What makes a writer?

 What makes a writer? How many times have you heard or said yourself 'I could write a book'

I used to say that too and then one day somebody challenged me and said 'Well you should write a book and at least then it will stop you moaning about how prison staff are portrayed in the press and on TV'

And do you know what I did and it got published and more surprising it received wonderful 5 star reviews from people I had never met, no honestly I had never met them yet they liked my book and took the time to actually write a review too.

Wow I was hooked on writing, okay I'm not a prolific writer I cant churn out one book after another but then again I didn't start to write until I was 60 and am now 69 awaiting my third book to be published and with two more on the go it ain't half bad.

I hasten to add no I have not made any money out of my writings but I have achieved something even more rewarding.

What's more rewarding than making money out of my writings I hear you ask, and I'll tell you.

I have left a heritage to my future generations, and instead of approaching an older relative with failing memories my future generations can pick up my books and read all about me, and know what their grandad and greatgrandad got up to during his time on this earth.

Now come on is that more rewarding than money? It sure is in my book. 

But what makes a writer?

Who knows, a writer has a story to tell but there must be a spark to start it all off. What was mine well read on

Me become a writer? You’ve got to be joking yet here I am now writing a blog all about my writing my books Weird or not it’s happening?

Why did I become a writer? It’s a bloody good question and I’m not sure I can really answer it.

I won a writing competition for my local newspaper when I was 15 years old but that not really writing is it?

Then again when I was 40 I won another writing competition about why I wanted to run the London Marathon and my reward for winning the competition was to have to run the London Marathon, people would say I often open my mouth before thinking of the consequences but on this occasion I opened my mind and wrote.

Contained in my first book A Turnkey or Not? is a chapter all about my running the London Marathon so I won’t reveal the pains I went through running it but suffice to say Simon Pegg in his film Run Fatboy Run captures the pain of running a marathon too well.

So why did I become a writer?

To be honest it was none of those things above, I think there is a book within every one of us but its finding that motivation, mine well mine was a TV program that depicted prison staff as thugs and villains and brought the whole profession into an unbelievable world of disrepute.

At the time I was a Principal Officer in the UK prison service and was so enraged at the programs portrayal of how UK prison staff  behaved that I was still raging the next morning at work, when one of my staff who had previously suffered many yarns about what really goes on in a prison from myself and other old timers in the service (I was in my early fifties but had seen over 20years service and was regarded as an old timer buy then), said

‘Tony you really should write a book about your experiences and tell the public what really goes on within the enclosed walls of a UK prison’

‘You know you’re absolutely right’

And that was my spark, but it took me several more years before actually completing the book.

I wrote my first book ‘A Turnkey or Not’ back in 2011 and it was published and received some fantastic reviews. It’s an autobiography of my 25 year career working for HM Prison Service.

Six years later I realised that my first book left many unanswered questions and mainly the one about my real quest to find my own El Dorado as I moved towards retirement, and so my second book ‘El Dorado? No! Heathrow Airport’ was written and published in November 2017. It’s receiving incredible reviews; it’s an exposé of what really happens at Airport Security and how passengers, celebrities, staff and management behave at and during the security screening process.

Both books are memoirs and relate some very funny incidents which have all happened to me throughout my life.

But again the end of my second book does not answer my quest to find El Dorado, so after retiring to live in Spain I realised I had to write a third book as my search had become a trilogy, so my third book is about moving to Spain and living amongst ex-pats in retirement. Warts and all revelations of what my fellow ex pats get up to in the life of Sun, sea and lots and lots of vino.