Super excited to announce that my 4th book, #NorthernECHO was officially published this morning and is available from publisher @iUniverse and at @Amazon ,@Barnes&Noble, and many more online stores.
It will also be available at major online retailers in the coming days. @Indiebound @Amazon @Barnes&Noble @Waterstones @Blackwells and many more.
"A very personal story about two friends growing up in the north of England in the midst of the Punk Rock revolution. They both keep a dark secret until the very end. A gripping tale and a brilliant read!"
Northern ECHO, Boys Don’t Cry: Willy Mitchell takes the reader through what is ultimately a sad tale of two friends, but with sometimes a humorous, eye-opening journey through one of the most interesting and difficult times in modern British history. Two friends growing up, two friends forever. In memory of the man himself, Tiny Tim Timpson but as most knew him simply as Tiny.
EXCERPT FROM NORTHERN ECHO, BOYS DON'T CRY:
MY YOUTH UNFOLDED IN ONE of the grimmest periods in British history. They were dark days indeed—literally, as the National Grid infrastructure needed upgrading, and union striking was rife, a combination that led to power outages across the nation during what turned out to be the coldest winter in sixteen years.
There was a global recession, and Britain was hit as severely as most. The British government was trying to control inflation, and the unions wanted higher wages.
Great Britain was debt ridden, including still paying back the United States for its support during the last war. Between the United States and Canada, Britain had borrowed more than £5.5 billion and would not pay it off for another thirty years and, by that time, would have paid back double in servicing the debt.
The freezing conditions across the nation, including blizzards and snow, made some lines of work impossible to complete. The weather affected the high street and shoppers’ willingness to put their hands in their pockets, adding further to the economic pressures of the time.
Ferreting his way and rising to power in the National Union of Miners was Arthur Scargill, who had been leading change in the union movement for many years by that time. He led strikes and was credited with the innovation of flying pickets, whereby he would organize buses of strikers from one pit to another to bolster the militant crowd and pile pressure on the owners to submit to their demands.
Coal was a major industry for the nation back then, as were car and truck making and fisheries. Coal was needed to keep the lights on and keep the wheels of the nation turning.
January 22, 1979, was the biggest individual day of strike action since the general strike of 1926.
The train drivers, the nurses, the waste collectors, and even the gravediggers went on strike. The country was being brought to its knees slowly by its workers. Leaders like Scargill were draining the life out of our nation and denying kids like me and Tiny any chance or hope of a future.
We had been through so much as a nation. We had defeated the Germans twice, including Hitler, and now we were self-imploding and destroying ourselves.
“It’s time we did something about this, Tiny.” He looked at me with his usual cheery expression.
“We gonna rob a bank? Like the great train robbers or something?”
“Na, mate, I’m fucking serious. The world is going to fucking pot!
“You wanna smoke some weed?”
“Tiny, be bloody serious, will yer?”
“What do yer suggest, Billy Boy?” He knew that name wound me up.
Willy Mitchell is an indie author, writer, and storyteller. His first title was Operation ARGUS, and then the sequel Bikini BRAVO where a group of former Special Air Service operatives enter the dark and murky world of maskirovka and discover the lengths that some people will go for power and greed. Cold COURAGE tells the epic tale of Shackleton's 1914 Trans-Antarctic Expedition and all that was happening in those extraordinary times. Book four, Northern ECHO is about to be released and tells the story of two boys growing up during the punk rock revolution in the north of England, and how a dark secret keeps them apart until the end. Mitchell's latest installment, about to be released at the end of 2020, is Gipsy MOTH about his Aunt Nikki, her friend, and fellow Aviatrix, Amy Johnson, and Amelia Earhart on the other side of the pond during the golden age of aviation.
Up next? SS Indigo is the story of an eclectic mix of guests mysteriously invited to a cruise on a luxury steamship around the Caribbean. The only thing they have in common is their lust for power, advancement, and wealth.
All of Mitchell's books so far are novels, works of fiction, blended with real events. For further information or how to buy his books, visit his author website: