BIRTHDAY BOY! THE TAGMAN PRESS IS FIFTEEN!

A FABULOUS FIFTEEN YEARS
AGO -- 6 FEBRUARY 2012


Full fifteen years ago today

The Tagman Press was born,

In a lowly wayside "stable"

Shortly after dawn:



It promised to excite us,

To inspire us and transform;

First came The Final Message,

Way above the norm;



Then followed Dr Batman,

With his wondrous "water books"

They consolidated Tagman,

And helped heal many folks;



Later came dear Margit

"Sandemo of the North"

With her Legend of the Ice Men

To add to Tagman's worth;



Now there's Making of a Britflick,

Miracle in Kigali and Saigon,

This week The Pathway Back appears

The big-heart logo thunders on!


New e-books shine promised glory

From Tagman's Norfolk base

What an amazing story?

Suggest you watch this space !


AN(th)ON(y) (www.tagmanpress.co.uk)

Current Affairs, Radio: Sony Gold Award for Studio editor with family name Grey

Tuesday 10 May 2011: At last night's Sony Radio Awards ceremony in London, a coveted top Gold Award was won by the Radio 5 Live daily "Drive" programme team headed by presenters Peter Allen and Aasmah Mir, chief political correspondent John Pienaar, and studio editor Lucy Grey. They stole the honours in the Best Breaking News Coverage category for the programme retrospectively named Birth of the Coalition.

"Drive" which usually goes out daily from 4pm to 7pm on BBC Five Live was extended to run for five consecutive hours until 9pm on the dramatic day Gordon Brown suddenly decided without warning to tender his resignation in a meeting with the Queen at Buckingham Palace following several days of uncertainty and behind-the-scenes wrangling among the three main political parties after the inconclusive General Election. This triggered a tumult of events which Drive covered with consistent brilliance as they happened, often reporting and backgrounding crucial developments, as the head of BBC Five Live later noted, well in advance of the running television news. The outcome was today's Conservative Liberal democrat coalition government.


What the Judges said of Drive that day : A perfect example of this programme at the top of its game, telling a fast-moving story with style verve, insight and humour. The presenters excelled at reacting to events and were superb guides for the listener as they explained the complexities of the story in an informed and entertaining way.


Why should all this be mentioned here at this juncture on my personal blog ? Could it have anything to do with the fact that the family name of the studio editor of the day was Grey (Lucy) who also sometimes reads the Five Live news and occasionally presents the daily dawn current affairs programme Morning Report? And that I have two lovely daughters one of whose names is Lucy? It is quite possible.

Anthony Grey, former presenter of BBC World Service programme Twenty Four Hours.

New Tagman Writers' Consortium Inaugurated

Tuesday 3 May 2011: Tagman Press, "the small publisher with the big heart" recently re-structured in Norwich, England following a de-merger, has taken a great leap forward by founding at the weekend -- on the day of the Royal Wedding -- what is believed to be a unique, new Tagman Writers' Consortium, writes Pamela Masters.

Twelve putative new Tagman writers -- by chance six female, and six male -- attended the inaugural round-table meeting under the chairmanship of Tagman's founder Anthony Grey in the boardroom at Reeds Restaurant, Tombland, just outside the main gate of the spectacularly beautiful Norwich Cathedral. The authors, over a five-hour period either side of lunch, talked in turn about their planned books of fiction, non-fiction, autobiography and poetry and discussed and investigated how they might collaborate constructively and support each other in this time of austerity, in the editing, design, proof reading and the public promotion of their traditional and e-books in both the conventional media and on the worldwide social networking circuits of the internet. Tagman, founded in l997, had been successfully merged with a digital print company in 2006 but has recently been returned to Anthony Grey's sole ownership, hence this new innovation among others.

At the inaugural meeting, Manchester-born, now London-based Gill Dalton, described the dramas and challenges of her powerful forthcoming autobiographical book Fearlessly Female that narrates her life from the time of her work as Peter Dalton, a petroleum engineer in Iran during the convulsive period of the overthrow of the Shah in the late 1970s, to her present status as an accomplished female writer and charity trustee. Thailand, Ireland and other countries figure in the background to this remarkable story.

