Man on a Mission
A
little bit about me. I served with 9 Parachute Squadron, Royal Engineers in the
70’s. I ran my own business for over a decade before going to university, at
the young age of 39, to become a qualified youth worker. Then followed a period
of diverse jobs including outdoor pursuits instructor and expedition leader for
groups of young people to foreign lands. Eventually, I became a civilian
climbing instructor for the Royal Marines at Lympstone. Over the next few
years I worked with many of them, either as recruits, permanent staff or on
training teams. When the Marines were in Afghanistan taking casualties it
became personal, I was also well aware of what the lads had been through to get
their ‘green lids’ and wanted to help some of those who were less fortunate and
came back from operations with the more severe injuries. I found it
heart-breaking to see some of the guys with prosthetics.
Around that time, writing under the pen name Rob Alexander, I had just finished writing a thriller, titled Repercussion. I started looking into ways of selling it to raise money for the charities that help injured servicemen. Quickly realising that the author is the last one in the food chain I decided that the way forward was become the publisher. Houghton Books was born.
Reality was hard work. The vision hadn’t included where to store the books, how to raise the money or the many hoops I would have to jump through to get things in place just to start trading. The store, a garage, needed a new roof to keep the rain out, unable to afford professional editing I had to rely on friends, and yes, I did make a few mistakes. Publishing a book on a tight budget was hard, but we decided, my helpers and me, that if we can be instrumental in helping a few of those guys it will be worth it.
Around that time, writing under the pen name Rob Alexander, I had just finished writing a thriller, titled Repercussion. I started looking into ways of selling it to raise money for the charities that help injured servicemen. Quickly realising that the author is the last one in the food chain I decided that the way forward was become the publisher. Houghton Books was born.
Reality was hard work. The vision hadn’t included where to store the books, how to raise the money or the many hoops I would have to jump through to get things in place just to start trading. The store, a garage, needed a new roof to keep the rain out, unable to afford professional editing I had to rely on friends, and yes, I did make a few mistakes. Publishing a book on a tight budget was hard, but we decided, my helpers and me, that if we can be instrumental in helping a few of those guys it will be worth it.
I chose two charities to support. BLESMA (the British Limbless
Ex-Service Men’s Association) because of the high number attacks using IEDs
(improvised explosive devices) and Combat
Stress who deal with the psychological effects that some will suffer,
sometimes decades later. I have several friends who served in theatres like
Northern Island, The Falklands and Bosnia who have suffered from their
experiences years later.
I will be donating two pounds, one pound to each of the charities, BLESMA (the British Limbless Ex-Service Men’s Association) and COMBAT STRESS for each copy of Repercussion by Rob Alexander sold through the website.
www.houghtonbooks.co.uk
