Censored

"Censored" is the second book in the William Blake series. William and Marie, his new French wife, take to the sea in a Brigantine called the Lady-Bird. Their trip starts out as a honeymoon adventure and a dip into commerce, transporting wines and tea by sail-power. But along the way they become embroiled in a smuggling operation of an epic scale that has left dead and broken lives in its wake. William decides to write an account of the event that will point a finger at those responsible. But respected people in high places cannot allow him to do this. Alan was born in Poole, Dorset, England on October 1st 1948. As a child, he lived in Canada for a few years in what was then a tiny settlement called Malton near Toronto, Ontario. He went to his first school in the village, a one-room school that was quite basic but typical of the times, in those outlying areas of the Canadian countryside.Later in life he travelled to Western Australia where he worked as a design draughtsman and, in his spare-time, played drums with a very active band called 'Unicorn'.Eventually, Alan returned to England, where he found a winter season of high unemployment and a frosty cold that he'd forgotten about. After a couple of dead-end jobs he joined the Royal Navy and quickly worked his way up to become a Chief Petty Officer.His first ship was involved in the brief skirmish of the mid 1970s that they called the "Cod War". He should have seen the trend, because a few years later he was involved in the Falklands Conflict while serving on the frigate, HMS Argonaut. They were hit by two enormous bombs within minutes of the first day of action. One landed in the boiler room and the other became lodged in an ammunition magazine. Luckily neither of these devices exploded, but unfortunately two of our gunners were killed. One of them was just twenty-one years old that day.Alan's writing began some years later when, as part of a team producing Technical Handbooks, he began to experiment with fiction and wrote a bag-full of short stories. The experiments continued until 2010 when he set out to use his new-found skills in a second career.Alan now lives with his wife Stella in a quiet part of central Brittany, surrounded by books, forests, fields and their precious dogs, Elsa, Jester and Monty.He still plays drums occasionally too. The adventures of William Blake, an ex-Royal Marine, from being forced to hunt another human being to prove his innocence to battling with sceptical police to save the life of his French wife.