12 days of Clink Street Christmas Event: Review & Guest Post Andy Blackman

Grace Backer had a life full of tragedy. But despite
everything, she raised her son, Tom, with her secret intact. Tom is a prodigal
child, destined to escape the slums of the East End of London for a better
life; circumstances will make him flee his loving mother and their home much
sooner than expected. Tom starts a new life in Odessa, Russia, and with the
help of new-found friends starts a business. At last, he is finally accepted
into a new and loving family, but one which holds its own dark secrets. A
chance meeting with the son of a duke of the realm leads to close friendship
and a new business partnership.

When Tom decides to move his company to London and have
his regal new friend run it, the firm thrives. However, not everything is as it
seems, and Tom’s business soon conceals dangerous secrets of its own. Years
later, when Tom finally decides to return to London, he is a wanted man, one
hunted by the intelligence agencies. If he is finally to be reunited with his
beloved mother and his best friend, he must fight to put the past behind him.
But keeping secrets is never easy.

Publication Date:	September 27th 2016
Series:	–
Genre:	Crime, Thriller
Pages:	222
Formats:	eBook, Paperback
Available at:	Amazon, Barnes & Noble

  

Christmas for Grace and Tom would have been a traditional
Christmas in that it would have been more about the celebration of the birth of
baby Jesus than what it is today a total commercial venture where companies try
and out do themselves with adverts for the new top of the range gadget or toy
depending which is in favour at the time. 

Grace and Tom would have attended the local church on
Christmas Eve to sing Christmas Carols and reflect on missing loved ones, Tom
would have believed in Father Christmas the magical man who although he wrote a
letter to him and threw it on the open fire where the ashes would find their
way magically to the North Pole, and if he was lucky Father Christmas would
listen and they would appear at the bottom of his bed on Christmas morning, in
the sack he had hung before bedtime.  The
present would have been simple and in some cases practical ones, and a pack of
colouring pencil would have brought hours of joy. 

Christmas time would have been open house for most
families popping in for a glass of sherry or a mince pie, as the community was
so close no one was ever lonely at Christmas time, plus very few had a
television, houses would be packed with the laughter of games, some home made,
but brought the joy of Christmas to the house. 
Christmas was a real holiday where shops shut for weeks rather than
hours as they are in this day and age, so the house would have been stocked
with supplies to last the Christmas period, plus some hard to get items which
were only seen at Christmas like satsumas, figs and Dates, everyone brought
these items at Christmas not because they were available at this time, but
because being Christmas you made the effort and spent well, and it was
traditional to purchase them, this has now been lost to modern living as
nowadays you can find most things throughout the year in supermarkets so there
are no special produces you only see at Christmas time.

 Christmas dinner
would have been the traditional fare, and Grace would have gone overboard with
the Christmas dinner, plus Christmas pudding with the silver sixpence in, which
in my own experience I never found, my grandfather always got one but despite
me having two or three helpings, I never as a child managed to find a silver
sixpence in my Christmas pudding! 
Christmas time was definitely different more relaxed and happy, and more
structured around family values and “Peace to all Men”, this would have been
more felt to Grace and Tom, as they were celebrating Christmas just after a
World War, where the years before people found it hard to celebrate, with so
much suffering going on. 

Years later like a veil had been lifted Christmas
returned to its rightful place as the main yearly event for most families, so
Grace would have gone out of her way to make Tom have a wonderful magical
Christmas, where he could over indulge on sweets and pop, and when the weather
was terrible outside with howling winds and heavy snow fall, they would have
been snuggled up together sitting around the roaring coal fire, loving the Christmas
festivals, with the radio softly playing in the back ground, they would have
been lost in their own world.

So for Tom and Grace they lived in a simpler time, not
surrounded by the modern commercial Christmas of today, I think they would have
been amazed if not disappointed that the True Spirit of Christmas has well and
truly been replaced and Christmas is no longer treated as Special but for most
a worrying time to see if they can afford all that their children expect if not
demand from Father Christmas, Grace and Tom loved Christmas where it was
embraced and celebrated but in modern times more people dread Christmas rather
than celebrate it.

After serving in the British Army for over twenty-five
years in the Parachute Regiment, Andy Blackman today lives in Bedworth,
Warwickshire and works within in the IT sector. In his spare time he can be
found visiting his three daughters and grandchildren.

For more information please visit Andy Blackman on Twitter.

I received this book from Authoright in exchange for my honest review.