Here I am at the edge

  The recent news of my article being spotted by a friend at Sky.com has now developed a new thread. Bryan Wade (seen here leading Vic Eastood -AJS - and Andy Gill), the former British 250cc & 500cc moto-X champion; the only rider to hold both titles at the same time has asked for some of the scans I have done, my scans are now half-was across the globe in Borneo. Talk about a safari LOL

Chronicles book 2, chapter 2 of 6 is almost done and my editor Julia is really impressed with the overall scary feel that it imparts to the reader :)

Motorcycle racing Speedway has been in the UK since the early 1930's and whilst F1 racing has gone forward with vast fortunes made by drivers and firms, sadly speedway's image is still the same. If you imagine the US images of great racers on nice tracks in the sun, think again. This is the story of UK meetings. One of my earliest recollections of the sport is the final appearance of the great Barry Briggs in the 1972 World singles final at Wembley. Barry took a corner and the front tyre slipped away, as he fell to the ground he was hit by fellow by fellow Kiwi rider Ronnie Moore, who was trying desperately to avoid the sliding machine. Barry's front wheel looked like a half-chewed cookie and I think he lost two fingers in the crash. This was not the first incident of its kind, nor will it be the last I am sad to say. Although safety fences have greatly improved over the years. Hitting a fence at 70mph and being trapped by your bike, not to mention the serious risk of burns...

I have decided not to go offline at the end of the month. I did my thinking over the last few days, and I have decided that what happened in October can stay as a bad memory. There is no need for further action. The fate of Blogs4U however still lies in the wind, as people have jobs and other things to do, there are fewer visits every week, so I may well still close that section.

  In a recent article, I told you of my good fortune in getting asked to copy some old programmes I had for scramble meetings from the 1970's, this was the article that caught my friends eye. When my interest in Motor-X or Scrambling as we Brits call it started. The big names on television races were the likes of Jeff Smith, Dave Bickers, Chris Horsefield, Arthur Browning, the Rickman brothers and the Lampkin family. Bikes were predominantly UK with BSA, Greeves and AJS at the head of the races. At this time there were no foreign bikes at all on our circuits. Bill Neilsen ( twice World 250cc champion) rode for AJS, Jeff Smith rode his 380cc BSA to two 500cc World championships, despite the more powerful engined 500 cc Maicos of the German riders. The reason for this was torque ( power to weight ratio), a smaller engine weighs less, so what it lack in power, it makes up for by carrying less weight. To give you an example. An 1100cc engine in a Mini will give more power than th...

Did it happen? A decade ago, I believed I may have a small opportunoty to earn some money s a writer . I know  missed several trends in my time, but my failing was in wanting to be known for my writing , not as person who copies other people's styles as happened in 20012, when writers went crazy over the Mayan Calender predicting the end of the world . I could have copied the Harry Potter style as many others did, but that was not my style neither was copying the Twilight series.  My success on Amazon came from writing a short story which went against the image of the vampre since the days of Hammer Horror , in the 1970's. My vampire was based more in the Gothic style of the early German cinema of the 1920's.

 Today's run of articles on history was totally selfish. I decided that as I had articles on a few sites, I would start gathering them here, so I had them together. There was no other reason.

 A little known fact about my service life is that I was awarded the GSM during my tour of Northern Ireland. I don't make a big thing about it, I don't think I deserved it. I was relatively safe (if there was such a thing), over two miles from the action at RAF Aldergrove.  I was there at the time of the Maze hunger strikes which ended with the death of Bobby Sands.  I always say the men in the Army and those who were at the front deserved the medals, all I did was process films for the last two months of my 6 year spell. A few months later the Government changed it policies and stopped giving the medal for the RAF tours to Northern Ireland.

I would like to tell you of a real disappearance. - Timeline- Cambodia April 6th, 1970. Sean Flynn on the left with Dana Stone, the day the went missing. Sean Flynn on assignment for the Time magazine, along with his friend and fellow journalist Dana Stone on assignment with CBS were arrested at a roadblock in Highway one, this was the last time either was known to be alive. While the Vietcong admitted taking them, reports from government sources say he was probably held for a year by the Khmer Rouge before being killed. Tim Page in Vietnam. Fellow journalist Tim Page has spent the last 40 years trying to find the remains of his late friends. Sean was declared dead in absentia by his mother Lili Damita in 1984. Sean was the son of Errol Flynn, born in 1941 he hardly knew his father. By all accounts the only thing they shared was their looks. When my book "Chronicles" comes out, you will see the dedication is for men & women like Sean, Dana, Tim Pag...

This is a copy of a letter I sent to a magazine about remembrance day and the people we tend to forget. It came partially from an article in the book and partially from a chat with my friend Brian Bigelow- we are Vets of different service branches but share the same feelings that although we may not support the war-we will always support the brave men & women in the Services. Dear sirs As a long-time reader of your fine magazine (despite being in exile in Bristol since 1963). I must commend Mr. Freethy on a great and well researched book. The personal insights add such more to a book, than just the facts. You can feel the people's fears and worries about loved ones far away. I am very grateful too, for his bringing to attention the role of the trawlers and small boats played in the war. We all know and admire their part in Dunkirk but that was only a small part of their contribution. Also, as an ex-serviceman from a sea-faring family. I am thankful to him for bringing to a...

Many people have probably seen the Nicholas Cage film "Wind talkers" about Native American radio operators in WW2. But did you know the USAAF used them too? From the middle of 1942, the Luftwaffe used a special ops group named KG-200 to infiltrate USAAF boxes on the return from Germany- Can you imagine the effect on morale to see an aircraft that you assumed was friendly open fire on one of its own? The USAAF designated the flying Fortress YB-40 as the main aircraft after this point. The YB-40 until now had been used for long-range bomber escort as the Mustangs had not arrived in the UK. Now with the extra mid-gunner position and longer ranges they took on a new role. KG-200 operated all types of aircraft that had been downed over German held territory.Mainly RAF/US bombers but a few fighters and fighter bombers too. In the latter part of the year- a momentous decision was made. Every USAAF aircrew had to include a Navajo Indian-once airborne only the Navajo's coul...

 Today, I am starting a spooky version of my most popular story. It has a well documented history on the blog, but this is an adult version. With luck and a good rate of work, it should be out by the end of next week and on sale from my blog.  This is the re-start to my work after a long period of doubts, I will still be going off line at the end of the month as things are not good at the moment for me, and I need some down-time. I will continue to write as I have stories aplenty to tell.

 I have just ordered the first in a new signed series of books in the Warhammer 40K  collection

 While my story is fiction, the sphere in space is a fact. I cannot find any information on it, but I do remember reading about it in the New Scientist back in the 1980's. The Sphere My name is Adam Perrin; not that it matters now. I am not sure if there is anybody left alive on the planet, and if there is, I don’t know where they are.  I am writing this memo with the last vestiges of power we have. In the hope that one day, somebody will find it and know what happened to the beautiful planet, - we called Earth. Please let me explain what happened in the last few months, the information has come to me from various sources over the months we have been trapped in this cave, while above us the Earth was ablaze. It started out as a dream and ended in nightmarishly catastrophic conditions that nobody could have foreseen or imagined possible. It should have been a wonderful scientific challenge, but it all went wrong and to the horror of everybody, very few survived the ...