Pauline and Dave Kelly outlined the genesis of A Pathway Back, the possibly true story of a hitherto unknown attempt to assassinate Hitler over a year before the ending of the Second World War. Dave Kelly is a specialist flint bricklayer working in Norfolk and his wife Pauline an experienced complimentary healer and psychic, helped him when he suddenly felt moved to write down in painstaking longhand, well-marshalled detailed information that began 'channelling' itself insistently to him several years ago. It purports to come individually from seven separate young US aircrew members mostly in their twenties, who angrily claim they were all treacherously shot down and killed when their unmarked B-17 bomber crashed in flames on the night of 10 February 1944 immediately after taking off from their airbase just outside Norwich -- but by their own Allied guns! They say they are seeking justice in the extraordinarily well ordered and professionally composed text that Dave Kelly admits he simply could never have composed himself. Intriguingly, some of the US aircrew names given in the 'channelled' text have been confirmed by the authors from local historical USAAF records

Hertfordshire-based screenwriter Robin Squire spoke wryly of his forthcoming dark-humour 'reality novel' The Making of a Britflick detailing a long-drawn out real-life drama which haunted the writing and production of a film on which he worked for several years. Paul Dickson and Illumine Nganemariya, joint Norwich-resident authors of Miracle in Kigali, the true story of Illuminee's extraordinary survival of the Rwandan genocide in which 800,000 individuals perished, explained why a completely new edition of the book is planned for later this year. Illuminee carried her new-born, days-old son Roger on her back throughout the four month trauma which saw her husband murdered -- and the new edition of her story is being extended to cover the remarkable recent sudden leap to film stardom by Norwich-educated Roger, now aged sixteen, in the new, internationally-successful feature film Africa United.

Yoga teacher Jane Aldiss confidently outlined her recently conceived plans for a non-fiction volume focusing on the deeper philosophy and origins of yoga rather than its purely physical aspects; psychotherapist Susan Culverwell from North London read and commented on samples of her own sanity-saving poetry which she began to write in the wake of personal emotional traumas of her own which confronted her recently out of the blue; Roger Chamberlain, a brave and gallant battler against multiple sclerosis over many years, entertainingly revealed how amusing, very well written stories about a small and endearing but slightly mystical disability vehicle called Hetty had sprung into his mind recently and had ever since been insistently demanding to be published.

Ealing-based international Public Relations specialist Michael Bland, who has had a dozen successful books published nationally in the past, proposed ideas for bringing out new editions of his humour books about appalling road users, originally entitled A Pig at the Wheel and A Bigger Pig at the Wheel, and Dr John Clements, a Norwich life strategist coach and specialist public speaker already published in the United States, revealed details of of his next UK book to be entitled Excellence Becomes You.

All participants afterwards hailed the experimental meeting as an overwhelming success - and a further meeting was scheduled for October this year. "It was a privilege to be a thorn among so many roses," commented Roger Chamberlain modestly on seeing the group photograph of the occasion on Facebook. " Apart from anything else, it gave me a great number of new ideas for my own writing." Jane Aldiss said of the gathering: "A truly wonderful and what felt auspicious meeting and every attendee was a pleasure to meet. It felt to me as a believer in karma that we are a bunch of old companions who have met a long time ago, and are now gathered again to crusade for the light." Gill Dalton said : "I felt honoured to have been there and to have shared the day with such beautiful and special people. As individuals we are unique and multi-talented. As a combined force we will be unstoppable !" Susan Culverwell commented: "For me it was good to meet with other writers and to listen to their experiences in the field. It is a talented, creative and I have to say spiritually-orientated group." Paul Dickson summed it up simply in four short words: "It was just brilliant"

See http://www.tagmanpress.co.uk.

Picture:
Back L to R: Dave Kelly, Pauline Kelly, Illuminee Nganemariya, Robin Squire, Pamela Masters, Michael Bland, John Clements. Front L to R: Paul Dickson, Susan Culverwell, Gill Dalton, Anthony Grey, Roger Chamberlain, Jane Aldiss.

Launch date for paperback of The Hostage Handbook by Anthony Grey

First hostage of the modern era publishes

extraordinary verbatim secret diaries of his ordeal for the first time.

On June 29 this year (2011) the paperback edition of The Hostage Handbook by Anthony Grey, will be formally launched by The Tagman Press with a series of events in Jersey in the Channel Islands, writes Robin Squire, one of Anthony's fellow authors at Tagman. (*Robin is author of the forthcoming Tagman reality novel Britflick)

Jersey was where Anthony lived for three years while recovering from his two-year hostage ordeal in China. A new 2011 edition of Anthony's first novel of eight to date, The Jersey Stratagem, which was written in and about Jersey, will also be simultaneously relaunched in the island at the same time.

