s someone in my head but it’s not me.”
Imagine roughly one acre of land covered with oak leaves and pine tree needles. Imagine a crazy man in the middle of it, raking the leaves, wobbling his head, and singing “There’s someone in my head but it’s not me.”
Well, the crazy man is yours truly, and the line is from Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. As usual, when I work outside, I have my iPhone with me and listen to music while I’m working. It took the entire last weekend and the following days to blow and rake the vast amount of oak leaves into strategically positioned piles. The weather was cooperating, meaning the leaves were all dry and the leave blower was in full action. Now, crazy as I am, I am waiting for the rain to compact the piles so that I can pick them up and put them into our compost piles.
The area of roughly one acre is the front part of our property, and there are about fifteen oak trees plus the same number of pine trees growing in roughly the same space. They are between 60 and 80 feet high. The problem with oak trees in New England is that they shed their leaves between October and March. I usually spend between two and three weekends in the fall removing leaves, and another weekend in spring for the final clean-up.
The other problem with oak trees is that their leaves take forever to rot. If I wouldn’t remove the leaves, we would end up with a leaf cover roughly one feet high, and the leaves would suffocate any other plant life beneath them.
The next problem is that the leaves clog up our gutters. Years ago we had the gutters installed to prevent the rain water from flooding our basement (the previous owners apparently didn’t mind). Little did we know at the time that we also need gutter guards. I bought some “easy to install” gutter guards at the local Home Depot, but now I am ready to kill the person who came up with the “easy to install” line and who doesn’t know our gutters. It seems we will have to live another season with temporarily cleaned gutters.
The good thing about oak trees is that they make good fire wood. I prefer not to remove trees, but in this case it makes sense, not only to save some valuable times by not removing leaves, but also to get more sunshine on the property and being able to plant more colorful trees and plants.
Well, again, this is life in New England. And by the way, just the last few days I peeled about 20 pounds of apples and roughly 20 pounds of pears. My wife canned apple sauce and diced pear. We are getting earthy-crunchy!
As a writer you cannot only expect praise for your work, but also criticism. That is just human nature. I have learned to live with criticism, and, knowing that I am not the ultimate source of all wisdom, I am willing to listen and learn as long as the criticism is constructive.
Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.
- Soren Kierkegaard
The Bleeding Hills - A Novel by Wilfried F. Voss
As a writer you cannot only expect praise for your work, but also criticism. That is just human nature. I have learned to live with criticism, and, knowing that I am not the ultimate source of all wisdom, I am willing to listen and learn as long as the criticism is constructive. The situation becomes very difficult, however, when your writing hurts the feeling of a person, and that person accuses you of false reflection of a certain event or person through means of superficial research.
That is exactly what happened to me a few days ago. Two of my entries on my blog got the attention of Natalie, who apparently lives in the United Kingdom. She responded to my blog entry Robert Nairac – Hero, Butcher, Homosexual…? as follows:
“I would be very interested in talking to you! You seem to have a cavalier approach to researching for your book and make extremely tenuous links.
I can state quite catagorically that Julian ‘Tony’ Ball was not psychotic and did not take drugs. Though he did bite his nails, this is a family trait.
Robert came from a very loving middle-class family who would be mortified to read you diatribe. He was not gay and if he was he would have been able to face it in the same way as he faced his life and death, with style and dignity.”
You can see her comment and my answer at the bottom of the entry. She left another, similar remark at the entry Robert Nairac – Supplement to previous entry. We also initiated a brief communication through Facebook (see my Facebook reference to the right hand side of the screen), and I found out that Julian Ball was her father. After a few exchanges we decided that we both had made our points and to leave it at that.
Even though I felt sure that the research for my novel was meticulous, it leaves a bitter aftertaste when you hurt the feelings of somebody with something you wrote, and, naturally, doubt arises. As a result, I spent all of yesterday and this morning – starting at 5:30 am – with further research on the subject of Julian Ball and Robert Nairac. Without going into details – it doesn’t make sense to drag this matter on and on – I was relieved to find that my research was not flawed. Let me also state that my references to Julian Ball and Robert Nairac in my novel add only one small aspect to the Irish troubles as it takes place in my novel.
I will follow Natalie’s advice and I will read ‘Big Boy’s Rules‘ by Mark L. Urban, a book exploring covert operations against the IRA from the mid-1970s to the Loughgall shooting in 1987. I did, however, take the liberty of adding a highly controversial book to my reading list, ‘War Without Honour: True Story of Military Intelligence in Northern Ireland‘ by Fred Holroyd and Nick Burbridge.
Interesting enough, but both books were hard to come by and seem to be out of print. I managed to buy used copies through Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. I will follow up on my readings by writing reviews on this blog.
