Before Christmas, I wrote about how I reprised a murder mystery play for a local charity and how complicated that turned out to be. I may have mentioned that I initially wrote the script about five years previously. What I did not tell you was that in the intervening period I decided to turn the play into a novel.
What I can tell you now (Fanfare!) is that the book
(The Tickler’s Jam Murders) will be published within the next couple of months.
Tickler’s? I can hear you thinking. That’s your name ain’t it?
It is indeed. T G Tickler was my great grandfather, whose company provided millions of tins of jam to the troops serving in the trenches of the First World War.The soldiers sang songs about the ‘joys’ of Tickler’s
plum and apple jam.
Robert Graves wrote a poem in 1918 attributing his survival to Tickler’s jam, though I admit he maybe wasn’t being entirely sincere.
Certainly, some of the soldiers made homemade bombs out of the jam cans when the jam had been eaten. That is a fact!
So, you can see the attraction for me of setting my murder mystery in 1919, where the victim of a brutal murder was the boss of a rival jam factory.
Anyway, when I turned the play into a novel, there were lots of changes, of course, with some significant new characters. Early readers and fellow crime writers have been very complimentary about it too.
Anyway, this is a new venture, and one I am delighted to be embarked on, not least because it doffs a hat to my great-grandfather.
Certainly, some of the soldiers made homemade bombs out of the jam cans when the jam had been eaten. That is a fact!
So, you can see the attraction for me of setting my murder mystery in 1919, where the victim of a brutal murder was the boss of a rival jam factory.
Anyway, when I turned the play into a novel, there were lots of changes, of course, with some significant new characters. Early readers and fellow crime writers have been very complimentary about it too.
Anyway, this is a new venture, and one I am delighted to be embarked on, not least because it doffs a hat to my great-grandfather.
More details soon. I hope to have some copies ‘hot off the press’ at the
Portsmouth Mystery Festival on 24 February 2024.
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