The hardback edition of the The Hostage Handbook - verbatim extracts, with modern commenatary from the secret shorthand diaries Anthony somehow kept hidden from his Red Guard captors during his two years in solitary -- has already won deserved plaudits from distinguished individuals and fellow authors alike, including Sir John Weston, former British ambasador to the UN and NATO, who has said : "Tony came through his terrible and unjust ordeal with such dignity and largeness of soul ... and this real time journal gives a vivid picture of the afflictions he faced and the often mindless and inhumane behaviour of his captors "

John Weston was a junior diplomat at the Beijing embassy at the time and was himself along with his wife Sally and the rest of Britain's entire diplomatic corps in China, terrorised by 10,000 screaming Red Guards who burned their embassy down around their ears at midnight and subjected them to ruthless beatings and other indignities when they had to flee for their lives through the flames. "These diaries,' adds John Weston, 'reveal Tony's stubborn capacity for inventiveness and imagination during two years in solitary which created an inner space for his spirit's survival in spite of all."

"This is a remarkable publication,' says another Tagman writer, Paul Dickson, co-author with Illuminee Nganemariya of Miracle in Kigali, another extraordinary Tagman book describing how Illuminee, with a new born baby on her back, survived four horrific months at the heart of the Rwandan genocide in which 800,000 people were slaughtered -- and came afterwards to live in England, in Norwich, determined to tell her story in the hope it might prevent repetition of such terrible and outrageous carnage. "Anthony's survival,' says Paul, 'like Illuminee's, teaches us better to appreciate our freedom and the familiar rhythms of life we should never take for granted."

Paul and Illuminee and her son Roger, who also miraculouly and unknowingly survived the genocide unscathed when just weeks old, will likewise be in Jersey at the end of June talking about a new updated hardcover edition of Miracle in Kigali to be published soon. Roger who is now sixteen and still a schoolboy in Norwich, obviously has no recollection of those very first weeks and months of his life -- but remarkably he has recently starred in a new and very successful feature film entitled Africa United about Rwanadan youngesters who get caught up in a dramatic picaresque journey while seeking to visit to the World Cup Finals in South Africa.

* Robin Squire, screenwriter and author of the forthcoming Tagman Press reality novel Britflick

Saturday 13 March 2010: Norwich. How wonderful life can be ! Especially when as a a writer you agonise for forty odd years about whether a book is worth publishing - then get a letter like the one I received today ..... ' I loved your book,' wrote Auriel Mims from an address in Norfolk, 'which is almost a cruel thing to say when it takes you into such a world of human suffering - but it was funny too.'
The book in question is of course my newly published ' Hostage Handbook,' which is a transcript of the secret shorthand diaries I managed to keep hidden from my guards while a hostage in China in the late 1960s. I kept the originals in a deed box at my bank for forty odd years, wondering whether to publish them intermingled with Reflections on the experience from the present - but I repeatedly decided against publication since I felt it might seem unduly egotistical to publish a warts-and-all verbatim account of the experience, having written a fast book in six weeks on my release in 1969 called 'Hostage in Peking.'
So this lovely comment today vindicated those instincts at long last...and they augmented another similar comment received yesterday from one, Penny Miller, a lovely lady who came to the book's launch party at the Book Hive in London Street Norwich about six weeks ago. I ran into Penny outside a Norwich supermarket by chance yesterday and she very kindly made similar very positive comments about the book that warmed this writer's heart. She said she was greatly 'enjoying it' then felt immediately a bit remiss for saying such a thing about the story of two years in solitary confinement as a hostage. But I reassured Penny that was the best thing she could have said because I am sure every writer wishes to give a reader some sense of the joy of life, even with all its ups and downs. But most importantly Auriel Mims and Penny had sensed the deepest essence of the book which sets out to demonstrate how we must each find our own inner peace deep inside ourselves before we can expect to live in a peaceful world. And it was being forced to do this as a hostage which set me on the path of discovery which I am still following - which in a way, as I say in the book, was a great delayed-action privilege. Inside this morning's letter was a card with the address of a website on it http://www.wopg.org/ and on the reverse side it had printed: 'It is not the world that needs peace; it is people. When people in the world are at peace within, the world will be at peace.'
I have't visited the site yet, but I am going to right now as soon as I finish this post. .. And why don't you the same as soon as you finishing reading it.
The name of Prem Rawat was mentioned in connection with the site and I am looking forward to reading him. Because what has come out of today's letter is precisely the reason why I wrote the book. So I send love and thanks to Penny and Auriel and will allow a small warm glow of joy to burn even brighter inside as a result of these experiences of the past two days. More details of the book can be seen on the publisher's website http://www.tagmanpress.co.uk/

