And the exciting news is the book is now available for purchase. Being self published, we have had to sort out how we are going to sell copies. Many will be available at presentations by the group but we wanted to make them available to as wide an audience as possible.
I'm delighted to say that the first people to be given the opportunity to purchase the book are residents from Hethersett and readers of my blog. Just to put you in the picture: The book is entitled "Hell in Paradise" which is exactly what it was. Fighting in and around the small French hamlet of Le Paradis in May 1940 was ferocious. British troops were trying to hold German troops back to help the evacuation from Dunkirk to take place.
On 27th May, 1940, 99 troops from the Royal Norfolk Regiment, the Royal Scots and a few others surrendered to German troops and were marched into a farmyard where they were massacred. Ninety seven died and two survived.
Now almost 84 years later myself and John Head with the support of the other members of the commemoration group - Nick Smith and Dennis O'Callaghan (the son of one of the survivors) have written "Hell in Paradise" about the massacre and the fighting in the area with specific emphasis on those who died, their families and the two survivors.
If you would like to purchase a book please e-mail me at [email protected] and I can send you payment details. Books are £10 plus postage and package which is expected to be £5. It will be possible to pick up books from me for £10 and I may be able to deliver to addresses in Hethersett. Details will be sent to those sending me an email.
Prior to our meeting, John H took me on a whistle stop tour of Dereham and in particular the area around the church. I just had time to take a few photographs which I include with this blog. John was keen to point out an unusual grave. Actually there's nothing particularly unusual about the grave but there is about the person buried there.
The grave is a reminder of a grim day in the history of the Norfolk market town.
Jean De Narde was a 28-year-old French Revolutionary who had been captured in the Netherlands during the early days of the Napoleonic Wars in Europe. He was sent to Great Yarmouth with around 130 other French and Dutch prisoners.
From there they were to be marched by the East North Militia to Norman Cross near Peterborough where a huge prisoner-of-war camp had been opened.
After a stay in barracks in Norwich they were rested in Dereham where the 16th century bell tower, which still stands next to St Nicholas Church, had been identified as a secure holding point for the night.
It is not clear how the 28-year-old de Narde managed to escape but he made a break for freedom. However, his absence was soon noted and a search ensued. The desperate man, the son of a notary from St Malo, climbed an oak tree in which to hide.
It is said his dangling legs gave him away and, after being discovered by the English soldiers, he was ordered to surrender.
But French-speaking de Narde may not have understood their command as he stayed in his tree and the fatal shot was fired.
He was buried in the churchyard but it took nearly 60 years for a memorial stone to be erected by the town vicar Rev Benjamin Armstrong in 1858.
* *
I feel I'm living a second life at the moment. I mentioned yesterday meeting up with Laurie Brettingham to talk about his life with the view of putting together a keepsake for his family.
I got up nice and early and opened the laptop and set to work on making some sense of the notes I took. I soon found myself inside Laurie's world, almost living his life. I guess that's what makes this kind of project so interesting to me. I'm helping to preserve memories for those who want memories preserved and understand how important this is.
I made really good progress and got engrossed in the whole process. I wrote up what I had from my notes and next step will be to listen to the audio recording I took to flesh out some of the pieces and then the final step will be to meet up with Laurie again to add some more memories because I know he is jotting them down as they come to mind. Whatever happens it has been a very enjoyable experience to date and will continue to be for a few weeks yet.
To finish off today - just a little something that annoyed me and then made me laugh. My landline rang at around 3.30 pm. The conversation went something like this.
"Is that Mr Steeeewood?"
"It's pronounced Steward. What do you want. (I'm not usually rude on the phone but I detected this to be a nuisance call despite allowing it past my phone shield as the number appeared to be a local one)?
"I just weentedde to see if you (snort) were in for a (cough and snort) hum improooooveemet grant"
"Firstly you appear to have a bad cold for which I'm very sorry but secondly I can't understand much of what you are saying and thirdly with your sniffing and coughing and general attitude you aren't going to sell anything to anyone. Goodbye."
You know I actually felt sorry for the guy.
* *
Finally today - a couple of days ago I mentioned the smashing of windows in a door at the village Methodist Church and actually included a couple of pictures of the damage. Police have attended and told us that the windows were obviously kicked in and attempts were made to vandalise other areas because boot or shoe prints have been found.
Now I'm not naive or stupid enough to think that whoever caused this damage is reading this blog on the grounds that I doubt that they can read anyway, but if by some miracle they get to hear about it they need to know that the police have quite a bit of evidence against them.