The Most Incredible People
Monday, July 18, 2011 @ 11:31 PM
Being a ghost-writer is an occupation that has rewards other than financial. It is an opportunity to meet such fascinating people; to learn of their incredible backgrounds and discover how they dealt with it. My first client was an elderly lady. She had been born before the war to an abusive farm worker father when times were really tough. Married at twenty-one to a man twice her age she was making a good fist of it when one bath time evening she discovered her husband being a little too familiar with their niece. What a family furore that caused but rather than learning his lesson he did something similar years on. His weakness destroyed him and his family. The brave woman’s story tells of her epic but futile struggle to help him whilst keeping their kids out of the social services so-called support system: (The Sins of the Fathers).
Another client was a German who had been born in the wrong place (Hamburg) at the wrong time (1938). It was revelatory to share the gripping story of unfolding events in war-ravaged Germany through a child’s perspective. With his mother and brother he ended up in Wales and made very much a success of his life: (Farewell to Hamburg).
I was once contacted by an Irishman whose story was so sensitive he was at first reluctant to talk about it. I took a look at it and as usual re-wrote several pages to show him what I could do. He obviously thought I could be trusted with it and what a story it was.
Like most Dublin working class boys he was a bit of a scamp. In the company of older boys he nicked a few cans of lemonade from a social club. At just ten-years old he was sentenced to nearly five years in a Christian Brothers institution situated in a remote corner of Ireland. The sexual and violent abuse he and other kids received reduced me to tears. There were times when I had to stop writing, such was my distress. At that awful place today there are 141 graves of young boys, and they are just the ones they know about. This by the way happened not in 1760 but in the 1960s: (Devil’s Ireland).
My most recent novel was about a spiritualist who, during an American tour, was contacted by the spirit of a young girl who had died in a school tragedy. It didn’t read like a novel; I actually thought it was a real story, which really pleased the author: (A Matter of Trust).
The strangest story of all reminds us of the saying; truth is stranger than fiction. Although the author had not the slightest idea who I was when he invited me to co-author his book it soon become apparent that years ago, in another country, we had been very good friends. His story was no less strange. Born into a primitive South Sea Islands village existence he loved and fought his way to England; his boxing prowess paying his fare. What a story and what an achievement: (Return to Devil’s Island).
Out there, perhaps reading this, there are the most amazing people with life stories we should be reading about. If you are reading this then please don’t take it to the thereafter with you. Get in touch. – Michael at quite_write@yahoo.co.uk