Mock Funeral Memorial

Paul Madgwick is more than the handout kind of journalist so familiar these days. Not only has he handsomely reviewed my new novel The Mock Funeral, he has researched the life after the sedition trial of the priest Father Larkin and in the Hokitika Guardian newspaper for 20 October last has noted that the 'Manchester martyrs' that initiate my story have not only been remembered ever since in Ireland, but in the last few months the Irish parliament has had the long-held desire to bring their remains back from Manchester raised and the government has committed to 'bring home the patriots'. This is engaged journalism. Take note those metropolitans who tell me they have their Christmas books for review, like my story was of no consequence. Maybe I am paranoid, but I cannot help noticing that certain academic writers attract pages of plugs. Oh well, I cannot change my journalistic spots, nor would I wish to. I am proud to be in the company of the likes of Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway, Charles Dickens, Norman Mailer and Paul Madgwick.