Saturday, 6 March 2010: The national publication date for The Hostage Handbook has just been set for Thursday 29 April and a London launch party is planned, around that date, possibly at one of the branches of the Daunts Bookshop chain, in Chelsea or Marylebone High Street. There will be readings from the book, a question and answer session and signings of the Hostage Handbook and copies of my novels Saigon, Peking, Tokyo Bay. A glass of wine and snacks will be on offer. To purchase advance copies of the book or request review copies, please email Kirsty Fielding at KFielding@cle.co.uk
Meantime my next public engagement is an after-dinner talk at the Sherigham Museum Trust on Wednesday 24 March. Its title is: "The World Will Only Know Peace When We Each Find Inner Peace Within Ourselves." The theme arises from the publication of my new book The Hostage Handbook which is a transcript with up to date commenatries of my secret shorthand diaries kept during two years as a hostage in solitary confinement in China. Being held alone cut off from the world in a hostile country for two years forced me to begin learning the importance of getting to understand how our individual inner life profoundly influences the world outside us.

Wednesday, 17 February, 2010: Next speaking date: I am delighted to say I have been invited to Sheringham on Wednesday 24 March this year to speak at the monthly dinner of the new Sheringham Museum Trust, and the brand new Museum is officially opening the next day. The subject of the talk: The Hostage Handbook, how and why it came to be written and what lessons might be drawn from such an experience.
The book is also featured with four pages of pictures and text written by Paul Dickson in the March edition of the Archant magazine Let's Talk and Henry Layte, proprietor of the great new independent bookshop in Norwich, The Book Hive was featured with the book today in an Eastern Daily Press article on the Norwich Lanes. Henry's knowledge about books and his enthusiasm for them and their authors is already warming many literary hearts as never before in and around the city. Thanks to him signed copies of The Hostage Handbook are among a number of new publications being featured by Henry at The Book Hive, a very comfortable and pleasant venue where a rather special book launch party for Handbook went ahead on the evening of Friday 29 January despite the heavy blizzard that descended on the city that night -- and despite the fact that The Book Hive stands on top of what became a very icy hill.
Despite the challenging weather, friends of Henry and myself and complete strangers alike all came by road, from as far away as London, Colchester and Kings Lynn as well as other outposts in and around the city. Among the star guests of the evening who enjoyed a glass of wine and snacks were my dear London-based friends 'Holmes and Watson' who appear in full costume most days of the week at the Sherlock Holmes Museum at 221b Baker Street in London.'s West End. S Holmes Esq himself, (Stewart Quentin Holmes in full) himself the author of a slyly funny humour book Nothing Really Serious had many of the guests in stitches with his jokes and humorous asides. Henry Layte gave the book a very generous introduction and I was very honoured that among the guests was Illuminee Nganemariya, the author with Paul Dickson of the extraordinary book Miracle in Kigali which describes graphically the amazing and moving experience of her survival of the Rwanda genocide in the heart of the capital.
I was also very touched to find a dear friend of my childhood, Megan James, now Megan Davies, who grew up in the same street as myself at Hotblack Road, Norwich, attending with her husband Tony. We had not met for over sixty years! And we still recognised each other!!! And now we have discovered we are neighbours again, living only a few minutes apart south-west of Norwich. Jon Welch, a new friend and a senior reporter on the EDP came along too - jut for the fun of it, not to write about it.
Off and on it has taken me four decades to make up my mind to publish the verbatim transcripts of those diaries of my time as a hostage in China - and in lots of ways already publishing the book has been a wonderful and heartwarming experience. Meeting old and new friends in and around Norfolk as described in this blog has been an unexpected and marvellous surprise. And it has reminded me again of just how wonderful it is to be free in this fair land of ours.
The book is now currently being sent for review in the national press and media and a London launch party is planned, possibly at one of the Daunts bookshops in West London. Watch this space !