A journalist has written a novel primarily based on the international adventures of a lawyer from his patch.
Paul Francis has had his e book The Damaged Elephant revealed after being impressed by the true story of David Hallmark OBE, the one English lawyer to seem in a US court docket martial in the course of the Vietnam Warfare.
Paul, now a contract, is a life member of the National Union of Journalists and has labored for newspapers throughout the Midlands together with the Worcester News, Evesham Journal, Stourbridge News, Bromsgrove Advertiser and the Malvern Gazette.
The novel is ready on the finish of the 1960s in Bangkok, Thailand, the place Mr Hallmark, of Worcester’s oldest legislation agency Hallmark Hulme, arrived on the lookout for work after months travelling overland in a Land Rover.
Paul, 65, stated: “Some main courts martial from Vietnam had been being held exterior the territory below an settlement with the Thai authorities. David discovered himself representing a Sergeant accused of an extended listing of great crimes together with thefts from a motor pool he ran close to Saigon.
“David was the one one within the court docket not in uniform. It should have been an intimidating expertise for a 23-year-old and when he instructed me about it, my first thought was that it had all of the thrilling components of a Hollywood film.
“Right here is that this younger English lawyer hundreds of miles from house, stepping right into a navy court docket room defending a troublesome American soldier, whose solely defence is to maintain insisting he’s not responsible.”
Paul added further characters to construct the story into an motion novel primarily based across the navy courtroom drama within the unique environment of Bangkok on the finish of the 1960s.
He stated: “My fiction writing profession is likely to be one which strikes a chord with many journalists who’ve had a go themselves at turning out that elusive bestseller. A few years in the past, I attempted screenwriting and received a literary agent after being shortlisted in a script competitors.
“I offered a few scripts that had been by no means produced, had some work shortlisted by the BBC and was considered one of a gaggle of their most promising comedy writers however nowhere close to sufficient work to make it a full-time job.
“I additionally did some stage writing and had a few performs carried out domestically and received a number of brief story prizes. I hadn’t written any fiction for a very long time till I met David whereas we had been engaged on a historical past venture for the world’s oldest newspaper, Berrow’s Worcester Journal.
“Inspiration can come from anyplace and as journalists, after all, we meet and interview lots of people however this explicit story caught with me. I believed it will be enjoyable to attempt to write it right into a novel.”
The Damaged Elephant is revealed by Brewin Books, and is obtainable from Amazon and Waterstones.
