Tall Tales or Real History?
Andy Stuart
- Regions:
- South East, East of England, London, East Midlands, Cumbria, Lancashire, Durham, Tyne & Wear, Northumberland
- Notice Period:
- Emergency (maybe less than one week's notice)
- Type:
- Author / Hobby
- Fee:
- Expensed
- Category:
- History
- Updated:
- 16th December 2024
- Tagged:
- Military History | Family History | Ww1 | Geneaology
We all have family stories that permeate generations and the truth or otherwise gets lost in time. But what if they're true? 'I dropped a jar of mercury at the chemist shop.' - Really Grandad? 'We found a wine cellar. Some bottles had gold nuggets floating in them.' - After you'd drunk a few? 'Shamrock cap-badged Russians.' A bit far from home then. 'We stole a train to escape the Bolsheviks'. - Was it the 11.15 from Omsk? In this talk I look into some of these 'Tall Tales' I've lived with and how they look when compared to real history. I hope to give listeners pointers to where they can look into their own family tales.
Views: 348 | Enquiries: 3About Andy Stuart
With a collection of anecdotes from Arthur Walton, my Grandad, filed in my head, I knew one day I needed to record them in some way. He died in 1972 (I was 11). Lockdowns created the time to start the project. I started writing without knowing what would emerge and without the intention of a book for publication. I had a beginning, August 1914, and an end, 1920, which gave me a timeline. I needed to fill the gap.
The outcome evolved into far too many words for one book; detailed research into a forgotten part of British History with 'Churchill's Intervention', and a fascination with the Allied involvement in Russia.
My dad was a professional soldier and I was too; in the Royal Artillery, like my Grandad. I left the army in 1987 to work in financial markets for 25 years, travelling extensively to the great city's of the world. I was at school in South East London, I studied Economics at Warwick University, and later for a Master of Business Administration. After a City career in 2006, I co-founded a technology development business.
Having disliked composing imaginative stories at school, I now find inspiration everywhere. My writing weaves fiction within historical facts of real events throughout WW1 and during a period largely forgotten by British historians; our involvement in the Russian Civil War.
Groups I've presented to include The British Legion, Western Front Association, Veterans, Rotary and Probus clubs, Writers groups and U3A. https://www.andystuart.net/
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