In 1945 my hero pilot grandfather wrote this in his diary marking VE day
Plus, The Gruffalo returns, Google and Meta dominate ad revenues, a writing challenge, a new publisher focuses on male writers & cute lambs update
My dear wordsmiths,
Today is May 8 - VE Day - and on this date in 1945 my late grandfather Squadron Leader Peter ‘Dinga’ Bell, then an RAF pilot based in India and Burma, wrote this in his diary.
“Churchill’s speech at 07.30, announcing end of War in Europe. Everybody very quiet.”
Extract from the late Squadron Leader Peter ‘Dinga’ Bell’s diary, May 8, 1945
He wrote in his diary every day, as did my grandmother. It was my grandmother’s diary - his wife Norma’s - that inspired the novel I am currently editing and it feels apt to focus on his experiences today instead. Earlier that same day, he had awoken at 5am by aircraft flying overhead at his undisclosed location - he never gives this away for obvious reasons. At 0730 hours he ate breakfast. At 1055 hours he took off for base camp. The rest is history - literally -as he marks Churchill’s announcement that evening, with the later admission he didn’t stay up to listen to the King. This diary is pretty hard to read if anyone can translate exactly.
Grandpa was later awarded the RAF’s Distinguished Flying Cross and - very unusually - the Distinguished Flying Cross (US), for his services transporting a senior US general across a war zone. He was never comfortable sharing details of his war exploits and what we know about his medals comes from the citations. He met my granny in India where she lived with her parents in Cawnpore, who were in the cotton industry. They married there and later moved back to the UK - and Manchester - where he became a dentist in the city centre and they had their first child - my late mum. He was so much more comfortable behind a camera than sharing his words and he documented the history of the family leaving a treasure trove of photographs.
If this tells us anything, it’s that the power of stories stretch across the generations. Thankyou for that gift Granpa.
Read more about this and watch video via Manchester World
Countryside diaries
In gentle news from the wilds of Lancashire, we now have seven little bouncy lambs in the shire making the most of their short little lives with sunset zoomies and generally ganging up their mothers. It’s quite the bucolic scene as the three sets of twins and an only child race around, playfight and squeeze through gaps in the fence - usually getting stuck - when their mums take five minutes to themselves. Their dads are still confined to the back field where they have zero responsibilities apart from chewing grass and scratching their backsides on the fence and taking part in the occasional alpha male head-butting session. No comment.
News, events and opportunities:
Publishing: New publisher to advocate for male writers
UK novelist Jude Cook has launched a new press, Conduit Books, which plans to focus, at least initially, on publishing male authors. Conduit is currently seeking its launch title, “preferably a debut novel by a male UK novelist under 35” and aims to publish three books a year from 2026. Diminishing attention is now paid to male authors, Cook says, creating a need for “an independent publisher that champions literary fiction by men”. An interesting take on this here via The Conversation.
Children’s Books: The return of the Gruffalo
The National Literacy Trust has been chosen as lead charity partner in the UK - for a new Gruffalo story. Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler are collaborating on the first new Gruffalo picture book in over 20 years, to be published by Macmillan Children’s Books. The brand-new, as-yet-untitled book, will be published in September 2026.
As part of the international launch of this extraordinary new story, which will see the return of much-loved characters in a fresh and exciting adventure that has all the hallmarks of a Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler classic, Macmillan Children’s Books invited global publishing partners to work with charitable organisations to promote childhood reading - and picked the NLT. Julia Donaldson has revealed that she was spurred on to create her brand-new, as-yet-untitled Gruffalo story by the Trust’s Early Words Matter campaign.
Women in Journalism: Chat with Chief Foreign Correspondent for the Sunday Times
May 28: Join WIJ for an exclusive insight into the experiences of its Lifetime Achievement Award winner, Christina Lamb OBE. Christina, Chief Foreign Correspondent for the Sunday Times, will be interviewed at a special WIJ event by Channel 4 News International Editor, Lindsey Hilsum, at the Imperial War Museum. The event includes access to the exhibition and a complimentary glass of champagne. Doors open for exhibition viewing from 6:30pm. There will be also be time to view the exhibition after the talk. From £12.
Meta and Google take over: via the Press Gazette
You’ve probably heard UK based media organisations talking about how ad spends have gone elsewhere. Reality is even tougher to take. Google and Meta accounted for at least half the record £42.6bn spent on UK advertising last year, according to Press Gazette estimates. By contrast, advertising with national and regional news brands grew at a far slower rate than the overall market in 2024 and magazine industry advertising fell in both print and online, according to figures published by the Advertising Association/WARC. Read full article here
Writing Challenge: Enter the May 2025 #Write CBC prompt challenge
Hosted on BlueSky, #WriteCBC is a writing challenge to win a Curtis Brown writing course. This month’s special guest is author Abigail Johnson, who was a student on the three-month online Writing Your Novel course in 2020. Her debut novel The Secret Collector is out now from Pan Macmillan. Details for challenge in the link.
Win a novel: Competitions: The Booker Prize
You may not be ready to win the Booker Prize but you can win a prize from Booker. They have various competitions ongoing including a chance to win The Overstory by Richard Powers and a limited-edition Booker Prize tote bag.
As always, thanks for reading. This post is free to read today - please give a like and a subscribe - and tell me what you think! I would appreciate any paid subscriptions to support and extend my work - many thanks to those already doing so - I see you.
Have a great week, Nicola x